Kimi K2 vs GPT-5
Head-to-head specifications
| Metric | Kimi K2 | GPT-5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index | 24.0 | 35.0 | -31.4% |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 922K tokens | — |
| Blended price ($/1M tokens) | $0.51 | $0.79 | -35.4% |
| Output speed (tokens/s) | 35 | 99 | -64.6% |
| Access | Open weights | Proprietary API | — |
- GPT-5 leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 35.0 vs 24.0).
- Kimi K2 is the cheaper model to run at $0.51/1M blended tokens — about 1.5× cheaper.
- GPT-5 offers the larger context window (922K tokens), useful for long documents and codebases.
Verdict: Kimi K2 or GPT-5?
Kimi K2 advantages
- Affordability (+35%)
GPT-5 advantages
- General intelligence (+31%)
- Context window (+78%)
- Output speed (+65%)
Which should you choose?
- Choose the Kimi K2 if you want the lowest cost per token at scale.
- Choose the GPT-5 if you need the strongest overall reasoning and accuracy.
Value for money
Kimi K2 offers more intelligence per dollar (1.1× the Intelligence-Index-per-cost of the alternative), making it the stronger value for high-volume use. It is also open-weight, so self-hosting can reduce costs further at scale.
Kimi K2 vs GPT-5: which should you choose?
Kimi K2 — Moonshot AI text model with an Intelligence Index of 24, a 200K-token context window and a blended price of $0.51/1M tokens (open weights).
GPT-5 — OpenAI multimodal model with an Intelligence Index of 35, a 922K-token context window and a blended price of $0.79/1M tokens.
Kimi K2 vs GPT-5: GPT-5 scores higher on the Intelligence Index. GPT-5 leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 35.0 vs 24.0). Kimi K2 is the cheaper model to run at $0.51/1M blended tokens — about 1.5× cheaper.
Capability: intelligence, coding and agentic work
On the composite Intelligence Index the GPT-5 scores 35.0 versus 24.0. Composite indices summarize many evaluations, but always test on your own workload before committing.
Context window and speed
The GPT-5 accepts up to 922K tokens per request, which sets how much documentation, transcript or code it can reason over at once. In measured throughput, GPT-5 generates faster (99 vs 35 tokens/s), which matters for interactive apps and high-volume pipelines.
Pricing and access
At blended per-token rates, Kimi K2 is the cheaper model to run ($0.51 vs $0.79 per 1M tokens). Kimi K2 is open weights and GPT-5 is proprietary api. Open-weight models can be self-hosted, trading per-call cost for infrastructure you manage; for production also weigh rate limits, throughput and data-residency requirements.
The verdict
Both are credible choices in the ai model comparison space; the specification table above lays out every metric so you can weigh the trade-offs that matter to you. Pick the one whose strengths line up with how you will actually use it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Kimi K2 better than the GPT-5?
GPT-5 takes the overall edge, though Kimi K2 wins in specific areas worth weighing. GPT-5 leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 35.0 vs 24.0).
What is the main difference between the Kimi K2 and the GPT-5?
GPT-5 leads overall capability (Intelligence Index 35.0 vs 24.0). Kimi K2 is the cheaper model to run at $0.51/1M blended tokens — about 1.5× cheaper.
Which is better value?
Kimi K2 offers more intelligence per dollar (1.1× the Intelligence-Index-per-cost of the alternative), making it the stronger value for high-volume use. It is also open-weight, so self-hosting can reduce costs further at scale.
Which should I choose?
Choose the Kimi K2 if you want the lowest cost per token at scale. Choose the GPT-5 if you need the strongest overall reasoning and accuracy.
Methodology
Large language models are compared on independent leaderboard metrics: an Intelligence Index (a composite of reasoning and knowledge evaluations), Coding and Agentic indices where measured, community arena Elo, maximum context window, a blended API price per million tokens (weighted across cache-hit, input and output rates), and measured output speed in tokens per second. Where a model ships multiple reasoning-effort variants, we report its strongest variant. Benchmarks capture only part of real-world quality, which also depends on tool use, latency, safety and task fit — and this space moves quickly, so figures reflect the leaderboard snapshot on the page date.