Kimi K2 Thinking vs GLM 5.3

GLM 5.3 leads llmrun Score 130.1 to 108.6; neither fits 24 GB.

Model A · Moonshot AI

Kimi K2 Thinking

108.6llmrun Score

1026.4B · 32.9B active · 256K context · Other · Nov 2025

ChatFunctions

Model B · Z.ai

GLM 5.3

130.1llmrun Score

753.3B · 41.8B active · 1M context · Other · Aug 2026

ChatFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose GLM 5.3 if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
130.1 vs 108.6
Stronger at coding
130.1 vs 103.3
Stronger at agents
133.4 vs 107.8
Ahead on the benchmarks
4 of 4 shared boards
Lighter on memory
456.2 vs 619.7 GB at Q4_K_M
Longer context window
1M vs 256K tokens

Kimi K2 Thinking: no clear edge over GLM 5.3 in the data we have.

On your hardware

Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.

MemoryKimi K2 ThinkingGLM 5.3

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Kimi K2 Thinking

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 283.7 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).

llmrun Score

with its 90% range · bars share one scale

Kimi K2 Thinking GLM 5.3

Overall

Kimi K2 Thinking

108.6105–112

GLM 5.3

130.1128–132

Coding

Kimi K2 Thinking

103.394–112

GLM 5.3

130.1124–136

Agents

Kimi K2 Thinking

107.8103–113

GLM 5.3

133.4130–137

Math

Kimi K2 Thinking

no data

GLM 5.3

128.6126–131

Science

Kimi K2 Thinking

no data

GLM 5.3

130.8119–143

Reasoning

Kimi K2 Thinking

no data

GLM 5.3

130.1124–136

Kimi K2 Thinking · #31 of 100 open models · #28 of 96 that fit ≤640 GB

GLM 5.3 · #4 of 100 open models · #3 of 96 that fit ≤512 GB

Benchmarks

4 shared boards: Kimi K2 Thinking leads 0, GLM 5.3 leads 4 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardKimi K2 ThinkingGLM 5.3

GPQA Diamond

Kimi K2 Thinking

84.2%#22/98 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Nov 2025

GLM 5.3

90.9%#7/98 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

AIME 2024/2025

Kimi K2 Thinking

83.1%#23/86 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Nov 2025

GLM 5.3

91.1%#13/86 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

WeirdML

Kimi K2 Thinking

42.8%#17/46 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Nov 2025

GLM 5.3

75.4%#2/46 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

ALE-Bench

Kimi K2 Thinking

597.5#28/43 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Nov 2025

GLM 5.3

1317.4#3/43 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

33 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)

LMArena Text

Kimi K2 Thinking

1430.1#25/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

GLM 5.3

1478.5#3/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

LMArena WebDev

Kimi K2 Thinking

1322.1#42/52 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

GLM 5.3

1621.1#6/52 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Only Kimi K2 Thinking (5)

Only GLM 5.3 (26)

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

QuantKimi K2 ThinkingGLM 5.3

Q2_K

Kimi K2 Thinking

440 GB374.1 GB file

32K 439 GB · 128K 446 GB

GLM 5.3

324 GB~320.2 GB file

32K 323 GB · 128K 332 GB

Q3_K_S

Kimi K2 Thinking

453 GB443.2 GB file

32K 452 GB · 128K 459 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

Q3_K_M

Kimi K2 Thinking

504 GB490.0 GB file

32K 503 GB · 128K 510 GB

GLM 5.3

371 GB~367.3 GB file

32K 370 GB · 128K 379 GB

Q4_0

Kimi K2 Thinking

517 GB581.2 GB file

32K 516 GB · 128K 523 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

Q4_K_M

Kimi K2 Thinking

620 GB621.2 GB file

32K 618 GB · 128K 625 GB

GLM 5.3

456 GB~452.0 GB file

32K 455 GB · 128K 464 GB

Q5_K_M

Kimi K2 Thinking

735 GB728.7 GB file

32K 734 GB · 128K 741 GB

GLM 5.3

541 GB~536.8 GB file

32K 540 GB · 128K 549 GB

Q6_K

Kimi K2 Thinking

851 GB842.9 GB file

32K 849 GB · 128K 856 GB

GLM 5.3

626 GB~621.5 GB file

32K 625 GB · 128K 634 GB

Q8_0

Kimi K2 Thinking

1030 GB1091.1 GB file

32K 1029 GB · 128K 1036 GB

GLM 5.3

758 GB801.4 GB file

32K 757 GB · 128K 765 GB

14 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Kimi K2 Thinking

286 GB335.2 GB file

32K 285 GB · 128K 292 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

IQ2_XS

Kimi K2 Thinking

312 GB283.4 GB file

32K 311 GB · 128K 317 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

IQ2_S

Kimi K2 Thinking

325 GB284.1 GB file

32K 323 GB · 128K 330 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

IQ2_M

Kimi K2 Thinking

350 GB353.6 GB file

32K 349 GB · 128K 356 GB

GLM 5.3

258 GB238.6 GB file

32K 257 GB · 128K 266 GB

IQ3_XXS

Kimi K2 Thinking

402 GB421.7 GB file

32K 400 GB · 128K 407 GB

GLM 5.3

296 GB281.7 GB file

32K 295 GB · 128K 304 GB

IQ3_XS

Kimi K2 Thinking

427 GB420.7 GB file

32K 426 GB · 128K 433 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

IQ3_M

Kimi K2 Thinking

466 GB467.5 GB file

32K 464 GB · 128K 471 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

Q3_K_L

Kimi K2 Thinking

530 GB487.7 GB file

32K 529 GB · 128K 536 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

IQ4_XS

Kimi K2 Thinking

556 GB547.2 GB file

32K 554 GB · 128K 561 GB

GLM 5.3

409 GB365.3 GB file

32K 408 GB · 128K 417 GB

IQ4_NL

Kimi K2 Thinking

581 GB579.1 GB file

32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

Q4_1

Kimi K2 Thinking

581 GB642.9 GB file

32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

Q4_K_S

Kimi K2 Thinking

581 GB583.3 GB file

32K 580 GB · 128K 587 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

Q5_K_S

Kimi K2 Thinking

710 GB707.0 GB file

32K 708 GB · 128K 715 GB

GLM 5.3

not listed

BF16

Kimi K2 Thinking

2057 GB2053.2 GB file

32K 2055 GB · 128K 2062 GB

GLM 5.3

1511 GB1508.0 GB file

32K 1510 GB · 128K 1519 GB

How to run each

Kimi K2 Thinking

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Kimi-K2-Thinking-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Kimi K2 Thinking →

GLM 5.3

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/GLM-5.3-GGUF

All ways to run GLM 5.3 →

Specifications

Specifications of Kimi K2 Thinking and GLM 5.3
Spec	Kimi K2 Thinking	GLM 5.3
Publisher	Moonshot AI	Z.ai
Parameters	1026.4B	753.3B
Active parameters	33B per token	42B per token
Architecture	DeepseekV3ForCausalLM	GlmMoeDsaForCausalLM
Context	256K tokens	1M tokens
Modalities	Chat, Function-calling	Chat, Function-calling
License	Other	Other
Released	Nov 2025	Aug 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Kimi K2 Thinking or GLM 5.3?

GLM 5.3 leads llmrun Score 130.1 to 108.6; neither fits 24 GB. Choose GLM 5.3 for higher llmrun Score and stronger at coding.

Which needs less VRAM, Kimi K2 Thinking or GLM 5.3?

At Q4_K_M, Kimi K2 Thinking requires 619.7 GB while GLM 5.3 needs 456.2 GB, making GLM 5.3 the easier model to run on your local setup.

Can I run Kimi K2 Thinking or GLM 5.3 on a 16 GB GPU?

Kimi K2 Thinking does not fit (smallest quant needs 283.7 GB); GLM 5.3 does not fit (smallest quant needs 256 GB).

Which has a longer context window, Kimi K2 Thinking or GLM 5.3?

Kimi K2 Thinking supports 262,144 tokens and GLM 5.3 supports 1,048,576 tokens.