Compare/DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25) vs Kimi K2.6

DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)vsKimi K2.6

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)

Input
$1.35/M
Output
$4.2/M
Speed
TTFT
Kimi

Kimi K2.6

Input
$0.95/M
Output
$4/M
Speed
44 tok/s
TTFT
1.32s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Kimi K2.6
Faster (tok/s)
Kimi K2.6
Lower Latency
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)
Benchmarks (5-7)
Kimi K2.6

Pricing Comparison

MetricDeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)Kimi K2.6
Input ($/M tokens)$1.35$0.95
Output ($/M tokens)$4.2$4
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)$1.77
Kimi K2.6$1.35

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)
Kimi K2.6
44 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)
Kimi K2.6
1.32s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
27.153.9
Coding Index
24.047.1
Math Index
76.0
GPQA Diamond
81.3%91.1%
MMLU-Pro
84.9%
LiveCodeBench
77.0%
AIME 2025
76.0%
MATH-500
98.3%
Humanity's Last Exam
14.9%35.9%
SciCode
40.3%53.5%
IFBench
39.6%76.0%
TerminalBench
15.9%43.9%
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)5 wins
7 winsKimi K2.6

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25) or Kimi K2.6?

Kimi K2.6 is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $1.71/M tokens vs $2.06/M for DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Kimi K2.6 wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Kimi K2.6 generates tokens faster at 44 tok/s vs 0 tok/s. DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.00s vs 1.32s).

When should I use DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25) vs Kimi K2.6?

Choose based on your priorities: Kimi K2.6 for lower cost, Kimi K2.6 for stronger benchmark performance, and Kimi K2.6 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.