kimi-k2-0905-preview vs sonar-pro

Capability for the money

kimi-k2-0905-preview is 5.6× cheaper than sonar-pro and scores higher on every benchmark they share — there is no case for paying more here.

1. Coding

   writing and fixing code

   LiveCodeBench
   kimi-k2-0905-preview61.0%

   sonar-pro27.5%

   kimi-k2-0905-preview +33.5

2. Hard reasoning

   graduate-level science and multi-step analysis

   GPQA Diamond
   kimi-k2-0905-preview76.7%

   sonar-pro57.8%

   kimi-k2-0905-preview +18.9

Averaged over the benchmarks both models sat, kimi-k2-0905-preview returns 64.0 points of pass rate per dollar of blended price against 7.1 — the ratio that decides whether the dearer model earns its rate.

Each figure is a pass rate: the share of that test set the model answered correctly, measured by a third party rather than self-reported by the lab. Rows are different tests of different difficulty, so compare a model against the other model, not one row against the next. No published following instructions or tool use score for one of these models, so those lenses are omitted. And a benchmark is not your workload — it narrows the shortlist, it does not pick for you.