Model Comparison

Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1Which is better in 2026?

Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 — which is better?

Kimi K3 (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 K3 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is better at 0 benchmarks. Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Kimi K3 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Kimi K3 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2547.0B diff

Kimi K3 has 2547.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1, making it 1006.7% larger.

Moonshot AI
Kimi K3
2.8Tparameters
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
253.0Bparameters
2800.0B
Kimi K3
253.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Kimi K3 specifies input context (1,048,576 tokens). Only Kimi K3 specifies output context (1,048,576 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi K3
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output1,048,576 tokens
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Kimi K3 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 does not.

Kimi K3 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Kimi K3

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K3 was released on 2026-07-16, while Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07.

Kimi K3 is 16 months newer than Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Kimi K3

Jul 16, 2026

5 days ago

1.3yr 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 K3'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 K3's cutoff date.

Kimi K3

—

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 (1,048,576 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (93.5% vs 76.0%)
NVIDIA

No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K3 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K3
✓ Preferred
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Moonshot AI
Kimi K3
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1.

Which is better, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Kimi K3 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 K3 compare to Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 in benchmarks?

Kimi K3 scores MathVision: 97.8%, DeepSearchQA: 95.0%, GPQA: 93.5%, CharXiv-R: 91.3%, BrowseComp: 91.2%. 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 K3 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K3 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 K3 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

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

Who makes Kimi K3 and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

Kimi K3 is developed by Moonshot AI and Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is developed by NVIDIA.

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