Kimi K3 vs Muse Spark Open vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Too close to call on our weighted score (Muse Spark Open 68, GPT-5.6 Terra 67, Kimi K3 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Moonshot AIKimi K3
65/100- ECI158.3
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context1.05M
MetaMuse Spark Open
68/100- ECI155.1
- Price$1.25 / $4.25
- Context1.05M
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Terra
67/100- ECI160.1
- Price$2.00 / $12.00
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Muse Spark Open 68/100, GPT-5.6 Terra 67/100, Kimi K3 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5.6 Terra for raw capability and Muse Spark Open on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5.6 TerraCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.6 Terra 160.1 · Kimi K3 158.3 · Muse Spark Open 155.1
- Lowest priceMuse Spark OpenMuse Spark Open $2.00 · GPT-5.6 Terra $4.50 · Kimi K3 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameGPT-5.6 Terra 1,050,000 · Kimi K3 1,048,576 · Muse Spark Open 1,048,576 tokens
- Widest inputsMuse Spark OpenKimi K3: Text, Images, Video · Muse Spark Open: Text, Images, Audio, Video · GPT-5.6 Terra: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingKimi K3 and Muse Spark OpenPublishes downloadable weights (Muse Model License)
| Measure | Weight | Kimi K3 | Muse Spark Open | GPT-5.6 Terra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 87 | 83 | 89 |
| Price | 25% | 12 | 34 | 18 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 68/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Kimi K3Moonshot AI | Muse Spark OpenMeta | GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 158.3 | 155.1 | 160.1 (best) |
| ECI rank | #20 of 165 | #39 of 165 | #15 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 93.1% | 88.6% | 93.3% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 72.2% | 69.8% | 86.0% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 97.2% | 98.1% | 99.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 50.6% | 56.6% (best) | 43.2% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $3.00 | $1.25 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $15.00 | $4.25 (best) | $12.00 |
| Cached input | $0.30 | — | $0.20 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $6.00 | $2.00 (best) | $4.50 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $4.00 / $18.00 |
| Price source | Official Moonshot AI API | Median of 16 providers | Official OpenAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · high · max | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | OpenMuse Model License | Proprietary |
| API model ID | kimi-k3 | — | gpt-5.6-terra |
| API providers | 76 (best) | 16 | 45 |
| Released | Jul 16, 2026 | Oct 15, 2026 | Jul 9, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 4, 2026 | Feb 16, 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 K3$60.00
- Muse Spark Open$21.00
- GPT-5.6 Terra$44.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Kimi K3, Muse Spark Open or GPT-5.6 Terra?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Muse Spark Open 68/100, GPT-5.6 Terra 67/100, Kimi K3 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5.6 Terra for raw capability and Muse Spark Open on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K3, Muse Spark Open or GPT-5.6 Terra?
Muse Spark Open is cheaper at $1.25 input / $4.25 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). GPT-5.6 Terra costs $2.00 input / $12.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Kimi K3 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.00 per million tokens for Muse Spark Open versus $4.50 for GPT-5.6 Terra (2.3× as much) and $6.00 for Kimi K3 (3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.6 Terra 160.1 (#15 of 165), Kimi K3 158.3 (#20 of 165) and Muse Spark Open 155.1 (#39 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (157.8–163.4 vs 155.8–161.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.6 Terra 93.3%, Kimi K3 93.1%, Muse Spark Open 88.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.6 Terra 86.0%, Kimi K3 72.2%, Muse Spark Open 69.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.6 Terra 99.7%, Muse Spark Open 98.1%, Kimi K3 97.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Muse Spark Open 56.6%, Kimi K3 50.6%, GPT-5.6 Terra 43.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K3, Muse Spark Open and GPT-5.6 Terra yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.6 Terra 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?
Their context windows are effectively the same size: Kimi K3 1,048,576, Muse Spark Open 1,048,576 and GPT-5.6 Terra 1,050,000 tokens. Maximum output per response: Kimi K3 up to 131,072, Muse Spark Open up to 131,072, GPT-5.6 Terra up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Kimi K3 accepts text, images and video; Muse Spark Open accepts text, images, audio and video; GPT-5.6 Terra accepts text, images and PDFs. Muse Spark Open handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Kimi K3 and Muse Spark Open publishes its weights (Muse Model License) and can be self-hosted; GPT-5.6 Terra is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Muse Spark Open is the newest, released Oct 15, 2026. Kimi K3 came out Jul 16, 2026; GPT-5.6 Terra came out Jul 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Muse Spark Open Jan 4, 2026, GPT-5.6 Terra Feb 16, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
