To quantitatively compare the potential of various diffusion parameters obtained from mono-exponential, bi-exponential, and stretched-exponential diffusion-weighted imaging models and diffusion kurtosis imaging in characterizing breast lesions.Institutional review board approval and written informed consent were obtained. Both diffusion-weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging were performed in 94 patients with pathologically proven breast lesions by using a 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging unit. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was calculated from diffusion-weighted images by using a mono-exponential model. Diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*) and perfusion fraction (f) were calculated from diffusion-weighted images by using a bi-exponential model. A water molecular diffusion heterogeneity index (α) and distributed diffusion coefficient (DDC) were calculated from diffusion-weighted images by using a stretched-exponential model. Mean diffusivity (MD) and mean kurtosis (MK) was calculated from diffusion kurtosis images. Student t test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, receiver operating characteristic curves, and Spearman correlation were used for statistical analysis. ADC, D, DDC, and MD were significantly lower in malignant lesions than in benign lesions. (respectively; P < 0.05). α, D* and MK were significantly higher in malignant lesions than in benign lesions (respectively; P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between benign and malignant breast lesions of f (P =0.419). Both MD (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.967) and MK (AUC = 0.960) had significantly greater AUC values than D* (AUC = 0.677), α (AUC = 0.692), and f (AUC = 0.522) in the differentiation of benign and malignant lesions (P < 0.05). In patients with invasive breast cancer, kurtosis and water molecular diffusion heterogeneity index was positively correlated with expression of the Ki-67 protein (r = 0.55 and 0.43). DKI model may provide additional information and improve the characterizing of breast lesions compared with conventional diffusion parameters. The kurtosis and water molecular diffusion heterogeneity index derived from DKI and stretched Exponential DWI may be helpful for the preoperative differentiation of proliferative activity of breast cancer.