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Van Data Team

text model comparison

Kimi K3 vs Kimi K3.1 Pro

Kimi K3 and Kimi K3.1 Pro are both current text models, from Moonshot Kimi. Kimi K3.1 Pro is 33% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Kimi K3, $2 vs $3. Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context.

Lower price per 1M input tokens
Kimi K3.1 Pro$2 against $3
Newer release
Kimi K3.1 ProOct 2026 against Jul 2026

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

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Side by side

Kimi K3 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.

FactKimi K3Kimi K3.1 Pro
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$3$2 (better)
Price per 1M output tokens$15$10 (better)
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1488 Elo (#8 of 49)Not measured
GPQA Diamond93.1% (#15 of 40)Not measured
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)72.2% (#19 of 40)Not measured
SimpleQA Verified50.6% (#19 of 36)Not measured
Specs
ProviderMoonshot KimiMoonshot Kimi
Release dateJuly 16, 2026October 23, 2026
AccessAPI and open weightsAPI only
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Max outputNot reportedNot reported
Inputtext, imagetext, 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 · 2026-10-12

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Kimi K3 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 Kimi K3 has a current Arena Text score: #8 of 49. Each bar is the share of current models it beats.

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

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

Kimi K3:#8of 49

1,488 Elo · ahead of 85%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

GPQA Diamond

Kimi K3:#15of 40

93.1% · ahead of 64%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Kimi K3:#19of 40

72.2% · ahead of 54%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

SimpleQA Verified

Kimi K3:#19of 36

50.6% · ahead of 49%

Kimi K3.1 Pro: Not scored

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Kimi K3:#41of 51

$3 · cheaper than 20%

Kimi K3.1 Pro:#28of 51

$2 · cheaper than 24%

Price per 1M output tokens

Kimi K3:#40of 51

$15 · cheaper than 20%

Kimi K3.1 Pro:#33of 51

$10 · cheaper than 26%

Context window

Kimi K3:#11of 66

1.05M tokens · longer than 65%

Kimi K3.1 Pro:#11of 66

1.05M tokens · longer than 65%

Scores fromArena · 2026-10-12Epoch AI · 2026-10-12

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 8, 2026

Kimi K3 scores 1,488 at $6 (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, Kimi K3 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)Kimi K3
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 41 text models, Kimi K3 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

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Kimi K3 costs 1.5 times as much as Kimi K3.1 Pro, at each provider's listed rates.

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

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    Kimi K3 costs 1.5× as much

    Kimi K3
    $60
    Kimi K3.1 Pro
    $40

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

    Kimi K3 costs 1.5× as much

    Kimi K3
    $35.70
    Kimi K3.1 Pro
    $23.80
Workload or rateKimi K3Kimi K3.1 Pro
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$60$40 (better)
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$35.70$23.80 (better)
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.30$0.20 (better)
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

Kimi K3

Where it leads

  • Open weights you can run yourself

Best for

  • Teams that want a frontier-scale model they can also self-host, with one architecture across both paths
  • Long-context work at mid-tier hosted pricing

Watch out for

  • Hosted rates match Claude Sonnet 5 exactly at $3 / $15 while offering a larger context window, so the comparison turns on capability rather than price
  • Running the open weights shifts cost to infrastructure, which the token rates recorded here do not represent
  • Moonshot’s self-reported results place it ahead of Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 but behind Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol; none of this was reproduced independently here
Full Kimi K3 profile

Kimi K3.1 Pro

Where it leads

  • Lower input and output prices, $2 and $10 vs $3 and $15 per 1M tokens
  • Accepts video input
  • Cheaper cached input, $0.20 vs $0.30 per 1M tokens

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

Building on Kimi K3 or Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

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FAQ

Kimi K3 vs Kimi K3.1 Pro FAQ

Which is cheaper, Kimi K3 or Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Kimi K3.1 Pro is 33% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Kimi K3, $2 vs $3. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Kimi K3 costs $60 and Kimi K3.1 Pro $40 at standard rates.

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

Kimi K3 charges $0.30 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, Kimi K3 costs $35.70 and Kimi K3.1 Pro $23.80.

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

Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context.

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

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

Can I run Kimi K3 or Kimi K3.1 Pro myself?

Kimi K3 is released as open weights you can run yourself; Kimi K3.1 Pro is available through its provider's API only.

Further reading

More on Kimi K3 and Kimi K3.1 Pro

Articles on Kimi K3 and Kimi K3.1 Pro

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between Kimi K3 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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