Model comparison - Similar price, same tier
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Kimi K3
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is from Anthropic and Kimi K3 is from Moonshot AI. On list price, Kimi K3 charges 1.5x Claude Sonnet 5.5's input price ($3 vs $2 per 1M tokens), and Kimi K3 charges 1.5x Claude Sonnet 5.5's output price ($15 vs $10 per 1M tokens). Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a 1,000,000-token context window and Kimi K3 1,048,576 tokens; max output is 128,000 and 1,048,576 tokens per response. Claude Sonnet 5.5 was released on September 28, 2026; no primary source states a release date for Kimi K3. Kimi K3 publishes open weights (Kimi K3 License (Hugging Face license tag: other)); Claude Sonnet 5.5 is closed-weights.
Last verified from each provider's pricing page. All sources
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Moonshot AI |
| Input / 1M tokens | $2 | $3 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $10 | $15 |
| Cache read / 1M | $0.10 | $0.30 |
| Cache write / 1M | $2.50 | $3 |
| Batch input / 1M | $1 | - |
| Batch output / 1M | $5 | - |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 1,048,576 |
| Max output | 128,000 | 1,048,576 |
| Release date | - | |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| License | - | Kimi K3 License (Hugging Face license tag: other) |
| API model id | claude-sonnet-5-5 | kimi-k3 |
| AI Gateway id | anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 | moonshotai/kimi-k3 |
| Last verified |
Prices in USD per 1M tokens at each provider's standard first-party rate. A dash means the provider does not bill that item separately or no primary page states it.
What each costs in practice
The same three workloads every model page uses, worked from each model's standard list rates. Swap in your own token counts with the math on each model's page.
| Workload | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| One agent session1M input tokens and 100K output tokens, no caching. | $3.00 | $4.50 |
| A chat app10,000 requests a day at 2K input and 500 output tokens each. | $90.00$2,700.00 per 30-day month | $135.00$4,050.00 per 30-day month |
| The same session at a 90% cache hit90% of the input is read from the prompt cache. The one-time cache write premium is not included. | $1.29 | $2.07 |
Show the math
Claude Sonnet 5.5
- One agent sessionInput: 1M x $2 = $2.00Output: 0.1M x $10 = $1.00
- A chat appInput: 20M x $2 = $40.00Output: 5M x $10 = $50.00
- The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.10 = $0.09Uncached input: 0.1M x $2 = $0.20Output: 0.1M x $10 = $1.00
Kimi K3
- One agent sessionInput: 1M x $3 = $3.00Output: 0.1M x $15 = $1.50
- A chat appInput: 20M x $3 = $60.00Output: 5M x $15 = $75.00
- The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.30 = $0.27Uncached input: 0.1M x $3 = $0.30Output: 0.1M x $15 = $1.50
Benchmarks under the same setting
No board in the benchmark directory lists both Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Kimi K3 under the same setting, so there is no like-for-like score to show here.
Set them up in your tools
Step-by-step guides whose official docs list Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Kimi K3 by model id.
Model pages
FAQ
How do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Kimi K3 compare on price?
On list price, Kimi K3 charges 1.5x Claude Sonnet 5.5's input price ($3 vs $2 per 1M tokens), and Kimi K3 charges 1.5x Claude Sonnet 5.5's output price ($15 vs $10 per 1M tokens). For one agent session of 1M input and 100K output tokens with no caching, that is $3.00 on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $4.50 on Kimi K3. Prices are each provider's first-party list rates, verified October 17, 2026 and October 17, 2026.
What are the context windows of Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Kimi K3?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a 1,000,000-token context window and Kimi K3 1,048,576 tokens; max output is 128,000 and 1,048,576 tokens per response.
Are Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Kimi K3 open weights?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is closed-weights and is called through Anthropic's API as claude-sonnet-5-5. Kimi K3's weights are published at huggingface.co under the Kimi K3 License (Hugging Face license tag: other).
More comparisons
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 4 ArgonSimilar price, same tier
- Gemini 4 Argon vs Kimi K3Similar price, same tier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 SolSimilar price, same tier
- GPT-6.1 Sol vs Kimi K3Similar price, same tier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.7Similar price, same tier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GLM-5.3Open weights vs closed
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Kimi K3Similar price, same tier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95BSimilar price, same tier
Sources
Claude Sonnet 5.5 verified from platform.claude.com; Kimi K3 verified from platform.kimi.ai. This page is as current as the older of the two: .
- https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
- https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/pricing/chat
- https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/sonnet-5-5/overview
- https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/models/overview
- https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/overview
- https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/guide/kimi-k3-quickstart
- https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/models.md
- https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/pricing/batch.md
- https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/platform-changelog.md
- https://www.kimi.ai/blog/kimi-k3
- https://huggingface.co/moonshotai/Kimi-K3
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