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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 vs Kimi K2.6

Kimi K2.6 comes out ahead, 65 to 44 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI133.5
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2
  2. Our pick

    Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2.6

    Released Apr 21, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI151.1
    • Price$0.95 / $4.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2.6

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Kimi K2.6 is our pick

Kimi K2.6 is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityKimi K2.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2.6 151.1 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5
  • Lowest priceKimi K2.6Kimi K2.6 $1.71 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextKimi K2.6Kimi K2.6 262,144 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs · Kimi K2.6: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingKimi K2.6Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Kimi K2.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5779
Price25%1339
Inputs & features15%6080
Context window10%3237
Overall100%44/10065/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 vs Kimi K2.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2AnthropicKimi K2.6Moonshot AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.5151.1 (best)
ECI rank#119 of 148#45 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions55.3%90.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—57.2%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics8.5%96.1% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—76.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—34.9%
Price per million tokens
Input$3.00$0.95 (best)
Output$15.00$4.00 (best)
Cached input—$0.16
Blended (3:1)$6.00$1.71 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersOfficial Moonshot AI API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model ID—kimi-k2.6
API providers146 (best)
ReleasedOct 22, 2024Apr 21, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 30, 2024Jan 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 Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
  • Kimi K2.6$17.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or Kimi K2.6?

Kimi K2.6 is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or Kimi K2.6?

Kimi K2.6 is cheaper at $0.95 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI API price). Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.71 per million tokens for Kimi K2.6 versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (3.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Kimi K2.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2.6 151.1 (#45 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (149.1–152.8 vs 129.2–137.5), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Kimi K2.6 90.8%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K2.6 96.1%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 8.5%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Kimi K2.6 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 K2.6 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192, Kimi K2.6 up to 262,144 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs; Kimi K2.6 accepts text, images and video. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K2.6 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Kimi K2.6 is the newest, released Apr 21, 2026. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 2024, Kimi K2.6 Jan 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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