Model Comparison

Kimi K2 0905 vs Mistral Small 3 24B BaseWhich is better in 2026?

Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Kimi K2 0905 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Base — which is better?

Kimi K2 0905 (by Moonshot AI) and Mistral Small 3 24B Base (by Mistral 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.

Kimi K2 0905 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Mistral Small 3 24B Base is better at 0 benchmarks. Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Kimi K2 0905 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Base if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

4 benchmarks

Kimi K2 0905 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Mistral Small 3 24B Base is better at 0 benchmarks.

Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

976.4B diff

Kimi K2 0905 has 976.4B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Base, making it 4137.3% larger.

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 0905
1.0Tparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
23.6Bparameters
1000.0B
Kimi K2 0905
23.6B
Mistral Small 3 24B Base

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
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Mistral Small 3 24B Base supports multimodal inputs, whereas Kimi K2 0905 does not.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Kimi K2 0905

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi K2 0905 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3 24B Base 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

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K2 0905 was released on 2025-09-05, while Mistral Small 3 24B Base was released on 2025-01-30.

Kimi K2 0905 is 7 months newer than Mistral Small 3 24B Base.

Kimi K2 0905

Sep 5, 2025

10 months ago

7mo newer
Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Jan 30, 2025

1.5 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Mistral Small 3 24B Base has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Kimi K2 0905's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Base's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Kimi K2 0905's cutoff date.

Kimi K2 0905

—

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Oct 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Moonshot AI
Larger context window (262,144 tokens)
Higher GPQA score (75.8% vs 34.4%)
Higher MATH score (89.1% vs 46.0%)
Higher MMLU score (90.2% vs 80.7%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (82.5% vs 54.4%)
Mistral AI
Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2 0905 and Mistral Small 3 24B Base side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2 0905
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 0905
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Base

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2 0905 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Base.

Which is better, Kimi K2 0905 or Mistral Small 3 24B Base?

Kimi K2 0905 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Kimi K2 0905 is made by Moonshot AI and Mistral Small 3 24B Base 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Base in benchmarks?

Kimi K2 0905 scores HumanEval: 94.5%, MMLU: 90.2%, MATH: 89.1%, MMLU-Pro: 82.5%, GPQA: 75.8%. Mistral Small 3 24B Base scores ARC-C: 91.3%, GSM8k: 80.7%, MMLU: 80.7%, TriviaQA: 80.3%, MBPP: 69.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi K2 0905 and Mistral Small 3 24B Base?

Kimi K2 0905 supports 262K tokens and Mistral Small 3 24B Base 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Base?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2 0905 and Mistral Small 3 24B Base?

Kimi K2 0905 is developed by Moonshot AI and Mistral Small 3 24B Base is developed by Mistral AI.

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