Kimi K2.6 vs Grok 4.6 vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) comes out ahead, 68 to 65 and 65 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Moonshot AIKimi K2.6
65/100- ECI151.1
- Price$0.95 / $4.00
- Context262K
xAIGrok 4.6
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
- Our pickxAI
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)
68/100- ECI152.0
- Price$1.25 / $2.50
- Context1M
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is our pick
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Grok 4.6 (65) and Kimi K2.6 (65). It leads on price and context window. Grok 4.6 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGrok 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 · Kimi K2.6 151.1
- Lowest priceGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) $1.56 · Kimi K2.6 $1.71 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGrok 4.20 (Reasoning)Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 · Kimi K2.6 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsKimi K2.6 and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)Kimi K2.6: Text, Images, Video · Grok 4.6: Text, Images · Grok 4.20 (Reasoning): Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingKimi K2.6Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Kimi K2.6 | Grok 4.6 | Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 79 | 86 | 81 |
| Price | 25% | 39 | 27 | 41 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 48 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 65/100 | 68/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI | Grok 4.6xAI | Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 151.1 | 156.6 (best) | 152.0 |
| ECI rank | #45 of 148 | #19 of 148 (best) | #41 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 90.8% | 94.0% (best) | 89.3% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 57.2% | 66.0% (best) | 44.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 96.1% | 99.2% (best) | 92.2% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 76.7% | — | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 34.9% | 49.3% (best) | 30.2% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.95 (best) | $2.00 | $1.25 |
| Output | $4.00 | $6.00 | $2.50 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.16 (best) | $0.50 | $0.20 |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.71 | $3.00 | $1.56 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 | Over 200K: $2.50 / $5.00 |
| Price source | Official Moonshot AI API | Official xAI API | Official xAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 500,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens | 500,000 tokens (best) | 30,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | kimi-k2.6 | grok-4.6 | grok-4.20-0309-reasoning |
| API providers | 46 (best) | 29 | 11 |
| Released | Apr 21, 2026 | Aug 12, 2026 | Mar 9, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Feb 1, 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Kimi K2.6$17.50
- Grok 4.6$32.00
- Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)$17.50
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Kimi K2.6, Grok 4.6 or Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Grok 4.6 (65) and Kimi K2.6 (65). It leads on price and context window. Grok 4.6 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6, Grok 4.6 or Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is cheaper at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI API price); Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.56 per million tokens for Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) versus $1.71 for Kimi K2.6 (1.1× as much) and $3.00 for Grok 4.6 (1.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Grok 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.6 156.6 (#19 of 148), Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 152.0 (#41 of 148) and Kimi K2.6 151.1 (#45 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.7–158.9 vs 149.3–154.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Kimi K2.6 90.8%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 89.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Grok 4.6 66.0%, Kimi K2.6 57.2%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 44.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.6 99.2%, Kimi K2.6 96.1%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 92.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Kimi K2.6 34.9%, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) 30.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Grok 4.6 and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.6 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 500,000 for Grok 4.6 and 262,144 for Kimi K2.6. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2.6 up to 262,144, Grok 4.6 up to 500,000, Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) up to 30,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Kimi K2.6 accepts text, images and video; Grok 4.6 accepts text and images; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) accepts text, images and PDFs. Kimi K2.6 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Kimi K2.6 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.6 and Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.6 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2026. Kimi K2.6 came out Apr 21, 2026; Grok 4.20 (Reasoning) came out Mar 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2.6 Jan 2025, Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
