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Claude 2.1 vs Kimi Linear

Anthropic Claude 2.1 vs Moonshot AI Kimi Linear — side-by-side specs.

Anthropic
Claude 2.1
Moonshot AI
Kimi Linear
Overview
CompanyAnthropicMoonshot AI
Release dateNov 21 2023Oct 2025
Model type
Open sourceNoYes
Specifications
Parameters
48B
Context window
Benchmarks
Science reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Software engineering
SWE-Bench Verified
Multimodal understanding
MMMU
Timeline
Release gapClaude 2.1 shipped 680 days before Kimi Linear

Which is better: Claude 2.1 or Kimi Linear?

Claude 2.1 and Kimi Linear do not have directly comparable benchmark scores published on GPQA Diamond, SWE-Bench Verified, or MMMU. Claude 2.1 shipped 680 days before Kimi Linear, so benchmark comparisons should account for the intervening progress.

Kimi Linear is an open-source / open-weight model; Claude 2.1 is proprietary.

Direct benchmark comparisons are unavailable — at least one of these models has not published scores on GPQA Diamond, SWE-Bench Verified, or MMMU.

Frequently asked questions

When was Claude 2.1 released?
Claude 2.1 was released by Anthropic on Nov 21 2023.
When was Kimi Linear released?
Kimi Linear was released by Moonshot AI on Oct 2025.
Is Claude 2.1 or Kimi Linear open source?
Kimi Linear is an open-source / open-weight model released by Moonshot AI. Claude 2.1 is a proprietary model released by Anthropic.

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