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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K3.1 Pro

Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro are both current text models, from Anthropic and Moonshot Kimi. Both cost $2 per 1M input tokens. Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).

Longer context window
Kimi K3.1 Pro1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
Newer release
Kimi K3.1 ProOct 2026 against Jun 2026

Data verified October 28, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-28

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Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3.1 Pro
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$2$2
Price per 1M output tokens$10$10
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1461 Elo (#30 of 49)Not measured
GPQA Diamond90.5% (#25 of 40)Not measured
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)65.6% (#25 of 40)Not measured
SimpleQA Verified33.7% (#29 of 36)Not measured
LiveBench Overall74.85 points (#4 of 5)Not measured
Specs
ProviderAnthropicMoonshot Kimi
Release dateJune 30, 2026October 23, 2026
AccessAPI onlyAPI only
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Max output128,000 tokensNot reported
Inputtexttext, image, video
Outputtexttext

No independent benchmark has scored both models yet. Each rank counts the current models scored on that benchmark.

Scores:Arena · 2026-10-12Epoch AI · 2026-10-12LiveBench · 2026-06-25

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

Only Claude Sonnet 5 has a current Arena Text score: #30 of 49. Each bar is the share of current models it beats.

Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Claude Sonnet 5:#30of 49

1,461 Elo · ahead of 40%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

GPQA Diamond

Claude Sonnet 5:#25of 40

90.5% · ahead of 36%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Claude Sonnet 5:#25of 40

65.6% · ahead of 38%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

SimpleQA Verified

Claude Sonnet 5:#29of 36

33.7% · ahead of 20%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

LiveBench Overall

Claude Sonnet 5:#4of 5

74.9 · ahead of 25%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Claude Sonnet 5:#28of 51

$2 · cheaper than 24%

Kimi K3.1 Pro:#28of 51

$2 · cheaper than 24%

Price per 1M output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5:#33of 51

$10 · cheaper than 26%

Kimi K3.1 Pro:#33of 51

$10 · cheaper than 26%

Context window

Claude Sonnet 5:#28of 66

1M tokens · longer than 22%

Kimi K3.1 Pro:#11of 66

1.05M tokens · longer than 65%

Scores fromArena · 2026-10-12Epoch AI · 2026-10-12LiveBench · 2026-06-25

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 8, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1,461 at $4 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.

Quality against priceArena Text score against price for 41 text models, Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro marked.1,2501,3001,3501,4001,4501,5001,550$0.30$1$3$10MOST ATTRACTIVE QUADRANTMedian price $3Median 1,475Blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scaleArena Text (Elo)Claude Sonnet 5
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 41 text models, Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro marked.
ModelProviderBlended price per 1M tokensArena Text (Elo)
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle$41,525
Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic$81,507
Claude Fable 5Anthropic$201,504
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$201,501
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$1.501,497
Muse Spark 1.3Meta$21,494
Claude Opus 5Anthropic$101,490
Kimi K3Moonshot Kimi$61,488
Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle$1.501,486
GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$81,485
GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$41,484
Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba Qwen$31,483
GPT-5.5OpenAI$111,482
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle$31,482
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic$101,481
MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi MiMo$0.541,480
GLM-5.3Z.ai$2.151,478
Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$41,476
GPT-5.4OpenAI$5.631,475
GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$201,475
DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek$0.521,475
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai$0.241,475
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle$1.131,473
Grok 4.20xAI$1.561,472
GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$4.501,466
Grok 4.5xAI$31,466
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek$1.981,465
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$41,461
GPT-6 SolOpenAI$41,456
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle$0.851,455
Grok 4.6xAI$31,454
GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.451,452
MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi MiMo$0.181,451
GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.201,443
Grok 4.7xAI$31,443
Grok 4.3xAI$1.561,442
Mistral Large 4Mistral AI$2.061,429
GPT-4.1OpenAI$3.501,415
Solar Pro 4Upstage$0.521,386
GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI$0.701,383
GPT-4.1 nanoOpenAI$0.181,322

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

At each provider's listed rates.

What Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Procost for the same work, at each provider's listed rates.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    The same price

    Claude Sonnet 5
    $40
    Kimi K3.1 Pro
    $40

  • The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached

    The same price

    Claude Sonnet 5
    $23.80
    Kimi K3.1 Pro
    $23.80
Workload or rateClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3.1 Pro
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$40$40
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$23.80$23.80
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.20$0.20
1M input tokens, 5-minute cache writeNot listed$2
1M input tokens, 1-hour cache writeNot listed$4
1M input tokens, Highspeed endpointNot listed$4
1M output tokens, Highspeed endpointNot listed$20

Verdict

When to choose each

Claude Sonnet 5

Where it leads

No measured lead over Kimi K3.1 Pro in this data.

Best for

  • Agentic coding evaluations with current introductory API pricing

Watch out for

  • The launch price is introductory through 2026-08-31; refresh pricing before evaluating workloads after that date
Full Claude Sonnet 5 profile

Kimi K3.1 Pro

Where it leads

  • Accepts image and video input

Best for

  • Long-horizon coding and agent work at mid-tier prices
  • Long documents, images and video in one 1M-token context

Watch out for

  • Thinking is always on: reasoning effort runs low, high or max, and max is the default
  • The Highspeed endpoint, two to three times faster by Moonshot's account, costs twice as much at $4 input and $20 output per 1M tokens
  • Weights are promised by 4 November 2026 and were not out when this record was made; no independent benchmark score is recorded here yet
Full Kimi K3.1 Pro profile

From benchmark to production

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FAQ

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K3.1 Pro FAQ

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Both cost $2 per 1M input tokens. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $40 and Kimi K3.1 Pro $40 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Claude Sonnet 5 charges $0.20 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and Kimi K3.1 Pro $0.20, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $23.80 and Kimi K3.1 Pro $23.80.

Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).

How do Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro differ in features?

Claude Sonnet 5 takes text input; Kimi K3.1 Pro takes text, image and video.

Further reading

More on Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro

Articles on Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.

  • A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
  • Routing between models by cost and difficulty
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