Model Comparison
Gemma 3 4B vs Kimi K2-Instruct-0905Which is better in 2026?
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: Gemma 3 4B vs Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 — which is better?
Gemma 3 4B (by Google) and Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 (by Moonshot AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Gemma 3 4B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (IFEval), while Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MMLU-Pro, SimpleQA). Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose Gemma 3 4B if…
- you want predictable pricing at $0.02/M input and $0.04/M output
Choose Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 5 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Gemma 3 4B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (IFEval), while Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench, MMLU-Pro, SimpleQA).
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 has 996.0B more parameters than Gemma 3 4B, making it 24900.0% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Gemma 3 4B specifies input context (131,072 tokens). Only Gemma 3 4B specifies output context (131,072 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Gemma 3 4B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 does not.
Gemma 3 4B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Gemma 3 4B
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905
License
Usage and distribution terms
Gemma 3 4B is licensed under Gemma, while Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Gemma
Open weights
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Gemma 3 4B was released on 2025-03-12, while Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 was released on 2025-09-05.
Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 is 6 months newer than Gemma 3 4B.
Mar 12, 2025
1.4 years ago
Sep 5, 2025
10 months ago
5mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Gemma 3 4B has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-08-01, while Kimi K2-Instruct-0905's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Gemma 3 4B's training data extends to 2024-08-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Kimi K2-Instruct-0905's cutoff date.
Aug 2024
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Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Gemma 3 4B
View detailsKimi K2-Instruct-0905
View detailsMoonshot AI
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Gemma 3 4B and Kimi K2-Instruct-0905 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Gemma 3 4B vs Kimi K2-Instruct-0905.