Head-to-head comparison
Kimi K2 Thinking (Moonshot AI) and Kimi K3 (Moonshot AI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.
Snapshot as of 7 November 2026
As of 7 November 2026, Kimi K3 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#11 vs #66); Kimi K2 Thinking is 6.4× cheaper per output token ($2.50/1M vs $16.00/1M); and Kimi K3 offers the longer context window (1M vs 262K tokens).
Evidence: 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards · 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.
Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.
Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.
Kimi K3 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 7 November 2026: #11 against #66. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals do not overlap, but the aggregate Index does not predict performance on every task; compare the relevant benchmark configurations before choosing.
Kimi K2 Thinking is cheaper on output tokens: $2.50/1M against $16.00/1M. Input tokens are $0.60/1M for Kimi K2 Thinking and $0.192/1M for Kimi K3. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $2.45 for Kimi K2 Thinking versus $8.38 for Kimi K3. Kimi K2 Thinking costs 70.8% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.
Kimi K3 has the larger context window: 1M tokens against 262K. OpenRouter catalogue or provider-endpoint declaration. Limits can vary by provider and prompt length; a model-wide maximum has not been independently verified.
Arena coding: Kimi K2 Thinking 1486, Kimi K3 1538 — Kimi K3 leads.
Kimi K2 Thinking: Restricted license. Kimi K3: Restricted license. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence. A missing weight link does not identify every API or chat product that offers a model.
ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Kimi K2 Thinking and 21 for Kimi K3, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.
Every figure and ModelCap Index position comes from the same published snapshot dated 7 November 2026. Publication and page updates happen separately; use the snapshot date shown on the page.