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Kimi K2 0905 vs Magistral Small 2506

Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Moonshot AI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Kimi K2 0905 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA), while Magistral Small 2506 is better at 0 benchmarks. Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Kimi K2 0905

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Choose Magistral Small 2506

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Kimi K2 0905
Moonshot AI
Magistral Small 2506
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
2 of 2
0 of 2
Input price
$0.60 / M
— / M
Output price
$2.50 / M
— / M
Context window
262,144
—
Released
Sep 2025
Jun 2025
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Kimi K2 0905 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA), while Magistral Small 2506 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

976.0B diff

Kimi K2 0905 has 976.0B more parameters than Magistral Small 2506, making it 4066.7% larger.

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 0905
1.0Tparameters
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
24.0Bparameters
1000.0B
Kimi K2 0905
24.0B
Magistral Small 2506

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
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Aug 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi K2 0905 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Magistral Small 2506 uses Apache 2.0.

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

Kimi K2 0905

Proprietary

Closed source

Magistral Small 2506

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K2 0905 was released on 2025-09-05, while Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10.

Kimi K2 0905 is 3 months newer than Magistral Small 2506.

Kimi K2 0905

Sep 5, 2025

11 months ago

2mo newer
Magistral Small 2506

Jun 10, 2025

1.2 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Magistral Small 2506 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Kimi K2 0905's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Magistral Small 2506's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Kimi K2 0905's cutoff date.

Kimi K2 0905

—

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 2025

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2 0905 and Magistral Small 2506 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2 0905
✓ Preferred
Magistral Small 2506
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2 0905 vs Magistral Small 2506.

Which is better, Kimi K2 0905 or Magistral Small 2506?

Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Kimi K2 0905 is made by Moonshot AI and Magistral Small 2506 is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Kimi K2 0905 compare to Magistral Small 2506 in benchmarks?

Kimi K2 0905 scores HumanEval: 94.5%, MMLU: 90.2%, MATH: 89.1%, MMLU-Pro: 82.5%, GPQA: 75.8%. Magistral Small 2506 scores AIME 2024: 70.7%, GPQA: 68.2%, AIME 2025: 62.8%, LiveCodeBench: 51.3%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi K2 0905 and Magistral Small 2506?

Kimi K2 0905 supports 262K tokens and Magistral Small 2506 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 Magistral Small 2506?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2 0905 and Magistral Small 2506?

Kimi K2 0905 is developed by Moonshot AI and Magistral Small 2506 is developed by Mistral AI.

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