Kimi K1.5 Chat vs Nova Pro Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Kimi K1.5 Chat and Nova Pro Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Nova Pro Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Kimi K1.5 Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Kimi K1.5 Chat
Kimi K1.5 Chat is a multimodal model from Moonshot AI. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.11 per million input tokens and $26.59 per million output tokens, and averages 80.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.11 / 1M
- Output
- $26.59 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.2
- Open weights
- Yes
Nova Pro Max
Nova Pro Max is a multimodal model from Amazon. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $14.05 per million input tokens and $71.59 per million output tokens, and averages 81.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $14.05 / 1M
- Output
- $71.59 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 81.2
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Kimi K1.5 Chat | Nova Pro Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.11 | $14.05 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $26.59 | $71.59 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 1,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 32,768 | 16,384 | A |
| Average score | 80.2 | 81.2 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1422.6 | 1423.2 | B |
| Open weights | Yes | No | A |
Benchmark comparison
Kimi K1.5 Chat wins 3, Nova Pro Max wins 9, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Kimi K1.5 Chat | Nova Pro Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 81.3 | 84.2 | 2.9 | Nova Pro Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.1 | 78.3 | 0.2 | Nova Pro Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 69.9 | 67.4 | 2.5 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| HumanEval | 84.3 | 87.5 | 3.2 | Nova Pro Max |
| MATH-500 | 81.7 | 83.8 | 2.1 | Nova Pro Max |
| AIME 2025 | 81.4 | 79.3 | 2.1 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| LiveCodeBench | 75.7 | 77.0 | 1.3 | Nova Pro Max |
| IFEval | 88.2 | 86.4 | 1.8 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| TruthfulQA | 80.3 | 83.4 | 3.1 | Nova Pro Max |
| HellaSwag | 87.2 | 88.9 | 1.7 | Nova Pro Max |
| MMMU | 73.6 | 77.2 | 3.6 | Nova Pro Max |
| Arena Elo | 1422.6 | 1423.2 | 0.6 | Nova Pro Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Kimi K1.5 Chat costs about $10.48 per million tokens and Nova Pro Max costs about $28.44. Kimi K1.5 Chat is roughly 63% cheaper than Nova Pro Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Nova Pro Max has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for Kimi K1.5 Chat. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Kimi K1.5 Chat wins 3, Nova Pro Max wins 9, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Nova Pro Max leads Kimi K1.5 Chat by 1.0 points (81.2 versus 80.2).
The price picture favours Kimi K1.5 Chat. The context picture favours Nova Pro Max. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Nova Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and Kimi K1.5 Chat for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Kimi K1.5 Chat if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning.
Choose Nova Pro Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Kimi K1.5 Chat better than Nova Pro Max?
On the index average, Nova Pro Max leads Kimi K1.5 Chat by 1.0 points (81.2 versus 80.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Kimi K1.5 Chat wins 3 benchmarks, Nova Pro Max wins 9.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K1.5 Chat or Nova Pro Max?
Kimi K1.5 Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.48 per million tokens, versus $28.44 for Nova Pro Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Nova Pro Max has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Kimi K1.5 Chat has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Kimi K1.5 Chat is open weights; Nova Pro Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Nova Pro Max for quality-sensitive work and Kimi K1.5 Chat for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.