A bar fills towards the model's side; yellow is a clear difference, grey falls within the margin of measurement.
| Criterion | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Quality (Elo)Quality from blind duels on LMArena: users choose between two anonymous answers. A difference of about 20 points is noticeable, a few points is noise. How we measure | 1487 | – |
| Editorial scoreOur own assessment on 10 of suitability for professional work, price and privacy. This is a judgement, not a measurement; that is why it always sits alongside the Elo. How we measure | 7,6 / 10 | 8,0 / 10 |
| Code EloThe same blind duels on LMArena, but only with programming tasks. How we measure | 1687 | – |
| API price in, per 1M | $2 | $3 |
| API price out, per 1M | $10 | $15 |
| Entry price (subscription) | $19 / month | $20 / month |
| Business | on request | $40 / seat / month (Enterprise Pro) |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 200K tokens |
| Modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
| EU hosting | No | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| No training (business) | No | No |
| GDPR profileOur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data. For a professional tool: whether the data is stored in the EU, whether there is a certification or GDPR guarantee, and whether the provider is based in the Netherlands or the EU. For a general model: EU hosting, no training on your data and self-hosting. From Strong to Unknown; Caution only for a model with a documented problem. How we measure | Caution | Unknown |
Source: LMArena, OpenRouter · retrieved 9 November 2026
Choose Kimi if…
- self-hosting your flagship K3 (2.8T parameters, 1M context) and open-weight K2.6 matters to you
- being multimodal, with text, image and video in one architecture, matters to you
- privacy and GDPR weigh heavily
- price is a decisive factor
Choose Perplexity if…
- you value answers with source citations based on live web information
- you value access to multiple frontier models within one subscription
Frequently asked questions
By field
Which is better: Kimi or Perplexity?
On combined quality (LMArena Elo plus our editorial score), Kimi comes out higher, but the right choice depends on your field and requirements: Perplexity may suit you better on price or privacy. See the table above.
Which is better for privacy and GDPR: Kimi or Perplexity?
Kimi scores stronger here (EU hosting, on-premise and no training on your data). Kimi: The international service is operated by Moonshot AI Pte. Ltd. (Singapore); according to the privacy policy, data is stored on servers in Singapore and content may be used to improve the service. The K2 models are open-weight and can be self-hosted.
Which is cheaper: Kimi or Perplexity?
Kimi has the lowest entry price. Always check current prices, as they change often.
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