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Kimi K2.8 Preview vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Comparing Kimi K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Moonshot AI · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Kimi K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Kimi K2.8 Preview

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

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

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Kimi K2.8 Preview
Moonshot AI
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
NVIDIA
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
1,048,576
—

Individual benchmarks

0 reported for Kimi K2.8 Preview · 6 for Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

No common benchmarks found

Kimi K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Kimi K2.8 Preview specifies input context (1,048,576 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2.8 Preview
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output- tokens
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Sep 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Kimi K2.8 Preview supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 does not.

Kimi K2.8 Preview can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi K2.8 Preview 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 K2.8 Preview

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 K2.8 Preview was released on 2026-09-11, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07.

Kimi K2.8 Preview is 17 months newer than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Sep 11, 2026

3 days ago

1.4yr newer
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Apr 7, 2025

1.4 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 K2.8 Preview'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 K2.8 Preview's cutoff date.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

—

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Dec 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2.8 Preview
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2.8 Preview vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Which is better, Kimi K2.8 Preview or Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K2.8 Preview (Moonshot AI) and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 (NVIDIA) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Kimi K2.8 Preview compare to Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 in benchmarks?

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 K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K2.8 Preview supports 1.0M 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 K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Llama 3.1 Community License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2.8 Preview and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K2.8 Preview is developed by Moonshot AI and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is developed by NVIDIA.

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