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AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

Kimi K3 vs Muse Spark 1.3

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

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

Moonshot AI

Kimi K3

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Meta

Muse Spark 1.3

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationKimi K3Muse Spark 1.3
ProviderMoonshot AIMeta
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1.05M1.05M
Max output1.05MNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$3Winner: $1.25
Output / 1M tokens$15Winner: $4.25
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters2.8T total / 104B active (MoE)Not verifiedUnverified
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxminimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video, audio, pdf
LicenseKimi K3 License (custom)Not verifiedUnverified
API model idkimi-k3muse-spark-1.3
ReleasedJuly 16, 2026September 2, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0144Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date Muse Spark 1.3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified48
Terminal-Bench 2.1 [max] · source date Kimi K3: 2026-10-0188.3Not verifiedUnverified
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
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date Muse Spark 1.3: 2026-09-02Not verifiedUnverified75.4

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

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.

Muse Spark 1.3: Meta Standard $1.25/$4.25 per MTok, cached $0.15; prompts/completions are not used for training. Contributor uses a distinct SKU at $0.10/$0.20, cached $0.002, and permits training on prompts/completions. No long-context premium. Search grounding adds $2.50 per 1,000 queries.

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.

FrontierRecord checked October 2, 2026

Muse Spark 1.3

Muse Spark 1.3 is Meta's September 2026 frontier refresh with a 1M-token context for coding and agent workflows.

Best for

  • Long-horizon coding agents
  • Frontier quality below frontier pricing
  • Meta ecosystem

Watch out

Max effort is Standard Spark 1.3 only; Contributor and Spark 1.2 lack it. None returns HTTP 400; omitted effort is model-determined. Reasoning counts toward output budget and billing. Spark 1.3 audio may degrade; Meta directs audio work to 1.2 or Voice Transcribe. Standard 3,000 RPM/4M TPM versus Contributor 100 RPM/3M TPM quotas apply per team. Exact output cap and parameter count remain unknown. Meta's 75.4% DeepSWE max/mini-swe-agent report is separate from independent xhigh observations.

When the cheaper one wins

Muse Spark 1.3 is cheaper on output at $4.25 per million tokens against $15 for Kimi K3 — about 3.5×. 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.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

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, parameter count.
  • 1 benchmark setup aligned with differing scores — Matched source, source date, units, effort and recorded run details: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • 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 · Muse Spark 1.3

Common questions

Kimi K3 vs Muse Spark 1.3

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

Is Kimi K3 or Muse Spark 1.3 cheaper for input?
Muse Spark 1.3 is cheaper at $1.25 per million input tokens, against $3 for Kimi K3 — roughly 2.4× 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. Muse Spark 1.3: Meta Standard $1.25/$4.25 per MTok, cached $0.15; prompts/completions are not used for training. Contributor uses a distinct SKU at $0.10/$0.20, cached $0.002, and permits training on prompts/completions. No long-context premium. Search grounding adds $2.50 per 1,000 queries.
Is Kimi K3 or Muse Spark 1.3 cheaper for output?
Muse Spark 1.3 is cheaper at $4.25 per million output tokens, against $15 for Kimi K3 — roughly 3.5× 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. Muse Spark 1.3: Meta Standard $1.25/$4.25 per MTok, cached $0.15; prompts/completions are not used for training. Contributor uses a distinct SKU at $0.10/$0.20, cached $0.002, and permits training on prompts/completions. No long-context premium. Search grounding adds $2.50 per 1,000 queries.
Which has the larger context window, Kimi K3 or Muse Spark 1.3?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Do Kimi K3 and Muse Spark 1.3 support the same reasoning levels?
Kimi K3 exposes low, high, max, while Muse Spark 1.3 exposes minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max.
Should I use Kimi K3 or Muse Spark 1.3?
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; Muse Spark 1.3 is a candidate for long-horizon coding agents. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.
Can I self-host Kimi K3 or Muse Spark 1.3?
Kimi K3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Muse Spark 1.3 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: Muse Spark 1.3 costs $1.25 per 1M tokens versus $3 for Kimi K3 — a 2.4x difference at the headline tier.
  • Published Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index results differ: Muse Spark 1.3 scores 48 to 44 on the same listed benchmark, source attribution, source date, effort, and run variant (2026-10-01).
  • Deployment: Kimi K3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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