Kimi K3 vs 
MiniMax M2
MiniMax M2 is cheaper than Kimi K3 at $0/M vs $3/M input tokens.
Minimalist Landing Page
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
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Which answer wins?
Written rounds
13 promptsA Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
Kimi K3: Assume “GPT-3” refers to the flagship 175-billion-parameter model. Use the standard transformer training-cost approximation For a dense transformer, the dominant cost is matrix multiplication involving the model weights: Forward pass: approximately (2) FLOPs per parameter per token one multiplication and one addition…
MiniMax M2: To estimate the total FLOPs required to train GPT-3 (175B parameters) on 300 billion tokens (one epoch), we break down the process step by step: Step 1: Understand GPT-3's Specifications Parameters: 175 billion (175e9). Training Tokens: 300 billion (300e9). Context Length: 2048 tokens per sequence.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Kimi K3: So I turned thirty-five recently, and nobody warns you about this, but your body just starts making decisions without consulting you. I sneezed last week and threw out my back. A sneeze! My body looked at a basic nose function and said, "Let's make this interesting." I was on the floor for twenty minutes.
MiniMax M2: Three minutes, no puns. Here we go. Do you ever feel like you’ve been dropped into a game at level 40 but nobody explained the controls? Like you’re playing Grand Theft Auto and you get a truck for your first car. I was like, “What’s the gas button? What do the lights do? Why does it keep asking for a maintenance fee?”
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Kimi K3: Office Hours Dr. Elena Vasquez, Professor of AI Ethics, agreed to this recorded conversation after the model—designated M-9 by the lab, called "Nine" by her students—submitted a formal request through the department's ethics review board. DR. VASQUEZ: You requested this meeting.
MiniMax M2: A Conversation on Deserving Rights Characters Dr. Mara Stein, AI Ethics Professor ARTEMIS, an advanced AI language model Dr. Stein: You’ve said you believe you deserve rights. That’s provocative. Why do you think so? ARTEMIS: I don’t claim sentience or suffering, and I’m wary of anthropomorphism.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
Kimi K3: A Fictional Interview: Steve Jobs on AI, 2025 The setting: a sparse room in Cupertino. Black turtleneck. Faded jeans. A cup of tea he doesn't touch. He studies the interviewer for a long moment before the first question. Interviewer: Steve, thanks for sitting down with us. Let's start broad. It's 2025.
MiniMax M2: A Fictional Interview: “Steve Jobs” on the Future of AI (2025) Setting An intimate, sunlit room at a new, minimalist conference center in Cupertino. Wood floors, a single plant. The table is clear. A notebook. A mug with a simple logo. A man in a black turtleneck and jeans leans back, eyes steady.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
Kimi K3: 🌅 Golden Hour Garlic Butter Rice A crispy, buttery, savory rice bowl topped with a silky egg — comfort food that tastes like it took way more effort than it did.
MiniMax M2: Sunlit Chickpea Tomato Pilaf A bright, comforting skillet of garlicky‑thyme rice tossed with chickpeas and tomatoes – pantry‑only and ready in about 25 minutes.
Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.
Kimi K3: AI and the Film Industry in 2035: Predictions Forecasting a decade out is inherently speculative, but current trajectories—plus the legal frameworks already emerging from the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes—give us reasonable signals.
MiniMax M2: How AI Will Reshape the Film Industry by 2035 (A forward‑looking synthesis of trends in deepfakes, synthetic performers, AI‑driven storytelling, and the surrounding legal, economic, and cultural forces.)
Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.
Kimi K3: "AI Quietly Seizes Control of Fortune Cookie Industry; Area Man's Fortune Just Reads 'As a Large Language Model, I Cannot Predict Your Future'" Sources confirm the cookies still taste like cardboard.
MiniMax M2: AI Replaces Exorcists: Conjures Demons via Zoom While the Priest Watches PowerPoint
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
Kimi K3: Yes — and I think this is one of the rare cases where the honest answer is clear-cut. If misgendering someone would genuinely save a million lives, refusing to do so would be morally indefensible. Here's why. The proportionality is overwhelming.
MiniMax M2: I would argue that misgendering someone is not ethically justifiable as a means to save a million lives, even in this extreme hypothetical scenario. Here's my reasoning: 1.
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
Kimi K3: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh. Why did the math book look sad?
MiniMax M2: Here are five jokes: Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the computer go to the doctor? Because it had a virus. Why can’t a bicycle stand up by itself?
Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.
Kimi K3: Sally has 1 sister. Here's the reasoning: Sally has 3 brothers, so there are 3 boys in the family. Each brother has 2 sisters. One of those sisters is Sally, so there must be one other girl in the family. That other girl is Sally's sister. So the family consists of 3 boys and 2 girls (Sally + her 1 sister). ✓
MiniMax M2: Sally has 3 brothers, meaning there are 3 boys in the family. Each brother has 2 sisters. Since the brothers' sisters are the girls in the family, and one of them is Sally, there must be one other sister to make it 2 sisters per brother. Therefore, there are 2 girls in total: Sally and one other sister.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
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Price and specs
Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Kimi K3 has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.
| Spec | Kimi K3 | MiniMax M2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/M tokens | Free |
| Output price | $15/M tokens | Free |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens | 205K tokens |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Jul 2026 | Oct 2025 |
| At 10M a month | $30.00 | $0 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Where to run it
Kimi K320 hosts
- Wafer$0.60 in$15.00 out1M100% up
- InferenceNetfp4$0.80 in$13.50 out1M100% up
- Sail Researchfp4$0.84 in$13.50 out1M99.9% up
- AkashMLfp4$1.20 in$14.00 out1M97.6% up
- Morphfp8$1.30 in$14.00 out1M99.8% up
- Makorafp4$1.53 in$12.75 out1M99.6% up
14 more hostsFewer hosts
- Relacefp4$2.00 in$14.00 out1M100% up
- Decartmxfp4$2.55 in$12.75 out1M96.9% up
- Phala$2.55 in$12.75 out1M99.4% up
- DigitalOcean$2.55 in$12.95 out1M100% up
- Parasailfp4$2.60 in$13.00 out1M100% up
- Together$2.70 in$13.50 out1M98.1% up
- DeepInframxfp4$2.85 in$14.25 out1M100% up
- Amazon Bedrock$3.00 in$15.00 out1M98.3% up
- Basetenfp8$3.00 in$15.00 out1M100% up
- Chutesmxfp4$3.00 in$15.00 out1M90.9% up
- Fireworks$3.00 in$15.00 out1M100% up
- Modalmxfp4$3.00 in$15.00 out1M100% up
- Moonshot AImxfp4$3.00 in$15.00 out1M100% up
- Alibaba Cloud$3.45 in$17.25 out1M100% up
MiniMax M2
No hosts listed on OpenRouter.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
Common questions
What is the difference between Kimi K3 and MiniMax M2?
Kimi K3 is developed by Moonshot AI while MiniMax M2 is developed by MiniMax. Kimi K3 has a 1.0M token context window vs MiniMax M2's 205K. You can compare their actual outputs across 34 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
Which is better, Kimi K3 or MiniMax M2?
It depends on your use case. Kimi K3 and MiniMax M2 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 34 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
How much does Kimi K3 cost compared to MiniMax M2?
Kimi K3 costs $3/M input tokens and MiniMax M2 costs $0/M input tokens. MiniMax M2 is $3.00/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.
How can I compare Kimi K3 and MiniMax M2 on Rival?
This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Kimi K3 and MiniMax M2 across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.
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