DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus vs Kimi K2 Thinking
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus and Kimi K2 Thinking match in llmrun Score, with values of 107.7 versus 108.8; neither fits 24 GB.
Model A · DeepSeek
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus684.5B · 40.1B active · 160K context · MIT · Sep 2025
Model B · Moonshot AI
Kimi K2 Thinking1026.4B · 32.9B active · 256K context · Other · Nov 2025
Choose DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus if you want…
Lighter on memory
414.6 vs 619.7 GB at Q4_K_M
More permissive license
MIT vs Other
Choose Kimi K2 Thinking if you want…
Longer context window
256K vs 160K tokens
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 V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 283.7 GB
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
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 V3.1 Terminus
Kimi K2 Thinking
Coding
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Kimi K2 Thinking
Agents
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
no data
Kimi K2 Thinking
Science
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Kimi K2 Thinking
no data
Reasoning
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Kimi K2 Thinking
no data
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus · #32 of 92 open models · #29 of 88 that fit ≤512 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking · #28 of 92 open models · #25 of 88 that fit ≤640 GB
Benchmarks
1 shared board: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus leads 0, Kimi K2 Thinking leads 1 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
1416.0#38/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Kimi K2 Thinking
1430.1#25/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
14 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
745.2#19/42 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Sep 2025
Kimi K2 Thinking
597.5#27/42 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Nov 2025
Only Kimi K2 Thinking (9)
- SWE-bench Verified63.4%
- GPQA Diamond84.2%
- AIME 2024/202583.1%
- Terminal-Bench35.7%
- LMArena WebDev1322.1
- SWE-bench Bash Only63.4%
- WeirdML42.8%
- Chess Puzzles20.0%
- CL-bench17.6%
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 V3.1 Terminus
295 GB245.7 GB file
32K 294 GB · 128K 300 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
440 GB374.1 GB file
32K 439 GB · 128K 446 GB
Q3_K_S
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
303 GB290.4 GB file
32K 302 GB · 128K 309 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
453 GB443.2 GB file
32K 452 GB · 128K 459 GB
Q3_K_M
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
338 GB320.5 GB file
32K 336 GB · 128K 343 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
504 GB490.0 GB file
32K 503 GB · 128K 510 GB
Q4_0
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
346 GB380.1 GB file
32K 345 GB · 128K 352 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
517 GB581.2 GB file
32K 516 GB · 128K 523 GB
Q4_K_M
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
415 GB405.4 GB file
32K 413 GB · 128K 420 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
620 GB621.2 GB file
32K 618 GB · 128K 625 GB
Q5_K_M
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
492 GB476.2 GB file
32K 490 GB · 128K 497 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
735 GB728.7 GB file
32K 734 GB · 128K 741 GB
Q6_K
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
569 GB551.3 GB file
32K 567 GB · 128K 574 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
851 GB842.9 GB file
32K 849 GB · 128K 856 GB
Q8_0
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
688 GB713.3 GB file
32K 687 GB · 128K 694 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
1030 GB1091.1 GB file
32K 1029 GB · 128K 1036 GB
14 more quants
IQ2_XXS
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
192 GB217.1 GB file
32K 191 GB · 128K 198 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
286 GB335.2 GB file
32K 285 GB · 128K 292 GB
IQ2_XS
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
209 GB188.4 GB file
32K 208 GB · 128K 215 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
312 GB283.4 GB file
32K 311 GB · 128K 317 GB
IQ2_S
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
218 GB189.6 GB file
32K 217 GB · 128K 223 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
325 GB284.1 GB file
32K 323 GB · 128K 330 GB
IQ2_M
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
235 GB228.9 GB file
32K 234 GB · 128K 241 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
350 GB353.6 GB file
32K 349 GB · 128K 356 GB
IQ3_XXS
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
269 GB273.5 GB file
32K 268 GB · 128K 275 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
402 GB421.7 GB file
32K 400 GB · 128K 407 GB
IQ3_XS
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
286 GB277.1 GB file
32K 285 GB · 128K 292 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
427 GB420.7 GB file
32K 426 GB · 128K 433 GB
IQ3_M
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
312 GB307.9 GB file
32K 311 GB · 128K 318 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
466 GB467.5 GB file
32K 464 GB · 128K 471 GB
Q3_K_L
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
355 GB319.7 GB file
32K 353 GB · 128K 360 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
530 GB487.7 GB file
32K 529 GB · 128K 536 GB
IQ4_XS
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
372 GB358.3 GB file
32K 371 GB · 128K 377 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
556 GB547.2 GB file
32K 554 GB · 128K 561 GB
IQ4_NL
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
389 GB379.1 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
581 GB579.1 GB file
32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB
Q4_1
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
389 GB420.8 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
581 GB642.9 GB file
32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB
Q4_K_S
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
389 GB381.1 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
581 GB583.3 GB file
32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB
Q5_K_S
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
475 GB462.6 GB file
32K 473 GB · 128K 480 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
710 GB707.0 GB file
32K 708 GB · 128K 715 GB
BF16
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
1373 GB1342.3 GB file
32K 1372 GB · 128K 1379 GB
Kimi K2 Thinking
2057 GB2053.2 GB file
32K 2055 GB · 128K 2062 GB
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus-GGUF:Q4_K_MKimi K2 Thinking
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Kimi-K2-Thinking-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Kimi K2 Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | DeepSeek | Moonshot AI |
| Parameters | 684.5B | 1026.4B |
| Active parameters | 40B per token | 33B per token |
| Architecture | DeepseekV3ForCausalLM | DeepseekV3ForCausalLM |
| Context | 160K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat, Function-calling | Chat, Function-calling |
| License | MIT | Other |
| Released | Sep 2025 | Nov 2025 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Kimi K2 Thinking?
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus and Kimi K2 Thinking match in llmrun Score, with values of 107.7 versus 108.8; neither fits 24 GB. Choose DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus for lighter on memory and more permissive license; choose Kimi K2 Thinking for longer context window.
Which needs less VRAM, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Kimi K2 Thinking?
At Q4_K_M, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus requires 414.6 GB while Kimi K2 Thinking needs 619.7 GB, making DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus the easier model to run on your local setup.
Can I run DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Kimi K2 Thinking on a 16 GB GPU?
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus does not fit (smallest quant needs 189.7 GB); Kimi K2 Thinking does not fit (smallest quant needs 283.7 GB).
Which has a longer context window, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Kimi K2 Thinking?
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus supports 163,840 tokens and Kimi K2 Thinking supports 262,144 tokens.