Kimi-k1.5 vs o3-mini
Kimi-k1.5 and o3-mini are closely matched at 17.2 and 21.5 on the LLM Stats Score.
Moonshot AI · OpenAI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Kimi-k1.5 and o3-mini are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 17.2 and 21.5.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, o3-mini wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Kimi-k1.5
- you are already invested in the Moonshot AI ecosystem
Choose o3-mini
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
9 reported for Kimi-k1.5 · 25 for o3-mini
Kimi-k1.5 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMLU), while o3-mini is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, IFEval).
o3-mini shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only o3-mini specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o3-mini specifies output context (100,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Kimi-k1.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas o3-mini does not.
Kimi-k1.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Kimi-k1.5
o3-mini
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Kimi-k1.5 was released on 2025-01-20, while o3-mini was released on 2025-01-30.
o3-mini is 0 month newer than Kimi-k1.5.
Jan 20, 2025
1.7 years ago
Jan 30, 2025
1.7 years ago
1w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o3-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-09-30, while Kimi-k1.5's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm o3-mini's training data extends to 2023-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Kimi-k1.5's cutoff date.
—
Sep 2023
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Kimi-k1.5 and o3-mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Kimi-k1.5 vs o3-mini.