Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 is the pick when you need file / PDF input, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro when cost matters at scale.

Key numbers

SpecAnthropic: Claude Opus 5.5MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro
ProviderAnthropicMoonshotai
Input price (per 1M tokens)$4.00$2.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)$20.00$10.00
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$8.00$4.00
Cheaper than … of all models we track7%15%
Context window1M tokens (~1,500 pages)1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages)
Larger context than … of all models69%80%
Max output per response128K tokens (~96,000 words)944K tokens (~707,800 words)
Input typestext, image, filetext, image, video
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2026-09-222026-10-23
Advertisement

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 5.5MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 ProDifference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$700$350MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro saves $350
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$680$340MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro saves $340
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)
$720$360MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro saves $360
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$440$220MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro saves $220
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$220$110MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro saves $110

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityAnthropic: Claude Opus 5.5MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 ProWhat 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)——repeat 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

Which should you choose?

Choose Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 if…

  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro does not advertise it
  • you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro does not advertise it

Choose MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 50% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($350 vs $700 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 944K tokens (about 707,800 words) per response

Frequently asked questions

Is Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 better than MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 is the pick when you need file / PDF input, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro when cost matters at scale. In short: Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 when you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro when cost matters at scale, you generate long outputs in one go.

Which is cheaper, Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro is cheaper: $4.00 vs $8.00 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 50% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $350 against $700.

How much do Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro cost per million tokens?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00 per 1M input tokens and $20.00 per 1M output tokens; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro costs $2.00 input and $10.00 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro: 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5.

Do Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5: yes, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5: yes, MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro: yes.

Can Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro read images?

Yes, both accept image input.

Is Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 or MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro 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 5.5 and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 can write up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro up to 944K (about 707,800 words).

When were Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 and MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro released?

Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 was listed on 2026-09-22; MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro on 2026-10-23.

About the two models

Compare Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 with other models

Compare MoonshotAI: Kimi K3.1 Pro with other models

Advertisement