Model Comparison

Kimi K2 0905 vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1Which is better in 2026?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Kimi K2 0905 vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 — which is better?

Kimi K2 0905 (by Moonshot AI) and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 (by NVIDIA) 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.

Kimi K2 0905 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Kimi K2 0905 if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Kimi K2 0905 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Jul 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

747.0B diff

Kimi K2 0905 has 747.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1, making it 295.3% larger.

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 0905
1.0Tparameters
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
253.0Bparameters
1000.0B
Kimi K2 0905
253.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Kimi K2 0905 specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Kimi K2 0905 specifies output context (262,144 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 0905
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Jul 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi K2 0905 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 uses Llama 3.1 Community License.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Kimi K2 0905

Proprietary

Closed source

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K2 0905 was released on 2025-09-05, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07.

Kimi K2 0905 is 5 months newer than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Kimi K2 0905

Sep 5, 2025

10 months ago

5mo newer
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Apr 7, 2025

1.3 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-01, while Kimi K2 0905's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1's training data extends to 2023-12-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Kimi K2 0905's cutoff date.

Kimi K2 0905

—

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Moonshot AI
Larger context window (262,144 tokens)
NVIDIA
Has open weights
Higher GPQA score (76.0% vs 75.8%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2 0905 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2 0905
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 0905
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2 0905 vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Which is better, Kimi K2 0905 or Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Kimi K2 0905 is made by Moonshot AI and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is made by NVIDIA. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Kimi K2 0905 compare to Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 in benchmarks?

Kimi K2 0905 scores HumanEval: 94.5%, MMLU: 90.2%, MATH: 89.1%, MMLU-Pro: 82.5%, GPQA: 75.8%. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 scores MATH-500: 97.0%, IFEval: 89.5%, GPQA: 76.0%, BFCL v2: 74.1%, AIME 2025: 72.5%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi K2 0905 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K2 0905 supports 262K tokens and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Kimi K2 0905 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Llama 3.1 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2 0905 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K2 0905 is developed by Moonshot AI and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is developed by NVIDIA.

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