Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) is the pick when you need file / PDF input, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) when you need seed (reproducible sampling).

Key numbers

SpecAnthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch)MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)
ProviderAnthropicMoonshotai
Input price (per 1M tokens)$2.50$2.28
Output price (per 1M tokens)$12.50$11.40
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$5.00$4.56
Cheaper than … of all models we track10%12%
Context window1M tokens (~1,500 pages)1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages)
Larger context than … of all models69%81%
Max output per response128K tokens (~96,000 words)16K tokens (~12,300 words)
Input typestext, image, filetext, image, video
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2026-02-042026-07-16
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch)MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$438$399MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) saves $38.50
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$425$388MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) saves $37.40
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$450$410MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) saves $39.60
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$275$251MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) saves $24.20
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$138$125MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) saves $12.10

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityAnthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch)MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)What it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes✓ Yesspend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes✓ Yesread screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input✓ Yes—accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search✓ Yes—answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)—✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities——read token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

DateModelInput / 1MOutput / 1M
2026-09-23MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)$2.28$11.40

Which should you choose?

Choose Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) if…

  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response

Choose MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) if…

  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you want the newer model — released 2026-07-16, 5 months after the other

Frequently asked questions

Is Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) better than MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)?

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) is the pick when you need file / PDF input, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) when you need seed (reproducible sampling). In short: Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) when you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search, you generate long outputs in one go; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) when you need seed (reproducible sampling), you want the newer model.

Which is cheaper, Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) is cheaper: $4.56 vs $5.00 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 9% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $399 against $438.

How much do Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) cost per million tokens?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) costs $2.50 per 1M input tokens and $12.50 per 1M output tokens; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) costs $2.28 input and $11.40 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch): 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch).

Do Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch): yes, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch): yes. JSON-schema structured output — Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch): yes, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch): yes.

Can Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) read images?

Yes, both accept image input.

Is Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) free to use?

No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.

What is the maximum output length of Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch)?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) can write up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) up to 16K (about 12,300 words).

When were Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) released?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) was listed on 2026-02-04; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) on 2026-07-16.

Has the price of Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) changed?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch): price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-08-07. MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch): input price cut 24% ($3.00 → $2.28/1M), output price cut 24% ($15.00 → $11.40/1M) on 2026-09-23.

About the two models

Compare Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) with other models

Compare MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 (batch) with other models

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