Model Comparison

Kimi K3 vs Magistral Small 2506Which is better in 2026?

Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Kimi K3 vs Magistral Small 2506 — which is better?

Kimi K3 (by Moonshot AI) and Magistral Small 2506 (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 K3 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Magistral Small 2506 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 Magistral Small 2506 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 Magistral Small 2506 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2776.0B diff

Kimi K3 has 2776.0B more parameters than Magistral Small 2506, making it 11566.7% larger.

Moonshot AI
Kimi K3
2.8Tparameters
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
24.0Bparameters
2800.0B
Kimi K3
24.0B
Magistral Small 2506

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
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Kimi K3 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Magistral Small 2506 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

Magistral Small 2506

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K3 was released on 2026-07-16, while Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10.

Kimi K3 is 13 months newer than Magistral Small 2506.

Kimi K3

Jul 16, 2026

1 weeks ago

1.1yr newer
Magistral Small 2506

Jun 10, 2025

1.1 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Magistral Small 2506 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Kimi K3'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 K3's cutoff date.

Kimi K3

—

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 2025

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 68.2%)
Mistral AI

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 Magistral Small 2506 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K3
✓ Preferred
Magistral Small 2506
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Moonshot AI
Kimi K3
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K3 vs Magistral Small 2506.

Which is better, Kimi K3 or Magistral Small 2506?

Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Kimi K3 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 K3 compare to Magistral Small 2506 in benchmarks?

Kimi K3 scores MathVision: 97.8%, DeepSearchQA: 95.0%, GPQA: 93.5%, CharXiv-R: 91.3%, BrowseComp: 91.2%. 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 K3 and Magistral Small 2506?

Kimi K3 supports 1.0M 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 K3 and Magistral Small 2506?

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

Who makes Kimi K3 and Magistral Small 2506?

Kimi K3 is developed by Moonshot AI and Magistral Small 2506 is developed by Mistral AI.

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