Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Kimi K3 vs Mistral Large 3 benchmark

Name: Kimi K3 vs Mistral Large 3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Kimi K3 (Moonshot) and Mistral Large 3 (Mistral) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Kimi K3 is ahead by 72 points (1,528 vs 1,456; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Kimi K3 resolves 73.8% versus 55.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Mistral Large 3 streams faster (112 tok/s) while Mistral Large 3 is the cheaper output token ($6/1M). Kimi K3 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Moonshot

Kimi K3

Moonshot AI frontier flagship reasoning and agent swarm model with 256k context and top-tier SWE-bench coding capability.

Elo 1,528$15/1M out

Mistral

Mistral Large 3

Mistral European flagship with strong function calling.

Elo 1,456$6/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Kimi K3 (6)vsMistral Large 3 (4)

Kimi K3: 6W (60%)Overall: Kimi K3Mistral Large 3: 4W (40%)

← Kimi K3Mistral Large 3 →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,528vs1,456

Coding Elo

1,535vs—

SWE-bench

73.8%vs55.4%

LiveBench

69.5%vs61.8%

GPQA Diamond

88.4%vs74.1%

Kimi K3: 5WMistral Large 3: 0W

Mistral Large 3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

68 tok/svs112 tok/s

Time to first token

290 msvs190 ms

Kimi K3: 0WMistral Large 3: 2W

Mistral Large 3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$6/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$2/1M

Context window

1Mvs128k

Kimi K3: 1WMistral Large 3: 2W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageKimi K3 4/6

Preference Elo

Kimi K3

72 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Mistral Large 3

44 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Mistral Large 3

$9.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+5%1,528

EloHigh is better

1,456

Code Elo

High is better

1,535

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

+12%69.5%

LiveBenchHigh is better

61.8%

SWE-bench

High is better

+33%73.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

55.4%

GPQA

High is better

+19%88.4%

GPQAHigh is better

74.1%

TTFT

Low is better

290 ms

TTFTLow is better

190 ms+53%

Speed

High is better

68 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

112 tok/s+65%

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$2/1M+50%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$6/1M+150%

Context

High is better

+719%1M

ContextHigh is better

128k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 52% with Mistral Large 3

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Kimi K3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Mistral Large 3$160.00 / mo

In: $70.00Out: $90.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Mistral Large 3 is estimated to save $170.00/month ($2,040/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Mistral Large 3:Pick Mistral Large 3 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Mistral Large 3:Pick Mistral Large 3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatMistral Large 3

Lower output list price ($6/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIMistral Large 3

Lower TTFT (190 ms).

Long-document RAGKimi K3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Kimi K3	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	Mistral Large 3	Lower output list price ($6/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Mistral Large 3	Lower TTFT (190 ms).
Long-document RAG	Kimi K3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchJun 8, 2026

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Jun 2026. The Kimi vs GPT hub remaps to the top Moonshot Elo vs top OpenAI Elo.

launchJan 18, 2026

Mistral Large 3: the European flagship with function calling

Jan 2026. Not the Elo crown. Useful when residency and tools matter more than Arena.

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LIVE

Moonshot

Kimi K3

Elo 1,528

LiveBench69.5%

SWE-bench73.8%

Speed68 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Mistral

Mistral Large 3

Elo 1,456

LiveBench61.8%

SWE-bench55.4%

Speed112 tok/s

Output cost$6/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or Mistral Large 3?: Kimi K3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,528). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Kimi K3 or Mistral Large 3?: Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 55.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Mistral Large 3 output tokens are $6/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Kimi K3 or Mistral Large 3?: Mistral Large 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (190 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Kimi K3 accepts 1M tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Kimi K3 and Mistral Large 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Kimi K3 matchups →|All Mistral Large 3 matchups →

Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)Mistral Large 3 vs Codestral 25.01 (previous mistral)MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Mistral Large 3 Gemini 3.7 Flash vs Kimi K3 Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Kimi K3 Qwen 3 Max vs Kimi K3

Kimi K3 vs Mistral Large 3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Kimi K3 (6)vsMistral Large 3 (4)

Kimi K3: 6W (60%)Overall: Kimi K3Mistral Large 3: 4W (40%)

← Kimi K3Mistral Large 3 →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,528vs1,456

Coding Elo

1,535vs—

SWE-bench

73.8%vs55.4%

LiveBench

69.5%vs61.8%

GPQA Diamond

88.4%vs74.1%

Kimi K3: 5WMistral Large 3: 0W

Mistral Large 3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

68 tok/svs112 tok/s

Time to first token

290 msvs190 ms

Kimi K3: 0WMistral Large 3: 2W

Mistral Large 3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$6/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$2/1M

Context window

1Mvs128k

Kimi K3: 1WMistral Large 3: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatMistral Large 3

Lower output list price ($6/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIMistral Large 3

Lower TTFT (190 ms).

Long-document RAGKimi K3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Kimi K3	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	Mistral Large 3	Lower output list price ($6/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Mistral Large 3	Lower TTFT (190 ms).
Long-document RAG	Kimi K3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or Mistral Large 3?

Kimi K3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,528). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Kimi K3 or Mistral Large 3?

Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 55.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Mistral Large 3 output tokens are $6/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Kimi K3 or Mistral Large 3?

Mistral Large 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (190 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Kimi K3 accepts 1M tokens versus 128k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Kimi K3 and Mistral Large 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Kimi K3

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Mistral Large 3: the European flagship with function calling

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

Kimi K3

Mistral Large 3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Kimi K3

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Mistral Large 3: the European flagship with function calling

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Kimi K3

Mistral Large 3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons