Kimi K3
- Input / 1M tokens
- $0.19
- Output / 1M tokens
- $16.00
- Providers
- 18
- Uptime, 24 h
- 100%
API models · Side by side
Kimi K3 vs Claude Opus 5.5
Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI and Claude Opus 5.5 from Anthropic both read about a million tokens. One is open-weight and sold by about 20 providers; the other is closed, with one set price. Here's how they differ on cost, inputs and control.
Claude Opus 5.5
- Input / 1M tokens
- $4.00
- Output / 1M tokens
- $20.00
- Providers
- 5
- Uptime, 24 h
- 100%
The short answer
Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens at Anthropic's standard rate. Kimi K3's price depends on where you run it: most providers charge less than Opus, but not all of them. Kimi also reads video, while Opus reads files.
Estimate your monthly bill
Enter your own usage. We apply each model's current rates, including long-prompt pricing, for a 30-day month.
Try:
Kimi K3$251.52per month
Claude Opus 5.5$540.00per month
A token is roughly three-quarters of an English word. Cached input, reasoning tokens, tools and media are not included.
Compare the details
Compare context, supported inputs and usage costs. Highlighted rows show a difference.
| Feature | Kimi K3 | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input formats | image, text, video | file, image, text |
| Output formats | text | text |
| Context / position limit | 1,048,576 | 1,000,000 |
| Endpoint output limit (tokens) | 943,718 | 128,000 |
| Developer features | frequency penalty, Reasoning output, logit bias, logprobs, Output limit, min p, presence penalty, Reasoning controls, Thinking effort, repetition penalty, Response format, Seed, Stop sequences, Structured output, Temperature, Tool selection, Tool calling, top k, top logprobs, Sampling controls | Reasoning output, Completion limit, Output limit, Reasoning controls, Thinking effort, Response format, Stop sequences, Structured output, Tool selection, Tool calling, Response length |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.18 | $0.20 |
| Cache write / 1M tokens | Unknown | $5.00 |
| USD input / 1M tokens | $0.19 | $4.00 |
| USD output / 1M tokens | $16.00 | $20.00 |
| Available API providers | 18 | 5 |
| Best provider uptime, last 24 h | 100% | 100% |
| Price range across providers (per 1M tokens) | Input $0.18–$4.50, output $9.50–$22.50 across 18 providers | Set by Anthropic |
| Model identifier | moonshotai/kimi-k3 | anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 |
API pricing
Prices are in USD per million tokens. Input is what you send; output is what the model generates. Chat subscriptions and API usage are billed separately.
Tools, images and additional reasoning can add charges. The examples below cover input and output tokens only.
Compare local modelsWhat those prices mean in practice
Each example uses the same token budget for both models. These are calculations, not measured workloads. Cache discounts, media, tools and extra reasoning are excluded.
| Workload | Kimi K3 | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 short requestsPer request: 2,000 input + 500 output tokens | $8.38 | $18.00 |
| 100 document summariesPer request: 20,000 input + 1,000 output tokens | $1.98 | $10.00 |
| 10 long-document requestsPer request: 300,000 input + 2,000 output tokens | $0.90 | $12.40 |
Estimate = requests × (input tokens × input price + output tokens × output price) ÷ 1,000,000. Long-prompt rates are applied where the pricing data provides them. Real requests can use different amounts of output.
Beyond the price tag
One price card vs many
Opus 5.5 has one standard price, plus cached input reads at $0.20 per million tokens. Some regional Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex and Azure endpoints charge 10% more. About 20 providers sell Kimi K3. Most charge less than Opus for both input and output, but not all, and the cheapest host changes often. Use the live price range and calculator on this page with your own token counts.
Different inputs and limits
Kimi K3 accepts text, images and video. Opus 5.5 accepts text, images and files, but not video. Both return text, support tool calling and structured output, and let you set a reasoning effort level. Opus replies are capped at 128K tokens. Kimi's cap depends on the provider, from about 64K to about 944K.
Running it yourself
Kimi K3 is free to download under a modified MIT licence. Internal use has no extra conditions, but model-hosting businesses earning over $20 million a year need a separate agreement with Moonshot AI. The model has about 2.8 trillion parameters, with about 104 billion active per token, in a native 4-bit format. Plan for a large multi-GPU cluster. Opus 5.5 isn't downloadable: you use it through Anthropic, AWS, Google Vertex or Azure.
Which one should you pick?
Choose Kimi K3 if you need video input, want lots of providers to pick from with lower prices at most of them, or may want to self-host or fine-tune later. Choose Claude Opus 5.5 if you need file input, one predictable price, or access through AWS, Google Cloud or Azure. Either way, test both on your own tasks.
Common questions
Which is cheaper?
At most Kimi K3 providers, both input and output cost less than Opus 5.5's $4 and $20 per million tokens. Not every endpoint is cheaper, and prices change often, so try your own numbers in the calculator.
Can I run Kimi K3 on my own server?
Yes, but at about 2.8 trillion parameters you'll need a large multi-GPU cluster. Our model hardware calculator can size a setup for you.