DeepSeek R1 vs Kimi K2 Instruct
DeepSeek R1 and Kimi K2 Instruct match in llmrun Score, with values of 98.9 versus 100.0; neither fits 24 GB.
Model A · DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1684.5B · 40.1B active · 160K context · MIT · Jan 2025
Model B · Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 Instruct1026.4B · 32.9B active · 128K context · Other · Jul 2025
Choose DeepSeek R1 if you want…
Lighter on memory
414.6 vs 619.7 GB at Q4_K_M
Also does reasoning
Kimi K2 Instruct doesn't list it
More permissive license
MIT vs Other
Choose Kimi K2 Instruct if you want…
Newer release
Jul 2025 vs Jan 2025
On your hardware
Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.
8 GB
RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
DeepSeek R1
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
DeepSeek R1
Kimi K2 Instruct
Coding
DeepSeek R1
Kimi K2 Instruct
Agents
DeepSeek R1
no data
Kimi K2 Instruct
Science
DeepSeek R1
Kimi K2 Instruct
no data
Reasoning
DeepSeek R1
Kimi K2 Instruct
DeepSeek R1 · #50 of 92 open models · #47 of 88 that fit ≤512 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct · #46 of 92 open models · #43 of 88 that fit ≤640 GB
Benchmarks
5 shared boards: DeepSeek R1 leads 2, Kimi K2 Instruct leads 3 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
DeepSeek R1
1398.1#50/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Kimi K2 Instruct
1417.7#35/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
DeepSeek R1
84.0%#12/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Kimi K2 Instruct
81.0%#21/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
DeepSeek R1
56.9%#7/18 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025
Kimi K2 Instruct
59.1%#5/18 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2025
DeepSeek R1
30.9%#16/25 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025
Kimi K2 Instruct
26.3%#19/25 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2025
DeepSeek R1
36.5%#32/46 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025
Kimi K2 Instruct
39.4%#25/46 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2025
14 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
DeepSeek R1
69.4%#7/25 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025
Kimi K2 Instruct
61.1%#13/25 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2025
DeepSeek R1
60.0#5/26 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jan 2025
Kimi K2 Instruct
60.2#4/26 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2025
Only DeepSeek R1 (8)
- GPQA Diamond69.2%
- AIME 2024/202553.3%
- ARC-AGI-21.3%
- SciCode35.7%
- ARC-AGI15.8%
- MATH Level 593.0%
- CritPt1.1%
- BALROG34.9%
Only Kimi K2 Instruct (4)
- SWE-bench Verified65.4%
- Terminal-Bench27.8%
- SWE-bench Bash Only43.8%
- GSO-Bench4.9%
VRAM by quantization
Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.
Q2_K
DeepSeek R1
295 GB244.0 GB file
32K 294 GB · 128K 300 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
440 GB373.2 GB file
32K 439 GB · 128K 446 GB
Q3_K_S
DeepSeek R1
303 GB289.1 GB file
32K 302 GB · 128K 309 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
453 GB442.4 GB file
32K 452 GB · 128K 459 GB
Q3_K_M
DeepSeek R1
338 GB319.2 GB file
32K 336 GB · 128K 343 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
504 GB489.4 GB file
32K 503 GB · 128K 510 GB
Q4_0
DeepSeek R1
346 GB379.0 GB file
32K 345 GB · 128K 352 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
517 GB580.6 GB file
32K 516 GB · 128K 523 GB
Q4_K_M
DeepSeek R1
415 GB404.4 GB file
32K 413 GB · 128K 420 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
620 GB620.8 GB file
32K 618 GB · 128K 625 GB
Q5_K_M
DeepSeek R1
492 GB475.4 GB file
32K 490 GB · 128K 497 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
735 GB728.3 GB file
32K 734 GB · 128K 741 GB
Q6_K
DeepSeek R1
569 GB550.8 GB file
32K 567 GB · 128K 574 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
851 GB842.6 GB file
32K 849 GB · 128K 856 GB
Q8_0
DeepSeek R1
688 GB713.3 GB file
32K 687 GB · 128K 694 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
1030 GB1091.1 GB file
32K 1029 GB · 128K 1036 GB
13 more quants
IQ2_XXS
DeepSeek R1
192 GB196.2 GB file
32K 191 GB · 128K 198 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
286 GB328.8 GB file
32K 285 GB · 128K 292 GB
IQ2_XS
DeepSeek R1
209 GB195.1 GB file
32K 208 GB · 128K 215 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
not listed
IQ2_S
DeepSeek R1
218 GB197.0 GB file
32K 217 GB · 128K 223 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
not listed
IQ2_M
DeepSeek R1
235 GB217.4 GB file
32K 234 GB · 128K 241 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
350 GB347.1 GB file
32K 349 GB · 128K 356 GB
IQ3_XXS
DeepSeek R1
269 GB257.9 GB file
32K 268 GB · 128K 275 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
402 GB416.6 GB file
32K 400 GB · 128K 407 GB
IQ3_M
DeepSeek R1
312 GB292.1 GB file
32K 311 GB · 128K 318 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
not listed
Q3_K_L
DeepSeek R1
355 GB347.4 GB file
32K 353 GB · 128K 360 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
530 GB530.5 GB file
32K 529 GB · 128K 536 GB
IQ4_XS
DeepSeek R1
372 GB357.1 GB file
32K 371 GB · 128K 377 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
556 GB546.5 GB file
32K 554 GB · 128K 561 GB
IQ4_NL
DeepSeek R1
389 GB378.1 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
581 GB578.5 GB file
32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB
Q4_1
DeepSeek R1
389 GB419.9 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
581 GB642.5 GB file
32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB
Q4_K_S
DeepSeek R1
389 GB380.0 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
581 GB582.7 GB file
32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB
Q5_K_S
DeepSeek R1
474 GB461.8 GB file
32K 473 GB · 128K 480 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
710 GB706.6 GB file
32K 708 GB · 128K 715 GB
BF16
DeepSeek R1
1373 GB1342.3 GB file
32K 1372 GB · 128K 1378 GB
Kimi K2 Instruct
2057 GB2053.2 GB file
32K 2055 GB · 128K 2062 GB
DeepSeek R1
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-GGUF:Q4_K_MKimi K2 Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Kimi-K2-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | DeepSeek R1 | Kimi K2 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | DeepSeek | Moonshot AI |
| Parameters | 684.5B | 1026.4B |
| Active parameters | 40B per token | 33B per token |
| Architecture | DeepseekV3ForCausalLM | DeepseekV3ForCausalLM |
| Context | 160K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat, Reasoning, Function-calling | Chat, Function-calling |
| License | MIT | Other |
| Released | Jan 2025 | Jul 2025 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, DeepSeek R1 or Kimi K2 Instruct?
DeepSeek R1 and Kimi K2 Instruct match in llmrun Score, with values of 98.9 versus 100.0; neither fits 24 GB. Choose DeepSeek R1 for lighter on memory and also does reasoning; choose Kimi K2 Instruct for newer release.
Which needs less VRAM, DeepSeek R1 or Kimi K2 Instruct?
At Q4_K_M, DeepSeek R1 requires 414.6 GB while Kimi K2 Instruct needs 619.7 GB, making DeepSeek R1 the easier model to run on your local setup.
Can I run DeepSeek R1 or Kimi K2 Instruct on a 16 GB GPU?
DeepSeek R1 does not fit (smallest quant needs 189.7 GB); Kimi K2 Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 283.7 GB).
Which has a longer context window, DeepSeek R1 or Kimi K2 Instruct?
DeepSeek R1 supports 163,840 tokens and Kimi K2 Instruct supports 131,072 tokens.