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Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Sol vs Kimi K3

OpenAI against Moonshot AI, compared on context, price, and attributed benchmark results.

Recorded profile verification October 1, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

OpenAI

GPT-5.6 Sol

Frontier

vs

Moonshot AI

Kimi K3

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationGPT-5.6 SolKimi K3
ProviderOpenAIMoonshot AI
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1.05M1.05M
Max output128KWinner: 1.05M
Input / 1M tokens$4Winner: $3
Output / 1M tokens$20Winner: $15
WeightsClosedOpen
ParametersNot verifiedUnverified2.8T total / 104B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelsnone, low, medium, high, xhigh, maxlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video
LicenseNot verifiedUnverifiedKimi K3 License (custom)
API model idgpt-5.6-solkimi-k3
ReleasedJuly 9, 2026July 16, 2026
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date GPT-5.6 Sol: 2026-07-0988.8Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified88.3
GPQA Diamond · source date GPT-5.6 Sol: 2026-07-0994.6Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified93.5
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified44
Humanity's Last Exam [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified56
SWE-bench Verified · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified93.4

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch $5/$30, reduced to promotional $4/$20 on August 21; available at least through November 21, 2026. Above 272K input the full request bills $8/$30. Cached input $0.40/$0.80 short/long and cache writes $5/$10. Batch is $2/$10 at short context. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026.

Kimi K3: $3/$15 per million input/output tokens; cached input $0.30. Cache writes add $3/MTok for 5-minute TTL or $6/MTok for 1-hour TTL; hits refresh TTL without another write charge. API access requires a successful top-up of at least $1. max_completion_tokens defaults to 131,072 and can be set up to 1,048,576. Kimi K3 uses a custom license; self-hosting has compute costs.

FrontierRecord checked October 1, 2026

GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol was OpenAI's GPT-5.6 flagship for complex reasoning and coding with a 1.05M-token context — superseded on 2026-09-22 by GPT-6 Sol at half the price.

Best for

  • Complex reasoning
  • Agentic coding
  • Hard knowledge work

Watch out

GPT-6.1 Sol is the newer Sol option at $2/$10 Standard. GPT-5.6 Sol remains listed; its $4/$20 price is promotional. Max effort can increase token use, and Ultra is a multi-agent configuration rather than a separate reasoning.effort value.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked October 1, 2026

Kimi K3

Kimi K3 is Moonshot AI's open-weight multimodal 2.8T/104B MoE model with a 1,048,576-token context.

Best for

  • Open-weight frontier work
  • Long-context
  • Multimodal

Watch out

Thinking is always on; preserve complete assistant reasoning/tool history. Vision input requires base64 or ms:// rather than public image URLs, and temperature/top_p/n/penalties are fixed. Current docs discourage production web-search use. The custom licence requires an agreement for Model-as-a-Service businesses above $20M aggregate licensee/affiliate revenue over consecutive 12 months; commercial products above 100M monthly active users or $20M monthly revenue require Kimi K3 UI attribution. Internal use and official/certified serving routes have separate exemptions. July 16 is Kimi Code's release date, distinct from weights publication.

When the cheaper one wins

Kimi K3 is cheaper on output at $15 per million tokens against $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol — about 1.3×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. On DeepSWE 1.1, Kimi K3 is 68.5% Pass@1 at $4.65/task versus GPT-5.6 Sol at 72.7% / $8.39/task. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

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Evidence confidence: Medium

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
  • No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 25 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? GPT-5.6 Sol · Kimi K3

Common questions

GPT-5.6 Sol vs Kimi K3

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is GPT-5.6 Sol or Kimi K3 cheaper for input?
Kimi K3 is cheaper at $3 per million input tokens, against $4 for GPT-5.6 Sol — roughly 1.3× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch $5/$30, reduced to promotional $4/$20 on August 21; available at least through November 21, 2026. Above 272K input the full request bills $8/$30. Cached input $0.40/$0.80 short/long and cache writes $5/$10. Batch is $2/$10 at short context. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026. Kimi K3: $3/$15 per million input/output tokens; cached input $0.30. Cache writes add $3/MTok for 5-minute TTL or $6/MTok for 1-hour TTL; hits refresh TTL without another write charge. API access requires a successful top-up of at least $1. max_completion_tokens defaults to 131,072 and can be set up to 1,048,576. Kimi K3 uses a custom license; self-hosting has compute costs.
Is GPT-5.6 Sol or Kimi K3 cheaper for output?
Kimi K3 is cheaper at $15 per million output tokens, against $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol — roughly 1.3× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch $5/$30, reduced to promotional $4/$20 on August 21; available at least through November 21, 2026. Above 272K input the full request bills $8/$30. Cached input $0.40/$0.80 short/long and cache writes $5/$10. Batch is $2/$10 at short context. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026. Kimi K3: $3/$15 per million input/output tokens; cached input $0.30. Cache writes add $3/MTok for 5-minute TTL or $6/MTok for 1-hour TTL; hits refresh TTL without another write charge. API access requires a successful top-up of at least $1. max_completion_tokens defaults to 131,072 and can be set up to 1,048,576. Kimi K3 uses a custom license; self-hosting has compute costs.
Which has the larger context window, GPT-5.6 Sol or Kimi K3?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Do GPT-5.6 Sol and Kimi K3 support the same reasoning levels?
GPT-5.6 Sol exposes none, low, medium, high, xhigh, max, while Kimi K3 exposes low, high, max.
Should I use GPT-5.6 Sol or Kimi K3?
Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. GPT-5.6 Sol is a candidate for complex reasoning; Kimi K3 is a candidate for open-weight frontier work. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.
Can I self-host GPT-5.6 Sol or Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. GPT-5.6 Sol is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Kimi K3 costs $3 per 1M tokens versus $4 for GPT-5.6 Sol — a 1.3x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: GPT-5.6 Sol takes 1.05M against 1.05M for Kimi K3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Deployment: Kimi K3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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