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Kimi K3 Intelligence, Performance and Price Analysis

Kimi K3, a proprietary AI model from Kimi, scores 57 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, well above the average of 30 for comparable models, but is slower than average at 62 tokens per second and costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $15.00 per 1M output tokens, making it somewhat expensive. The model supports text and image input with a 1M token context window and is very verbose, generating 130M tokens during evaluation.

read4 min views1 publishedJul 16, 2026
Kimi K3 Intelligence, Performance and Price Analysis
Image: source

Model summary

IntelligenceUpdated

Speed

Price

Cache Hit Price

Verbosity

Kimi K3 is amongst the leading models in intelligence, but somewhat expensive when comparing to other models of similar price. It's also slower than average and very verbose. The model supports text and image input, outputs text, and has a 1M tokens context window.

Kimi K3 scores 57 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it well above average among comparable models (averaging 30). When evaluating the Intelligence Index, it generated 130M tokens, which is very verbose in comparison to the average of 63M.

Pricing for Kimi K3 is $3.00 per 1M input tokens (somewhat expensive, average: $1.75) and $15.00 per 1M output tokens (somewhat expensive, average: $8.40). In total, it cost $2690.80 to evaluate Kimi K3 on the Intelligence Index.

At 62 tokens per second, Kimi K3 is slower than average (73).

Reasoning Yes This page shows the reasoning version of this model. A non-reasoning variant may also exist.
Input modality Supports: text, image
Output modality Supports: text
Context window 1M ~1573 A4 pages of size 12 Arial font

Metrics are compared against models of the same class:

  • Non-reasoning models → compared only with other non-reasoning models
  • Reasoning models → compared across both reasoning and non-reasoning
  • Open weights models → compared only with other open weights models of the same size class:
- Tiny: ≤4B parameters
- Small: 4B–40B parameters
- Medium: 40B–150B parameters
- Large: >150B parameters
  • Proprietary models → compared across proprietary and open weights models of the same price range, using a blended 3:1 input/output price ratio:

  • <$0.15 per 1M tokens

  • $0.15–$1 per 1M tokens

  • $1 per 1M tokens Highlights

IntelligenceUpdated #

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index by Open Weights / Proprietary

Intelligence Evaluations

Agentic real-world work tasks, (Elo-500)/2000 Agentic tool use

Agentic coding & terminal use

Coding

Reasoning & knowledge

Scientific reasoning

Physics reasoning

Knowledge

1 - hallucination rate

Long context reasoning

AA-BriefcaseNew Agentic knowledge work, Elo

Agentic SaaS workflows

Legal agentic work, task all-pass rate

Agentic business operations

Instruction following

Long-horizon agentic tasks

Kubernetes incident root-cause analysis

Visual reasoning

AA-BriefcaseNew #

AA-Briefcase Elo

AA-Omniscience #

AA-Omniscience Index

Intelligence Index Comparisons #

Intelligence vs. Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Token Use #

Output Tokens per Intelligence Index Task

Price and Cost #

Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Cost to Run Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Pricing: Cache Hit, Input, and Output

Context Window #

Context Window

Speed #

Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)

Output Speed

Time per Intelligence Index Task

Latency #

Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token

Latency: Time To First Answer Token

End-to-End Response Time #

Seconds to output 500 tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed

End-to-End Response Time

Frequently Asked Questions #

Common questions about Kimi K3

Kimi K3 was released on July 16, 2026.

Kimi K3 was created by Kimi.

Kimi K3 scores 57 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it well above average among other reasoning models in a similar price tier (median: 30).

Kimi K3 generates output at 62.0 tokens per second (based on Kimi's API), which is below average compared to other reasoning models in a similar price tier (median: 72.7 t/s).

Kimi K3 has a time to first token (TTFT) of 1.99s (based on Kimi's API), which is better than average compared to other reasoning models in a similar price tier (median: 2.60s).

Kimi K3 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens (somewhat higher than average, median: $1.75) and $15.00 per 1M output tokens (somewhat higher than average, median: $8.40), based on Kimi's API.

Kimi K3 costs $3.00 per 1M input tokens and $15.00 per 1M output tokens (based on Kimi's API). For a blended rate (7:2:1 cache hit/input/output ratio), this is $2.31 per 1M tokens. Pricing may vary by provider. Compare provider pricing

When evaluated on the Intelligence Index, Kimi K3 generated 130M output tokens, which is at the higher end compared to other reasoning models in a similar price tier (median: 63M).

Yes, Kimi K3 is a reasoning model. It uses extended thinking or chain-of-thought reasoning to work through complex problems before providing an answer.

Kimi K3 supports text and image input.

Kimi K3 supports text output.

Yes, Kimi K3 supports image input and can analyze, describe, and answer questions about images.

Yes, Kimi K3 is multimodal. It can process text and image input and generate text output.

Kimi K3 has a context window of 1.0M tokens. This determines how much text and conversation history the model can process in a single request.

No, Kimi K3 is proprietary. The model weights are not publicly available.

Kimi K3 has 2.8 trillion parameters.

Kimi K3 achieves a score of 57 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. This composite benchmark evaluates models across reasoning, knowledge, mathematics, and coding.

Yes, Kimi K3 is available via API through 1 provider. Compare API providers

Kimi K3 is available through 1 API provider. Compare providers

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