# Kimi K3 API pricing

Kimi K3 is one of Moonshot AI's newest models. It costs $3 per million tokens it reads and $15 per million it writes, $6 on a mix of 3 read for each 1 written. Below are every price Moonshot AI lists for it, what 8 everyday jobs cost a month on it, and the models that do as well for less.

- Page: https://tecyfy.com/prices/kimi-k3
- Maker: Moonshot AI

## Price per million tokens, in US dollars

| | Price |
| --- | --: |
| Input | $3 |
| Cached input | $0.30 |
| Cache write | $3 |
| Output | $15 |
| Blend, 3 read for each 1 written | $6 |
| Batch input | not listed |
| Batch output | not listed |
| Context window, tokens | 1.05M |
| Longest answer, tokens | not listed |
| Capability score (Epoch Capabilities Index; GPT-5 is 150) | 157 |

## What 8 everyday jobs cost a month

Each job at its usual runs a day, for 30 days, at the standard price.

| Job | Tokens in, out, runs a day | A run | A month |
| --- | --- | --: | --: |
| A chat question | 300, 500, 100 | 0.84 cents | $25.20 |
| A hard question, with thinking | 300, 1,400, 100 | 2.2 cents | $65.70 |
| A long report, summarised | 60,000, 2,000, 20 | 21 cents | $126 |
| A 40-turn agent task | 2,800,000, 40,000, 10 | $2.20 | $659 |
| A support bot's reply | 4,000, 300, 2,000 | 1.1 cents | $666 |
| Sort a message into a category | 250, 5, 50,000 | 0.083 cents | $1,238 |
| Read an invoice into fields | 1,500, 250, 1,000 | 0.83 cents | $248 |
| Review a pull request | 25,000, 4,500, 50 | 14 cents | $214 |

## Cheaper models that score as well as Kimi K3

- [Claude Haiku 5.5](https://tecyfy.com/prices/claude-haiku-5-5.md), Anthropic: $0.20 per million at 3:1, score 159
- [GPT-6 Luna](https://tecyfy.com/prices/gpt-6-luna.md), OpenAI: $0.20 per million at 3:1, score 156
- [DeepSeek V4.1 Flash](https://tecyfy.com/prices/deepseek-flash.md), DeepSeek: $0.525 per million at 3:1, score 156
- [Gemini 3.8 Flash](https://tecyfy.com/prices/gemini-3-8-flash.md), Google: $1.50 per million at 3:1, score 157

## Questions

### How much does Kimi K3 cost?

Kimi K3 costs $3 per million input tokens, the text it reads, and $15 per million output tokens, the text it writes, thinking included. On a mix of 3 tokens read for each 1 written, that is $6 per million.

### How much does cached input cost on Kimi K3?

Text Kimi K3 reads again from the cache costs $0.30 per million tokens, against $3 the first time. Putting text in the cache costs $3 per million, so a long prompt sent again and again costs far less after the first time.

### Does Kimi K3 have a batch price?

Not on Moonshot AI's price page, which lists no batch price for Kimi K3. The cache still lowers the price of text it reads again.

### How good is Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 scores 157 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, an independent score from Epoch AI that combines over 50 benchmarks, with a range of doubt from 155 to 160 (GPT-5 is 150). One score is an average; test it on 10 tasks of your own.

### Is there a cheaper model as good as Kimi K3?

Claude Haiku 5.5 from Anthropic scores 159 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, about as well or better, and costs $0.20 per million on a mix of 3 tokens read for each 1 written: Kimi K3 costs 30 times as much. Test both on your own work before you switch.

### Where does Kimi K3 rank on price?

Kimi K3 is the 13th cheapest of the 16 newest models we list, by the price of 3 tokens read for each 1 written.

### What does a support bot cost a month on Kimi K3?

At 2,000 replies a day, each reading 4,000 tokens (50 percent of them from cache) and writing 300, a support bot costs 1.1 cents a reply on Kimi K3, $666 a month.

### What does an AI agent task cost on Kimi K3?

One 40-turn task that reads 2,800,000 tokens in all, 90 percent of them from cache, and writes 40,000, costs $2.20 on Kimi K3. At 10 tasks a day that is $659 a month.

## Sources

- [Moonshot AI: API prices](https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/pricing/chat)
- [Epoch Capabilities Index, by Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0)](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks/eci)
- Every model's prices as [JSON](https://tecyfy.com/prices.json) or [CSV](https://tecyfy.com/prices.csv), free to use

## Compare

- [Kimi K2.7 Code vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/kimi-k2-7-code-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [Kimi K2.7 Code Highspeed vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/kimi-k2-7-code-highspeed-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [Kimi K2.6 vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/kimi-k2-6-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [Claude Opus 5.5 vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [GPT-6.1 Sol vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/gpt-6-1-sol-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [Gemini 4 Argon vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/gemini-4-argon-vs-kimi-k3.md)
- [Grok 4.7 vs Kimi K3](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/grok-4-7-vs-kimi-k3.md)

## Moonshot AI's other models

- [Kimi K2.7 Code](https://tecyfy.com/prices/kimi-k2-7-code.md)
- [Kimi K2.7 Code Highspeed](https://tecyfy.com/prices/kimi-k2-7-code-highspeed.md)
- [Kimi K2.6](https://tecyfy.com/prices/kimi-k2-6.md)