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

Kimi K2.6vsDeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)

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

Kimi

Kimi K2.6

Input
$0.95/M
Output
$4/M
Speed
135 tok/s
TTFT
0.78s
DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)

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

Winner by Category

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

Pricing Comparison

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

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Kimi K2.6
135 tok/s
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Kimi K2.6
0.78s
DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
53.927.1
Coding Index
47.124.0
Math Index
76.0
GPQA Diamond
91.1%81.3%
MMLU-Pro
84.9%
LiveCodeBench
77.0%
AIME 2025
76.0%
MATH-500
98.3%
Humanity's Last Exam
35.9%14.9%
SciCode
53.5%40.3%
IFBench
76.0%39.6%
TerminalBench
43.9%15.9%
Kimi K2.67 wins
5 winsDeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25)

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Kimi K2.6 is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $1.71/M tokens vs $2.36/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 135 tok/s vs 0 tok/s. However, DeepSeek R1 0528 (May '25) has lower time-to-first-token (0.00s vs 0.78s).

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

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.