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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Kimi K3

Kimi K3 comes out ahead, 65 to 61 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 4.6

    Released Feb 5, 2026

    61/100
    • ECI155.3
    • Price$5.00 / $25.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Opus 4.6
  2. Our pick

    Moonshot AI

    Kimi K3

    Released Jul 16, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI157.6
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Kimi K3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Kimi K3 is our pick

Kimi K3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Claude Opus 4.6 (61). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityKimi K3Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K3 157.6 · Claude Opus 4.6 155.3
  • Lowest priceKimi K3Kimi K3 $6.00 · Claude Opus 4.6 $10.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextKimi K3Kimi K3 1,048,576 · Claude Opus 4.6 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsClaude Opus 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs · Kimi K3: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingKimi K3Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Opus 4.6Kimi K3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8588
Price25%213
Inputs & features15%8080
Context window10%6061
Overall100%61/10065/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Kimi K3 specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Opus 4.6AnthropicKimi K3Moonshot AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)155.3157.6 (best)
ECI rank#27 of 148#13 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.5%93.1% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics66.0%72.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics94.4%97.2% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues78.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions47.0%50.6% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$5.00$3.00 (best)
Output$25.00$15.00 (best)
Cached input$0.50$0.30 (best)
Blended (3:1)$10.00$6.00 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Moonshot AI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · maxYeslow · high · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDclaude-opus-4-6kimi-k3
API providers3368 (best)
ReleasedFeb 5, 2026Jul 16, 2026
Knowledge cutoffMay 31, 2025—
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.

  • Claude Opus 4.6$100.00
  • Kimi K3$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Claude Opus 4.6 (61). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is cheaper at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI API price). Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $6.00 per million tokens for Kimi K3 versus $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.6 (1.7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Kimi K3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K3 157.6 (#13 of 148) and Claude Opus 4.6 155.3 (#27 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.9–160.4 vs 153.4–157.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Kimi K3 93.1%, Claude Opus 4.6 90.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Kimi K3 72.2%, Claude Opus 4.6 66.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K3 97.2%, Claude Opus 4.6 94.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Kimi K3 50.6%, Claude Opus 4.6 47.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Kimi K3 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?

Kimi K3 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 4.6. Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 4.6 up to 128,000, Kimi K3 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Opus 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs; Kimi K3 accepts text, images and video. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K3 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Opus 4.6 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Kimi K3 is the newest, released Jul 16, 2026. Claude Opus 4.6 came out Feb 5, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 4.6 May 31, 2025.

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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