Kimi API Pricing (October 2026)
Kimi K3.1 Pro, Moonshot's newest model, costs $2 per million cache-miss input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with a $0.20 cache-hit input rate and a 1M-token context window. That is less than Kimi K3 at $3/$15 ($0.30 cache hits). Kimi K2.6 and the coding-tuned Kimi K2.7 Code cost $0.95/$4.00, but Moonshot closes the K2 series to new users on October 31, 2026 and plans to retire it by the end of December. Moonshot's pricing page no longer lists Kimi K2.5 or K2.
Moonshot's official Kimi API pricing page lists Kimi K3.1 Pro at $2 cache-miss input, $0.20 cache-hit input, and $10 output per million tokens, below Kimi K3's $3/$15. Every K3 series model has a 1M-token context window, and K3 cache writes are billed separately by cache lifetime (five minutes or one hour). The K2 tier remains at $0.95/$4.00 (K2.6 and its coding sibling K2.7 Code) with 256K context, but new accounts lose access on October 31, 2026, and Moonshot plans to retire the series by the end of December 2026. K2.5 and K2 are no longer on Moonshot's pricing page; the table keeps their last published rates, marked Previous. The table below owns the current Kimi price comparison; each rate is tied to Moonshot's platform documentation rather than a third-party router.
Start with the Kimi K3.1 Pro model profile for current benchmark coverage, then compare the family in the Chinese model rankings, the price-vs-performance view, or the head-to-head model comparison.
Paying a flat monthly fee for Kimi Code instead of per token? The AI coding plans comparison lists the Kimi membership tiers beside GLM, MiniMax, Claude and ChatGPT plans.
Every Kimi API price per 1M tokens
| Model | Input $/M | Cached input $/M | Output $/M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi K3 | $3 | $0.3 | $15 | 1.05M |
| Kimi K3.1 Pro | $2 | $0.2 | $10 | 1.05M |
| Kimi 2.6 | $0.95 | $0.16 | $4 | 256K |
| Kimi K2.7 Code | $0.95 | $0.19 | $4 | 256K |
| Kimi K2.5 | $0.6 | — | $3 | 256K |
| Kimi K2 | $0.6 | — | $2.5 | 128K |
The calculator uses real-time rates. Moonshot's Batch API charges 60% of standard price for K2.7 Code and K2.6 only; the official Batch pricing page does not list Kimi K3.1 Pro or K3. Cache-hit input is $0.20/M for Kimi K3.1 Pro, $0.30/M for Kimi K3, $0.19/M for K2.7 Code, and $0.16/M for K2.6.
Estimate your monthly Kimi API bill
| Model | Est. monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Kimi K3 | $60 |
| Kimi K3.1 Pro | $40 |
Estimates use Kimi's standard per-token rates from the table above. For token-level presets and cross-provider comparison, use the full LLM API pricing calculator.
How Moonshot prices the Kimi API
Kimi K3.1 Pro is the newest K3 tier at $2 input / $10 output per million tokens, with cache-hit input at $0.20, and it costs less than the original Kimi K3 at $3/$15. The K2 rate of $0.95/$4.00 still covers both K2.6 (the general model) and kimi-k2.7-code (the coding endpoint), so choosing the specialist costs nothing extra, but the K2 series closes to new users on October 31, 2026. K2.5, which ran thinking and non-thinking modes under one model at one price, is no longer on Moonshot's pricing page.
The discount Moonshot publishes is cache-hit input: $0.20 per million tokens on Kimi K3.1 Pro, $0.30 on Kimi K3, $0.19 on K2.7 Code, and $0.16 on K2.6. For coding agents that resend large repository context on every turn, that cache lane is where most of the real savings live. Moonshot's Batch pricing page also charges 60% of standard price for K2.7 Code and K2.6. Neither K3 model is on the supported Batch model list, so the calculator above stays on comparable real-time rates instead of applying the discount to every row.
Kimi vs DeepSeek and OpenAI pricing
Against its closest rival, the price ordering now depends on the hour: at peak ($1.32/$3.96), DeepSeek V4 Pro costs about 39% more than K2.6 ($0.95/$4.00) on input and about 1% less on output. Off-peak ($0.66/$1.98) it is cheaper on both. That does not settle quality, latency, or deployment fit. For pure volume work, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash ($0.30/$1.20 at peak) costs less than every Kimi model Moonshot lists, on both rates.
Kimi K3.1 Pro's $10 output rate costs about 17% less than GPT-5.6 Terra's $12 and half as much as GPT-5.6 Sol's $20. K2.6 remains the cheaper Kimi endpoint at $4 output until Moonshot retires it. See the full DeepSeek API pricing and OpenAI API pricing tables, or line models up head-to-head on the compare hub.
Which Kimi model to use
Kimi K3.1 Pro is the default pick: it is Moonshot's newest model and costs less than Kimi K3 on input, output, and cache hits. Keep K3 only where you have already validated its behaviour. Both have a 1M-token context window, and each model profile carries the current overall, coding, and agentic evidence rather than freezing those scores on a pricing page. For existing accounts running coding agents, K2.7 Code is the same $0.95/$4.00 as K2.6 with a published $0.19 cache-hit input rate; its profile keeps specialist benchmark coverage separate from overall ranking eligibility.
Moonshot no longer lists K2.5 or the legacy Kimi K2, and plans to retire K2.6 and K2.7 Code ($0.95/$4.00, the lowest Kimi rate) by the end of December 2026, so plan a move to the K3 series. Kimi K3's full weights are published, but a 2.8T-parameter model is not a casual self-host. Read the Kimi K3 release review and run the self-host calculator before treating zero API spend as zero infrastructure cost.
Kimi API pricing FAQ
How much does the Kimi API cost?
Kimi K3.1 Pro costs $2 input and $10 output per million tokens, with cache-hit input at $0.20; Kimi K3 costs $3/$15. Kimi K2.6 and Kimi K2.7 Code both cost $0.95/$4.00 until Moonshot retires the K2 series, which closes to new users on October 31, 2026. Batch jobs cost 60% of the standard rate for K2.7 Code and K2.6; the K3 models are not listed for Batch, and Moonshot no longer lists K2.5.
Is the Kimi K2 API free?
No — Moonshot's hosted Kimi API is pay-per-token. The genuinely free path is self-hosting: K2.6 is an open-weight release, so teams with their own GPUs can run it without per-token fees. Hardware, operations, and power still have a cost. Use the self-host calculator and open-source model rankings before choosing that route.
What is Moonshot AI's API pricing per million tokens?
Kimi K3.1 Pro is $2 input and $10 output per million tokens, and Kimi K3 is $3/$15. K2.6 and K2.7 Code cost $0.95/$4.00. Moonshot lists cache-hit input at $0.20 for Kimi K3.1 Pro, $0.30 for Kimi K3, $0.19 for K2.7 Code, and $0.16 for K2.6. Eligible Batch jobs on K2.7 Code and K2.6 cost 60% of the corresponding real-time rate.
How does Kimi pricing compare to DeepSeek?
DeepSeek V4 Pro ($1.32/$3.96 at peak) costs about 39% more than Kimi K2.6 ($0.95/$4.00) on input and roughly the same on output. Off-peak ($0.66/$1.98), it undercuts K2.6 on both. Token price therefore depends on when the work runs, while model quality, latency, support, and deployment requirements can still favor Kimi. For high-volume pipelines DeepSeek V4.1 Flash ($0.30/$1.20 at peak) is cheaper again — see the DeepSeek pricing hub for the full table.