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Gemini 4 Carbonvs.Kimi K3

Which one is better?

Gemini 4 Carbon is clearly ahead in the overall index.

IntelligenceOverall index, 0 to 100 · higher is better
96

Gemini 4 Carbon

Rank 1 to 5

59

Kimi K3

Rank 18 to 24

SpeedTokens per second · higher is better
100

Gemini 4 Carbon

fairly fast

55

Kimi K3

slow

PriceDollars per 1M tokens · lower is better
n/a

Gemini 4 Carbon

$6

Kimi K3

expensive

Gemini 4 Carbon

Subscription

Subscriptions in Germany: n/a

Via API

n/a (no API price known).

Kimi K3

Subscription

At Moonshot AI from ≈ €20.14 a month (Kimi Plus, with limited credits). Through other providers from ≈ €1.06 a month (Command Code Go, with limited credits). 45 plans in Germany.

Via API

$3 input, $15 output per 1M tokens, unchanged since our price tracking began on Aug 14, 2026.

Note
There is a successor: Kimi K3.1 Pro (rank 10 to 13, $2 input, $10 output).

Overall index with data through Oct 29, 2026 · Prices from Oct 29, 2026 · Speed: measured by Artificial Analysis · Subscriptions as of Oct 24, 2026 · Subscription prices incl. VAT

Where is the difference?

Values from 0 to 100 per task area. We only name a winner when the gap is large enough and there are enough tests.

Gemini 4 Carbon ahead: 6Kimi K3 ahead: 0level: 0too little data: 4of 10 areas

Gemini 4 CarbonKimi K30 to 100, higher is better
Areas in the overall index
CodingGemini 4 Carbon aheadGemini 4 Carbon: 92Kimi K3: 48
ReasoningGemini 4 Carbon aheadGemini 4 Carbon: 96Kimi K3: 53
Mathematicsonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 55
KnowledgeGemini 4 Carbon aheadGemini 4 Carbon: above 99Kimi K3: 44
AgentsGemini 4 Carbon aheadGemini 4 Carbon: 88Kimi K3: 49
Generalonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 72
Multimodalonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 54
Specialist fields
FinanceGemini 4 Carbon aheadGemini 4 Carbon: 94Kimi K3: 63
LegalGemini 4 Carbon aheadGemini 4 Carbon: 94Kimi K3: 74
Healthonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 65
Show 3 more areas that do not count toward the overall index
Gemini 4 CarbonKimi K30 to 100, higher is better
Cybersecurityonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 75
Productivityonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 71
Educationonly Kimi K3 has a scoreGemini 4 Carbon: not enough dataKimi K3: 55

See for yourself: same task, one attempt

The same prompt for both models. We show the latest attempt without fixes; it does not count toward the overall index.

Pelican on a bicycle

A community classic for free-form SVG drawing.

Gemini 4 Carbon

Not tested yet

Kimi K3

Kimi K3: Pelican on a bicycle
A community classic for free-form SVG drawing.

Reasoning (requested): high

Current attempt
Run date
Oct 1, 2026
API provider
openrouter
Requested API model
moonshotai/kimi-k3
API model reported in response
moonshotai/kimi-k3
Reasoning setting
high
Pinned endpoint
Moonshot AI | moonshotai/kimi-k3-20260715
Temperature
Provider default
Token limit including reasoning
8,192 tokens
Test protocol
community-visual-tests-v1
Technical checks
Passed, not a quality rating
Response time
173.4 s

Visually reviewed. This individual test does not establish overall model quality.

Earlier attempts (1)
  • Sep 7, 2026API request failedReasoning setting: high
Prompt and test conditions

Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle

Token limit including reasoning: 8,192 tokens

Task origin (Simon Willison)
SVG short test

There is no shared test round for this selection. Results from different rounds are not mixed.

All data side by side

The better value is bold. For the overall index only when the gap is clear.

MetricGemini 4 CarbonKimi K3
Intelligence
Overall index0 to 100, higher is better9659
RankRank 1 to 5 of 95Rank 18 to 24 of 95
Price per 1M tokens
Inputwhat you sendn/a$3
Outputwhat the model writesn/a$15
Speed
Tokens per second10055
Technical
Context windowhow much text the model reads at once1 M tokens≈ 1,500 A4 pages1.05 M tokens≈ 1,570 A4 pages
Knowledge cutoffn/an/a
Releasedn/aJul 16, 2026
AvailabilityLimited accessActive
Open weightsnoyes
  • Gemini 4 Carbon, Announced introductory pricing: $2 input and $10 output per 1M tokens. Cached input receives a 95% discount, giving $0.10 per 1M tokens. This announcement does not establish an already available public API. Source
  • Gemini 4 Carbon, Announced pricing after the introductory period: Afterward, $4 input and $20 output per 1M tokens. Google has not specified when the introductory period ends. Source
  • Gemini 4 Carbon, Artificial Analysis pricing assumptions: Artificial Analysis calculates test costs using $4 input, $20 output, and $0.20 cached input per 1M tokens. These are the evaluator’s pricing assumptions, not confirmation of a publicly available API tariff. Source

Prices without caching or batch discounts · Page count as a rule of thumb from Artificial Analysis

Shared benchmarks

Single results from the same benchmark version, task and metric. A value is bold only with the same test setup and a clear gap.

A: Gemini 4 CarbonB: Kimi K3

Vals IndexOverall · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 70.4%Kimi K3: 53%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexCode Migration v1.1 · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 80.1%Kimi K3: 22.7%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexEMB v1.1 · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 76.5%Kimi K3: 71.3%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexFinance Agent v2.1 · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 67.2%Kimi K3: 60%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexHLAB-Vals-1.1 · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 17.5%Kimi K3: 12.9%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexLegal Research · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 55.8%Kimi K3: 46.2%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexTax Agent · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 48.9%Kimi K3: 33.4%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexTerminal-Bench 4.0 · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 63.1%Kimi K3: 17.2%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026
Vals IndexVibe Code Bench v1.1 · higher is betterTest setup not documented as identicalGemini 4 Carbon: 89.1%Kimi K3: 85%Vals AIAs of 10/27/2026

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