Kimi K2.6 vs Kimi K3
Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost
Data updated on November 14, 2026· 230 models
Kimi K2.6 is Moonshot AI's next-generation multimodal model, designed for long-horizon coding, coding-driven UI/UX generation, and multi-agent orchestration.
- Reasoning estimated
- Speed estimated
- Input
- Output
- Context
- 262 K tokens
- Max output
- 236 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- $0.650
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$3.41
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- $0.150
- Batch (input / output)
- —
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- 04/21/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- 2025-01
- API id
- moonshotai/kimi-k2.6
Kimi K3 is a 2.8T parameter open-weight multimodal reasoning model from Moonshot AI.
- Reasoning estimated
- Speed estimated
- Input
- Output
- Context
- ▲1 M tokens
- Max output
- ▲944 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$0.192
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- $16.00
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- $0.182
- Batch (input / output)
- $2.28 / $11.40
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- ▲07/16/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- —
- API id
- moonshotai/kimi-k3
Which is the better API choice: Kimi K2.6 vs Kimi K3?
- Kimi K3: cheapest input (70% less than Kimi K2.6)
- Kimi K2.6: cheapest output
- Kimi K3: largest context (1 M)
- Kimi K3: the newest (07/16/2026)
Pricing is split: Kimi K3 wins on input and Kimi K2.6 wins on output. Kimi K3 accepts more context (1 M). Kimi K3 offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.
What would your product cost?
Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.
With Kimi K2.6 you save $43.49 a month versus Kimi K3 (65% less).
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Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model
Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.
Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)
- 1Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic$0.008
- 2Kimi K3 Moonshot$0.015
- 3Kimi K2.6 Moonshot$0.049
- 4Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
- 5Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
- 6Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
- 7Claude Fable 5.2 Anthropic$0.608
- 8Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
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See allFrequently asked questions
Which is the better API choice: Kimi K2.6 vs Kimi K3?
Pricing is split: Kimi K3 wins on input and Kimi K2.6 wins on output. Kimi K3 accepts more context (1 M). Kimi K3 offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.
Which is cheaper: Kimi K2.6 and Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 is cheaper: $0.192 per million input tokens and $16.00 per million output tokens, versus $0.650 / $3.41 for Kimi K2.6.
Which has more context: Kimi K2.6 and Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 accepts 1 M tokens of context; Kimi K2.6 accepts 262 K.
Which is newer: Kimi K2.6 and Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 was released on 07/16/2026; Kimi K2.6 on 04/21/2026.
What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Kimi K2.6 and Kimi K3?
With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Kimi K2.6: $23.39; Kimi K3: $66.88 a month, at list price.
Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?
From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.
What does price per million tokens mean?
It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.
Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.