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Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

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Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#21

Post by DeathArrow »

jakemanger wrote: post #14

What's the GPU VRAM requirements for this thing? Awesome to have a open model that can compete, but damn it would be so much better if you could run it locally. Otherwise, it's almost so difficult to run (e.g. self host) that it's just way more convenient to pay OpenAI, Claude, etc

>Otherwise, it's almost so difficult to run (e.g. self host) that it's just way more convenient to pay OpenAI, Claude, etc

Getting a coding plan from Kimi.com will make coding 20x cheaper than using Anthropic.

BTW, I am using it with Claude Code.

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#22

Post by magicalhippo »

keyle wrote: post #12
magicalhippo wrote: post #2

In a single challenge, measured by how performant the solution was. Kimi K2.6 is definitely a frontier-sized model, so on the one hand it's not that surprising it's up there with the closed frontier models. Being open is nice though, even though it doesn't matter that much for folks like me with a single consumer GPU.

It absolutely does matter. The enshittification will go unnoticed at first but I'm already finding my favourite frontier models severely nerfed, doing incredibly dumb stuff they weren't in the past. We need open weight models to have a stable "platform" when we rely on them, which we do more and more.

Most people won't roll out their own K2 deployment across rented GPUs, so in that sense it doesn't matter that much, they'll be using a paid service which is just as much of a black box as Claude or ChatGPT. For example, on OpenRouter you can select a provider which state they use a given open model, but you have no idea what actually goes on behind the curtains, which quantization levels they use and so on.

That said, I do fully agree that it is valuable to have open near-frontier models, as a balance to the closed ones.

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#24

Post by magicalhippo »

DeathArrow wrote: post #17
magicalhippo wrote: post #2

In a single challenge, measured by how performant the solution was. Kimi K2.6 is definitely a frontier-sized model, so on the one hand it's not that surprising it's up there with the closed frontier models. Being open is nice though, even though it doesn't matter that much for folks like me with a single consumer GPU.

>Being open is nice though, even though it doesn't matter that much for folks like me with a single consumer GPU. Of course it matters because that makes coding plans much cheaper than those from Anthropic and OpenAI. For personal use I have coding plans with GLM 5.1, Kimi K2.6, MiniMax M2.7 and Xiaomi MiMo V2.5 Pro and I am getting a lot of bang for the buck.

Currently it's not a huge difference given the subsidies of closed model subscriptions. Once that stops then yea it will be really nice to have open models as price competitors.

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#26

Post by Frannky »

DeathArrow wrote: post #20
Frannky wrote: post #7

I have to try Kimi. I was looking for an alternative. If you have any experience, advice, please share. I saw Kimi is at the top of the Open Router ranking.

Kimi K2.6 is great but I advice you to get a coding plan from Kimi.com as that way is much cheaper than paying for API calls using OpenRouter.

Thanks, I am trying it right now. I had an opencode plan 5$/month, so I will play with that. I use ZED and I added Pi ACP, so I can try the both pi and Kimi. I will also try it in opencode and via Kimi code.

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#27

Post by Frannky »

zorked wrote: post #18
Frannky wrote: post #7

I have to try Kimi. I was looking for an alternative. If you have any experience, advice, please share. I saw Kimi is at the top of the Open Router ranking.

I use Kimi at home via a kimi.com subscription and Kimi CLI (sometimes running inside Zed, sometimes not). My favorite model by far. And it's just $20. I have to use a supposedly frontier model at work and I hate it.

Nice, thanks for sharing!

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#28

Post by justech »

I’ve been maining Kimi k2.6 through opencode go and openrouter for a week and I can say it’s the same experience as when I was maining Sonnet 3.5/4 late last year.

Not as good or as fast as Claude Code on Opus now but definitely enough for casual/hobby use. The best part is multiple choices for providers, if opencode gimps their service, I’ll switch

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#29

Post by jrecyclebin »

I absolutely love Kimi's personality - some of the things it says are so out there! And it's been great for very focused, iterative work.

Its weakness is that it seems to yak on-and-on when it needs to plan out something big or read through and make sense of how to use a niche piece of a complex library. To the point where it can fill up its 256k window - and rack up a build. (No cache.) I have had better experience with GLM 5.1 in those cases.

Anyone out there relate?

Re: Kimi K2.6 just beat Claude, GPT-5.5, and Gemini in a coding challenge

#30

Post by stldev »

bitmasher9 wrote: post #19
echelon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the future though. Open weights models that run on H200s provide far more opportunity to build products and real infrastructure around. You can always distill this for your little RTX at home. But models shaped for consumer hardware will never win wide adoption or remain competitive with frontier labs. This is something that _can_ compete. And it will both necessitate and inspire a new generation of open clou…

I don’t fully understand what open weights unlocks that cannot be accomplished via API from a product standpoint. Open weights is great if you want to do additional training, or if you need on-prem for security.

Or try to beat Anthropic's uptime.
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