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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Kimi K2 Thinking vs Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 comes out ahead, 67 to 58 on our weighted score, though Kimi K2 Thinking is 31% cheaper per token.

  1. Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2 Thinking

    Released Nov 6, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI146.0
    • Price$0.60 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2 Thinking
  2. Our pick

    xAI

    Grok 4.3

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.25 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Grok 4.3 is our pick

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Kimi K2 Thinking (58). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Kimi K2 Thinking wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGrok 4.3Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 · Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0
  • Lowest priceKimi K2 ThinkingKimi K2 Thinking $1.07 · Grok 4.3 $1.56 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGrok 4.3Grok 4.3 1,000,000 · Kimi K2 Thinking 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGrok 4.3Kimi K2 Thinking: Text · Grok 4.3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingKimi K2 ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2 ThinkingGrok 4.3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7377
Price25%4841
Inputs & features15%3580
Context window10%3760
Overall100%58/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Kimi K2 Thinking vs Grok 4.3 specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AIGrok 4.3xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.0149.2 (best)
ECI rank#72 of 148#55 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.2%88.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—42.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics83.1%93.3% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—33.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60 (best)$1.25
Output$2.50$2.50
Cached input—$0.20
Blended (3:1)$1.07 (best)$1.56
Long-context rateSame rateOver 200K: $2.50 / $5.00
Price sourceMedian of 10 providersOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens (best)30,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—grok-4.3
API providers1027 (best)
ReleasedNov 6, 2025Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024—
03 — Cost

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 Thinking$11.00
  • Grok 4.3$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2 Thinking or Grok 4.3?

Grok 4.3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Kimi K2 Thinking (58). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Kimi K2 Thinking wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking or Grok 4.3?

Kimi K2 Thinking is cheaper at $0.60 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 10 API providers). Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official xAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.07 per million tokens for Kimi K2 Thinking versus $1.56 for Grok 4.3 (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Grok 4.3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Grok 4.3 149.2 (#55 of 148) and Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 (#72 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.6–150.8 vs 143.4–147.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.3 88.8%, Kimi K2 Thinking 84.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.3 93.3%, Kimi K2 Thinking 83.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K2 Thinking and Grok 4.3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Grok 4.3 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Grok 4.3 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Kimi K2 Thinking. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144, Grok 4.3 up to 30,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text; Grok 4.3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Grok 4.3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K2 Thinking publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Grok 4.3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Grok 4.3 is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Kimi K2 Thinking came out Nov 6, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 2024.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

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