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Grok 4.3 vs Kimi K2.6

xAI vs Moonshot AI — Both under $5/M tokens. Grok 4.3 has 4x more context; Kimi K2.6 has cheaper input. Which emerging provider wins?

Pricing data verified: Jun 29, 2026

Specification	Grok 4.3	Kimi K2.6
Input Price (per 1M tokens)	$1.25	$0.95
Output Price (per 1M tokens)	$2.50	$4.00
Context Window	1M tokens	256K tokens
Tier	Budget	Budget
Provider	xAI	Moonshot AI
Input Savings	Baseline	24% cheaper
Output Savings	37% cheaper	Baseline
Cost at 1M input + 500K output	$2.50	$2.95

Calculate Your Exact Costs

Enter your usage to see a precise cost comparison for both models.

Input Tokens per Request

Output Tokens per Request

Requests per Day

Days per Month

xAI

Grok 4.3

$0.00

per month

Input cost

Output cost

Cost per request

Requests/month

Moonshot AI

Kimi K2.6

$0.00

per month

Input cost

Output cost

Cost per request

Requests/month

Which Model for Which Use Case?

Output-Heavy Workloads

Grok 4.3's $2.50/M output is 37% cheaper than Kimi K2.6's $4.00/M. For content generation, code assistants, and chatbots that produce long responses, Grok 4.3 is the better value.

Output-heavy: Grok 4.3 (37% cheaper output)

Input-Heavy Workloads

Kimi K2.6's $0.95/M input is 24% cheaper than Grok 4.3's $1.25/M. For RAG pipelines, document analysis, and tasks with lots of context but short outputs, Kimi K2.6 is the better choice.

Input-heavy: Kimi K2.6 (24% cheaper input)

Long Context Needs

Grok 4.3 offers 1M context vs Kimi K2.6's 256K — almost 4x more. If your application needs to process long documents, large codebases, or extended conversations, Grok 4.3 is the clear winner.

Long context: Grok 4.3 (1M vs 256K)

Budget-Conscious Startups

Both models are under $5/M tokens — among the cheapest available. For a typical startup workload (500K input + 200K output/day), Grok 4.3 costs ~$34/month vs Kimi K2.6's ~$38/month. Both are excellent budget options.

Budget: Grok 4.3 ($34/mo vs $38/mo)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Grok 4.3 cheaper than Kimi K2.6?

It depends on your usage pattern. Grok 4.3 costs $1.25/M input and $2.50/M output, while Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95/M input and $4.00/M output. Kimi is 24% cheaper on input but 60% more expensive on output. For output-heavy workloads, Grok 4.3 is cheaper overall.

Which has a larger context window — Grok 4.3 or Kimi K2.6?

Grok 4.3 has a 1M token context window, while Kimi K2.6 has 256K. That's almost 4x more context for Grok 4.3. If your application needs long document processing, Grok 4.3 is the better choice.

How much would I save using Kimi K2.6 instead of Grok 4.3?

For input-heavy workloads (1M input + 100K output/month), Kimi K2.6 costs $1.35 vs Grok 4.3's $1.50 — saving $0.15/month (10%). For output-heavy workloads (100K input + 1M output), Grok 4.3 costs $2.63 vs Kimi K2.6's $4.10 — saving $1.47/month (36%).

When should I choose Kimi K2.6 over Grok 4.3?

Choose Kimi K2.6 when: (1) your workload is input-heavy (lots of context, short outputs), (2) you need Moonshot AI's specific capabilities, (3) you want the cheapest possible input price. Choose Grok 4.3 when: (1) you need 1M context, (2) your workload is output-heavy, (3) you want xAI ecosystem integration.