Compare · ModelsLive · 2 picked · head to head

Kimi K2 Thinking vs MiniMax M2.5

Side by side · benchmarks, pricing, and signals you can act on.

Winner summary

Kimi K2 Thinking wins 10 of 17 shared benchmarks. Leads in reasoning · language · math.

Category leads
agentic·MiniMax M2.5coding·MiniMax M2.5reasoning·Kimi K2 Thinkinglanguage·Kimi K2 Thinkingmath·Kimi K2 Thinkingknowledge·MiniMax M2.5
Hype vs Reality
Kimi K2 Thinking
#79 by perf·no signal
QUIET
MiniMax M2.5
#71 by perf·no signal
QUIET
Best value
2.5x better value than Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking
34.4 pts/$
$1.55/M
MiniMax M2.5
84.8 pts/$
$0.65/M
Vendor risk
One or more vendors flagged
moonshotai logo
moonshotai
private · undisclosed
Unknown
minimax logo
MiniMax
$4.0B·Tier 1
Higher risk
Head to head
Kimi K2 ThinkingMiniMax M2.5
APEX-Agents
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +2.2
APEX-Agents · evaluates AI agents on complex, multi-step tasks requiring planning, tool use, and autonomous decision-making in realistic environments.
Kimi K2 Thinking
4.0
MiniMax M2.5
6.2
LiveBench · Agentic Coding
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +13.3
Kimi K2 Thinking
38.3
MiniMax M2.5
51.7
LiveBench · Coding
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +3.3
Kimi K2 Thinking
67.4
MiniMax M2.5
70.7
LiveBench · Data Analysis
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +2.7
Kimi K2 Thinking
52.3
MiniMax M2.5
49.6
LiveBench · If
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +4.8
Kimi K2 Thinking
62.0
MiniMax M2.5
57.2
LiveBench · Language
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +11.4
Kimi K2 Thinking
66.5
MiniMax M2.5
55.1
LiveBench · Mathematics
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +3.7
Kimi K2 Thinking
81.1
MiniMax M2.5
77.4
LiveBench · Overall
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +1.4
Kimi K2 Thinking
61.6
MiniMax M2.5
60.1
LiveBench · Reasoning
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +4.2
Kimi K2 Thinking
63.5
MiniMax M2.5
59.3
OpenCompass · AIME2025
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +7.9
Kimi K2 Thinking
94.1
MiniMax M2.5
86.2
OpenCompass · GPQA-Diamond
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +1.9
Kimi K2 Thinking
82.7
MiniMax M2.5
84.6
OpenCompass · HLE
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +0.9
Kimi K2 Thinking
21.3
MiniMax M2.5
22.2
OpenCompass · IFEval
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +1.3
Kimi K2 Thinking
92.4
MiniMax M2.5
91.1
OpenCompass · LiveCodeBenchV6
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +3.5
Kimi K2 Thinking
77.1
MiniMax M2.5
73.6
OpenCompass · MMLU-Pro
Kimi K2 Thinking leads by +2.6
Kimi K2 Thinking
84.3
MiniMax M2.5
81.7
PostTrainBench
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +2.3
Kimi K2 Thinking
7.3
MiniMax M2.5
9.5
Terminal Bench
MiniMax M2.5 leads by +6.5
Terminal-Bench 2.0 · evaluates AI agents on real terminal-based coding tasks · writing scripts, debugging, running tests, and managing projects entirely through command-line interaction. Tests both code quality and terminal fluency. Claude Opus 4.7 scores 69.4%, demonstrating significant agentic terminal competence.
Kimi K2 Thinking
35.7
MiniMax M2.5
42.2
Full benchmark table
BenchmarkKimi K2 ThinkingMiniMax M2.5
APEX-Agents
APEX-Agents · evaluates AI agents on complex, multi-step tasks requiring planning, tool use, and autonomous decision-making in realistic environments.
4.06.2
LiveBench · Agentic Coding
38.351.7
LiveBench · Coding
67.470.7
LiveBench · Data Analysis
52.349.6
LiveBench · If
62.057.2
LiveBench · Language
66.555.1
LiveBench · Mathematics
81.177.4
LiveBench · Overall
61.660.1
LiveBench · Reasoning
63.559.3
OpenCompass · AIME2025
94.186.2
OpenCompass · GPQA-Diamond
82.784.6
OpenCompass · HLE
21.322.2
OpenCompass · IFEval
92.491.1
OpenCompass · LiveCodeBenchV6
77.173.6
OpenCompass · MMLU-Pro
84.381.7
PostTrainBench
7.39.5
Terminal Bench
Terminal-Bench 2.0 · evaluates AI agents on real terminal-based coding tasks · writing scripts, debugging, running tests, and managing projects entirely through command-line interaction. Tests both code quality and terminal fluency. Claude Opus 4.7 scores 69.4%, demonstrating significant agentic terminal competence.
35.742.2
Pricing · per 1M tokens · projected $/mo at 10M tokens
ModelInputOutputContextProjected $/mo
moonshotai logoKimi K2 Thinking$0.60$2.50262K tokens (~131 books)$10.75
minimax logoMiniMax M2.5$0.15$1.15197K tokens (~98 books)$4.00