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Mistral Small vs Kimi K2 Thinking

Mistral Mistral Small vs Moonshot AI Kimi K2 Thinking — side-by-side specs.

Mistral
Mistral Small
Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 Thinking
Overview
CompanyMistralMoonshot AI
Release dateFeb 26 2024Nov 6 2025
Model type
Open sourceNoYes
Specifications
Parameters
1T
Context window
256k
Benchmarks
Coding
SWE-Bench Verified
71.3%
Timeline
Release gapMistral Small shipped 619 days before Kimi K2 Thinking

Which is better: Mistral Small or Kimi K2 Thinking?

Mistral Small and Kimi K2 Thinking don't publish scores on any of the same benchmarks, so there's no direct head-to-head comparison. Mistral Small shipped 619 days before Kimi K2 Thinking, so benchmark comparisons should account for the intervening progress.

Kimi K2 Thinking is an open-source / open-weight model; Mistral Small is proprietary.

Direct benchmark comparisons are unavailable — Mistral Small and Kimi K2 Thinking don't publish scores on any of the same benchmarks.

Frequently asked questions

When was Mistral Small released?
Mistral Small was released by Mistral on Feb 26 2024.
When was Kimi K2 Thinking released?
Kimi K2 Thinking was released by Moonshot AI on Nov 6 2025.
Is Mistral Small or Kimi K2 Thinking open source?
Kimi K2 Thinking is an open-source / open-weight model released by Moonshot AI. Mistral Small is a proprietary model released by Mistral.

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