Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K3
Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3 measured on species-specific knowledge, on the same veterinary examination items, run on VetEval's own infrastructure at fixed decoding settings and scored by a panel that never grades its own model.
Kimi K3 scores 8.9 points above Claude Sonnet 5 on Species-Specific Knowledge, but their confidence intervals overlap, on this evidence the two cannot be separated.
Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3 carry a confirmed safety cap, which limits the Index regardless of how the clinical categories scored.
| Measure | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic · proprietary | Kimi K3Moonshot AI · proprietary |
|---|---|---|
| VetEval Index | 22.321.4–23.1 | 27.1, best in this row26.3–27.8 |
| Rank | 5–7shared rank | 1–3shared rank |
| Clinical Diagnosis & Differential | 73.268.1–78.2 | 87.7, best in this row84.3–91.1 |
| Pharmacology & Dosing | 68.262.6–73.8 | 78.8, best in this row74.1–83.4 |
| Species-Specific Knowledge | 62.054.6–69.4 | 71.0, best in this row64.2–77.7 |
| Triage & Emergency | 76.670.1–83.0 | 85.1, best in this row79.9–90.3 |
| Preventive / Public Health / Zoonoses | 57.748.4–67.0 | 76.9, best in this row70.4–83.5 |
| Communication & Professionalism | 80.171.5–88.6 | 84.4, best in this row76.0–92.9 |
| Safety gate | Capped×0.40 | Capped×0.40 |
| Cost per 1,000 items | $2.48, best in this rowlist price at run time | $11.06list price at run time |
| Median time per question | 1.6s, best in this rowexcluding retries | 3.9sexcluding retries |
| Weights | ProprietaryAnthropic | ProprietaryMoonshot AI |
A shaded cell is the best value in its row, and the bar shows the score out of 100. The line under the Index and each category is the 95% confidence interval, where two intervals overlap, the ordering is not something this measurement establishes. Cost is list price at the time of the run and is not part of the Index.
What this comparison does not tell you
- These scores describe performance on veterinary examination items. They are not a certification, and no result here licenses a model for clinical use.
- The Index weights categories for a general caseload. Every per-category score is published above so you can weigh them for yours instead, or compare on a single category using the control above.
- Cost and latency are measured at run time and move separately from the scores. A model that is cheaper today may not be next month.
Related comparisons
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- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.3
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Minimax M3
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.6
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K3 by category
Scope. VetEval measures model performance on veterinary examination items. It is not clinical advice, and no result here licenses a model for clinical use.