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AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

Kimi K3 vs MiniMax M3

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

Recorded profile verification October 2, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

Moonshot AI

Kimi K3

Frontier · Open weights

vs

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationKimi K3MiniMax M3
ProviderMoonshot AIMiniMax
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1.05M1M
Max output1.05MNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$3Winner: $0.30
Output / 1M tokens$15Winner: $1.20
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters2.8T total / 104B active (MoE)428B total / 23B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video
LicenseKimi K3 License (custom)MiniMax Community License
API model idkimi-k3MiniMax-M3
ReleasedJuly 16, 2026June 1, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0144Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified29
Terminal-Bench 2.1 [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0188.3Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-06-01Not verifiedUnverified66
GPQA Diamond [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0193.5Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0156Not verifiedUnverified
SWE-bench Verified · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0193.4Not verifiedUnverified

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

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.

MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.

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.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked October 2, 2026

MiniMax M3

MiniMax M3 is an open-weight (community license) 428B MoE with native multimodal and 1M context.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Multimodal
  • Long-context

Watch out

Commercial checkpoint use requires Built with MiniMax M3 attribution and a one-time notice at or below $20M yearly revenue from the relevant products/services; above that threshold prior written authorization is required. Keep copyright/permission notices and follow prohibited-use terms. The checkpoint documents enabled/adaptive/disabled thinking. Hosted OpenAI compatibility defaults thinking on; Anthropic compatibility defaults it off and enables it with adaptive. Preview effort levels do not apply to M3. A hard output cap remains unverified.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $15 for Kimi K3 — about 13×. 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. 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.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, reasoning levels.
  • 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? Kimi K3 · MiniMax M3

Common questions

Kimi K3 vs MiniMax M3

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

Is Kimi K3 or MiniMax M3 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $3 for Kimi K3 — roughly 10× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; 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. MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.
Is Kimi K3 or MiniMax M3 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $15 for Kimi K3 — roughly 13× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; 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. MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.
Which has the larger context window, Kimi K3 or MiniMax M3?
Kimi K3 accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for MiniMax M3. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use Kimi K3 or MiniMax M3?
Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. Kimi K3 is a candidate for open-weight frontier work; MiniMax M3 is a candidate for open-weight deployments. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

Next step

Choosing between them

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

  • Input price: MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per 1M tokens versus $3 for Kimi K3 — a 10x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Kimi K3 takes 1.05M against 1M for MiniMax M3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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