BenchLeader

Gemini 4 Argon vs Kimi K2.5

Full profiles: Gemini 4 Argon (Google) and Kimi K2.5 (Moonshot AI): every benchmark, price and rank.

Updated · Data from 11 sources

As of 29 Oct 2026, Gemini 4 Argon is ahead of Kimi K2.5 on quality (65.9 vs 58.8 on the BenchLeader Index), but Kimi K2.5 is 6.7× cheaper at $1.20 vs $8.00 per 1M tokens blended. Gemini 4 Argon leads in every category we measure both in. Gemini 4 Argon's current price runs until 30 Nov 2026, then $8.00.

Key facts (as of 29 Oct 2026)

  • Gemini 4 Argon scores 65.9 on the BenchLeader Index and Kimi K2.5 scores 58.8 (BenchLeader, 29 Oct 2026).
  • Gemini 4 Argon costs $8.00 per 1M tokens blended until 30 Nov 2026, then $8.00 (https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing, checked 20 Oct 2026).
  • Kimi K2.5 costs $1.20 per 1M tokens blended (list price, 29 Oct 2026).
  • Of the 21 benchmarks both models have, Gemini 4 Argon leads 21 (BenchLeader, 29 Oct 2026).
  • On Arena WebDev, Gemini 4 Argon is rated 1680 and Kimi K2.5 1437 (LMArena, as published by 29 Oct 2026).

Which to pick for…

The pick's numbers come first. Category scores on the BenchLeader scale (50 is the average model, 15 points one standard deviation). High confidence means a lead of half a standard deviation or more; under one point is called either.

Use casePickWhyConfidence
CodingGemini 4 Argon67 vs 56 category score; Arena WebDev 1680 vs 1437High
Agents & tool useGemini 4 Argon59 vs 45 category score; Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) 57.7% vs 42.0%High
MathsGemini 4 Argon70 vs 56 category score; Arena Maths 1532 vs 1471High
ReasoningGemini 4 Argon71 vs 67 category score; Arena Hard Prompts 1540 vs 1471Medium
KnowledgeGemini 4 Argon73 vs 60 category score; Excel Modeling Benchmark 75.2% vs 28.5%High
Long documentsEither65 vs 64 category score; AA-LCR v1.1 79.7% vs 78.0%Either
Chat quality (human preference)Gemini 4 Argon72 vs 63 on Arena votesHigh
Lowest costKimi K2.5$1.20 vs $8.00 per 1M blended; agentic coding session $0.048 vs $0.320; from 1 Dec 2026: $1.20 vs $8.00–
Fastest first answerKimi K2.536.0 s (Kimi K2.5 (thinking)) vs 47.3 s (Gemini 4 Argon (high)) to the first answer token–
High volume on a budgetNeither flagshipA smaller model is usually the better fit: Cheapest good LLMs, Fastest LLMs–

Key differences

  • Gemini 4 Argon (high) leads on quality: 65.9 vs 58.8.
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high) is stronger in agents & tools, coding, human preference, knowledge, long context, maths, reasoning.
  • Kimi K2.5 (thinking) is stronger in instruction following, multimodal.
  • Kimi K2.5 (thinking) is 6.7× cheaper ($1.20 vs $8.00 per 1M blended) until 30 Nov 2026, then $1.20 vs $8.00 from 1 Dec 2026.

At a glance

SpecGemini 4 ArgonKimi K2.5
DeveloperGoogleMoonshot AI
Released30 Sept 202627 Jan 2026
Generally available13 Oct 202627 Jan 2026
Context window (tokens)1,048,576262,144
Max output (tokens)65,536 (up to 1,048,576 with long decode)–
Input typestext, image, video, audio, PDF–
Reasoning effort settingslow, medium, high–
Compared atGemini 4 Argon (high)Kimi K2.5 (thinking)
Open weightsNoYes
Price in / out / cached input per 1M$4.00 / $20.00 / $0.100$0.600 / $3.00 / $0.100
Announced price change$4.00 / $20.00 / $0.200 from 1 Dec 2026None announced
API model IDgemini-4-argon–
Where to use itGemini API (AI Studio), Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Gemini app–

Limits, availability and announced prices from the vendors' own pages: ai.google.dev, ai.google.dev pricing (checked 20 Oct 2026). Everything else is from the day's data.

Category by category

Category scores on the BenchLeader scale: 50 is the average evaluated model, 15 points is one standard deviation. A gap under one point is called level.

CategoryGemini 4 Argon (high)Kimi K2.5 (thinking)Leader
Reasoning71.267.3Gemini 4 Argon
Coding66.555.7Gemini 4 Argon
Agents & tools58.845.1Gemini 4 Argon
Maths70.356.2Gemini 4 Argon
Knowledge73.160.0Gemini 4 Argon
Instruction following–69.0not comparable
Human preference71.663.4Gemini 4 Argon
Multimodal–59.3not comparable
Long context64.763.8level

Where sources disagree

Across the 21 benchmarks both have, Gemini 4 Argon leads 21, Kimi K2.5 leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts Gemini 4 Argon ahead.

Overall indexGemini 4 Argon (high)Kimi K2.5 (thinking)Leader
BenchLeader Index65.958.8Gemini 4 Argon
Arena Text15171450Gemini 4 Argon

Each publisher runs its own tasks, harnesses and effort settings, so their overall verdicts can differ; BenchLeader reconciles them on one scale. † measured at another effort setting of the same model (the publisher did not test the one compared here).

Price, speed and latency

List prices blended at three input tokens per output token. Per-task prices use the token counts on the methodology page; suite cost is what Artificial Analysis paid to run its whole Intelligence Index.

MeasureGemini 4 Argon (high)Kimi K2.5 (thinking)
Blended price per 1M tokens, until 30 Nov 2026$8.00$1.20
Input / output per 1M$4.00 / $20.00$0.600 / $3.00
Blended price per 1M from 1 Dec 2026$8.00$1.20
Input / output per 1M from 1 Dec 2026$4.00 / $20.00$0.600 / $3.00
Cached input per 1M$0.100$0.100
Price per task: chat reply$0.0076$0.0011
Price per task: summarize a 30-page report$0.060$0.0090
Price per task: code edit$0.054$0.0081
Price per task: agentic coding session$0.320$0.048
Price per task: structured extraction$0.012$0.0018
Cost to run a full benchmark suite$7.68–
Output speed83 tok/s87 tok/s
Time to first answer47.3 s36.0 s
Time to a complete answer53.3 s41.7 s

Each model is compared at its best-ranked reasoning-effort setting. Gemini 4 Argon (high) scores 65.9 and takes 47 s to its first answer token; Gemini 4 Argon scores 63.1 in 5 s. Kimi K2.5 (thinking) scores 58.8 and takes 36 s to its first answer token; Kimi K2.5 scores 54.3 in 1 s. Higher effort means more thinking before the answer: better scores, longer waits and more tokens billed. How reasoning effort changes scores and cost.

Every benchmark

161 benchmarks, grouped by category; each name links to the board and its leaders. † measured at another effort setting of the same model, shown for reference and not counted as a win.

MetricPublisherGemini 4 Argon (high)Kimi K2.5 (thinking)
BenchLeader IndexBenchLeader65.958.8
Agents & tools scoreBenchLeader58.845.1
Coding scoreBenchLeader66.555.7
Human preference scoreBenchLeader71.663.4
Knowledge scoreBenchLeader73.160.0
Long context scoreBenchLeader64.763.8
Maths scoreBenchLeader70.356.2
Reasoning scoreBenchLeader71.267.3
Instruction following scoreBenchLeader–69.0
Multimodal scoreBenchLeader–59.3
Blended price $/MBenchLeader$8.00$1.20
Output speedBenchLeader83 tok/s87 tok/s
Time to first answerBenchLeader47.3 s36.0 s
Context windowBenchLeader1,048,576 tokens262,144 tokens
Reasoning
GPQA DiamondEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub96.4%87.6%†
Humanity's Last ExamScale AI / CAIS–24.4%†
SimpleBenchSimpleBench–46.8%†
Arena Hard PromptsArena (LMArena)15401471
LiveBench 2.0 ReasoningLiveBench95.1%†–
GPQA Diamond (AA)Artificial Analysis–87.9%
Humanity's Last Exam (AA)Artificial Analysis57.1%30.7%
HLE-Diamond (AA)Artificial Analysis56.7%–
GPQA Diamond (Vals)Vals AI–84.1%
Kagi LLM BenchmarkKagi LLM Benchmark–78.5%
ARC-AGI-1ARC Prize98.5%65.3%†
ARC-AGI-2ARC Prize91.3%11.8%†
ARC-AGI-3ARC Prize97.3%–
CritPtArtificial Analysis27.1%3.1%
CritPt v2 hard subset (AA)Artificial Analysis52.5%–
MysteryMechanismVals AI45.5%–
Chess PuzzlesEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub59.0%–
Mystery Game PuzzlesEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub64.0%–
CL-benchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–19.3%†
CL-bench LifeEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–13.2%†
LMCAEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub63.7%–
DTBenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub97.3%–
Coding
SWE-bench Verified (Epoch)Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–73.8%†
SciCodeSciCode61.8%49.0%†
WeirdMLWeirdML–45.6%†
Show all 161 benchmarks
MetricPublisherGemini 4 Argon (high)Kimi K2.5 (thinking)
Coding
FrontierCodeCognition47.5%†–
Arena CodingArena (LMArena)15521502
Arena WebDevArena (LMArena)16801437
LiveBench 2.0 CodingLiveBench89.7%†–
SciCode (AA)Artificial Analysis61.8%–
LiveCodeBenchVals AI–83.9%
IOIVals AI100.0%–
SWE-bench (Vals)Vals AI–70.0%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)SWE-bench–70.8%†
SWE-bench Verified (any scaffold)SWE-bench–70.8%†
Code MigrationVals AI68.2%7.0%
Code Migration v1.1Vals AI70.8%–
ProgramBenchVals AI2.5%–
SWE-bench MultimodalVals AI56.0%–
Vibe Code Bench 1-100Vals AI21.2%–
Vibe Code Bench v1.1Vals AI91.9%17.5%
SWE Atlas: Codebase QnAScale AI SEAL–13.1%†
SWE Atlas: RefactoringScale AI SEAL–20.9%†
SWE Atlas: Test WritingScale AI SEAL–25.8%†
MirrorCodeEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub58.9%–
CursorBenchCursor52.9%–
ALE-BenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub2100.1821.6†
FrontierSWEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub55.0%–
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis57.1%–
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis–45.7%
Startrise FrontendStartrise71.0%†–
FrontierCode 1.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis43.5%–
FrontierCode 2.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis25.7%–
Agents & tools
Terminal-BenchTerminal-Bench–43.2%†
Remote Labor IndexScale AI / CAIS17.1%†–
APEX-AgentsMercor82.4%†–
Arena AgentArena (LMArena)11.7–
LiveBench Long AgenticLiveBench61.2%†–
LiveBench BrowserLiveBench82.8%†–
Terminal-Bench HardArtificial Analysis–34.9%
τ²-Bench Telecom (AA)Artificial Analysis–95.9%
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals)Vals AI57.7%42.0%
MCP AtlasScale AI SEAL–64.4%†
HiL-BenchScale AI SEAL62.0%†–
GDPval-AA v2.1, normalised scoreArtificial Analysis56.2%–
GDPval-AA v2.1Artificial Analysis1631–
τ³-Banking (AA)Artificial Analysis–14.2%
Analyst Agent (AA)Artificial Analysis48.8%–
APEX-Agents (AA)Artificial Analysis–11.5%
CUA-benchVals AI4.8%–
CyberBenchVals AI77.9%–
Finance Agent v2Vals AI65.4%35.8%
Finance Agent v2.1Vals AI67.7%–
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1.1Vals AI27.1%–
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1Vals AI19.6%0.0%
Legal Research BenchVals AI54.8%15.9%
Robo-benchVals AI0.8%–
SREBenchVals AI44.3%–
Tax Agent BenchVals AI44.6%–
Terminal-Bench 2.0 (Vals)Vals AI–40.5%
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Vals)Vals AI57.6%–
Terminal-Bench ScienceVals AI44.3%–
Time Horizon Index: KSPVals AI52.5%–
Vending-Bench 2Andon Labs13718.2†1198.5†
AutomationBenchArtificial Analysis77.5%–
GDP.pdf (AA)Artificial Analysis21.8%–
Harvey LAB-AA v1.1Harvey3.9%–
AA-Briefcase v1.1Artificial Analysis1483–
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis52.9%–
FACTS SearchGoogle84.0%†–
Maths
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub86.0%–
FrontierMath Tier 4Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub78.0%–
OTIS Mock AIMEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub100.0%92.2%†
ProofBenchVals AI99.0%†–
AIME (Vals)Vals AI–95.6%
AIME 2026MathArena–95.8%
HMMT February 2026MathArena–87.1%
MathArena ApexMathArena–8.8%
Arena MathsArena (LMArena)15321471
Knowledge
SimpleQA VerifiedEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub76.0%34.3%†
LiveBench 2.0 Data AnalysisLiveBench85.2%†–
LiveBench ResearchLiveBench83.1%†–
AA-Omniscience v1.1Artificial Analysis46.1–
MMLU-ProVals AI–85.9%
LegalBenchVals AI88.3%–
CorpFinVals AI–68.3%
TaxEvalVals AI–74.2%
MedQAVals AI–94.4%
PRBench FinanceScale AI SEAL49.9%†46.5%†
PRBench LegalScale AI SEAL49.4%†43.8%†
MultiNRCScale AI SEAL–35.2%†
BioMysteryBenchVals AI76.3%–
CaseLaw v2Vals AI–58.7%
Excel Modeling BenchmarkVals AI75.2%28.5%
Excel Modeling Benchmark v1.1Vals AI74.8%–
MedCodeVals AI58.8%39.3%
MedScribeVals AI87.4%76.4%
Public Benefits Bench v1.1Vals AI69.8%–
DrugDiscoveryBenchScale AI SEAL65.4%–
EBR-benchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub64.8%–
GDP.pdfEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub28.4%–
AA-Omniscience v1.1: accuracyArtificial Analysis48.3%–
AA-Omniscience v1.1: non-hallucinationArtificial Analysis95.7%–
HealthBench Professional (AA)OpenAI55.0%–
Instruction following
IFBenchArtificial Analysis–70.2%
MultiChallengeScale AI SEAL78.7%†61.4%†
TutorBenchScale AI SEAL–54.6%†
Arena Instruction FollowingArena (LMArena)15191439
Human preference
Arena TextArena (LMArena)15171450
EQ-Bench 4EQ-Bench1236†–
Arena Creative WritingArena (LMArena)15121423
Arena Multi-turnArena (LMArena)15441452
Arena Longer QueriesArena (LMArena)15351458
Multimodal
Arena VisionArena (LMArena)–1269
LiveBench DesignLiveBench73.7%†–
MMMU-ProArtificial Analysis–75.4%
VISTAScale AI SEAL–41.9%†
MMMU-Pro (Vals)Vals AI–84.3%
MortgageTaxVals AI–66.5%
SAGEVals AI89.5%–
AudioMCScale AI SEAL58.4%–
AudioMC (text output)Scale AI SEAL58.4%–
Blueprint-Bench 2Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub54.5%†–
Code2Video-AAArtificial Analysis1259–
AA-3DArtificial Analysis1153–
Long context
Fiction.LiveBench 120kFiction.live–78.1%†
AA-LCR v1.1Artificial Analysis79.7%78.0%
Arena DocumentArena (LMArena)–1436
MLCRArtificial Analysis13.9%–
Composite
Epoch Capabilities IndexEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub166.4†148.1†
LiveBench 2.0LiveBench79.3%†–
AA Intelligence Index v5.0Artificial Analysis50.4–
AA Intelligence Index v4.3.2Artificial Analysis52.623.5
AA Progress Index v1Artificial Analysis341.8270.5
Vals IndexVals AI69.2–
Vals Finance IndexVals AI64.9%–
Vals RSI IndexVals AI30.6%6.8%†
Vals Science IndexVals AI55.4%–
Vals Router IndexVals AI69.2%†–
Safety & honesty
FORTRESSScale AI SEAL–41.1%†
MASKScale AI SEAL–70.5%†

Data as of 2026-10-29. Best configuration of each model; every score links to its source on the model pages.

What changed

  • Gemini 4 Argon: list price moves to $4.00 / $20.00 per 1M input / output tokens (announced).
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): input price moved from $2.00/M to $4.00/M (100% up); output price moved from $10.00/M to $20.00/M (100% up); cost per task moved from $3.84/M to $7.68/M (100% up).
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): BenchLeader Index 66.8 → 65.9.
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): 5 new results (AA Intelligence Index v5.0, AA Progress Index v1, HLE-Diamond (AA)…); 5 score revisions; cost per task moved from $1.62/M to $3.84/M (137% up).
  • Kimi K2.5 (thinking): 1 new result (AA Progress Index v1).
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): BenchLeader Index 68.5 → 66.8.
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): 1 new result (Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals)).
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): cost per task moved from $1.99/M to $1.62/M (19% down).
  • Gemini 4 Argon (high): 10 new results (Code Migration v1.1, Excel Modeling Benchmark v1.1, Finance Agent v2.1…); 7 score revisions.
  • Kimi K2.5 (thinking): 1 new result (Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1).

Rankings: Best LLM overall · Best LLM for agents · Best cheap LLMs

Gemini 4 Argon vs Kimi K2.5: questions

Is Gemini 4 Argon better than Kimi K2.5?
Gemini 4 Argon (high) leads on quality: 65.9 vs 58.8. The BenchLeader Index combines every independent quality benchmark; Gemini 4 Argon (high) is ahead overall as of 29 Oct 2026, but check the category scores for your use.
Gemini 4 Argon vs Kimi K2.5: which is cheaper, and will that change?
Kimi K2.5 is cheaper today: $1.20 against $8.00 per million tokens, blended at three input tokens per output token. Gemini 4 Argon's current price runs until 30 Nov 2026, then $8.00.
Is Gemini 4 Argon or Kimi K2.5 better for coding?
Gemini 4 Argon scores higher in coding (67 vs 56 on the category index, where 50 is average). On Arena WebDev, the top shared coding benchmark, it is 1680 for Gemini 4 Argon against 1437 for Kimi K2.5.
Which is faster, Gemini 4 Argon or Kimi K2.5?
Kimi K2.5 streams faster (87 vs 83 output tokens per second, Artificial Analysis 7-day median).
Is Gemini 4 Argon or Kimi K2.5 better for agents and tool use?
Gemini 4 Argon scores higher in agentic tasks (59 vs 45 on the category index, where 50 is average). On Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals), the top shared agents & tools benchmark, it is 57.7% for Gemini 4 Argon against 42.0% for Kimi K2.5.
More questions (4)
Which is better for long documents?
They are level on long-context benchmarks (65 vs 64). Gemini 4 Argon accepts more context: 1,048,576 against 262,144 tokens for Kimi K2.5.
Which has lower latency?
Kimi K2.5 answers first: 36.0 s against 47.3 s to the first answer token, as Artificial Analysis measures it. Reasoning effort drives most of this: a higher setting thinks longer before it answers.
Do independent benchmarks agree on Gemini 4 Argon vs Kimi K2.5?
Across the 21 benchmarks both have, Gemini 4 Argon leads 21, Kimi K2.5 leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts Gemini 4 Argon ahead.
When was Gemini 4 Argon released?
Gemini 4 Argon became generally available on 13 Oct 2026, after first appearing on 30 Sept 2026.