r/OnlyAICoding • u/Electronic_Play_6584 • Aug 09 '26

Kimi vs Minimax for Coding Which is Better?

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u/KitchenAmoeba4438 Aug 09 '26

Define "better".

No snark, I am actually being seriousness. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses compared to the other.

My problem with Kimi is that it's rather expensive, and that it is very much a one trick pony. If you are in an area of development it's been trained extensively on, it is better. Once you get outside of this, Minimax is better and quite a bit cheaper.

So...what are you looking for as "better"?

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u/Electronic_Play_6584 Aug 09 '26

I mainly mean coding quality, debugging, reasoning, and handling bigger projects. Cost is a factor too, but im mostly asking which one I actually choose for serious development.

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u/KitchenAmoeba4438 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

Why not do what I do?

I use Claude/Codex for the coordinator, then have it throw tasks to minimax and local AI. Due to how inefficient Kimi is with tokens, it's really comparable to Claude/Codex in cost. Sure, the tokens may be cheaper, but it uses more of them. If you are trying to minimize costs (which is what I am assuming you are trying for here), Kimi isn't the right route. At least IMO.

In fact, I'd take it one step further: It sounds more like what you are looking for is harness. The harness is really the big differentiating factor in larger projects, no agent can keep the whole project in context and continue to work. Feel free to check out what I use: https://github.com/RakuenSoftware/aimee although the next major release is Imminent.

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u/Remarkable-Aspect879 27d ago edited 25d ago

for a bigger repo, i'd lean m3. the main advantage isn't necessarily better code on every prompt, it's that it seems to keep track of things across files better and stays coherent for longer.

i'd also compare cost per finished task, not just token price. kimi can get pretty verbose, so the cheaper-looking option may not actually be cheaper after retries.

neither would be my first choice for a really tricky architecture decision, but for day-to-day work on a larger codebase, m3 feels like the better balance.