AI model comparison
Inkling vs Kimi K3
Side by side comparison of Inkling and Kimi K3 on pricing, benchmark scores, context window, and more.
Inkling is an open-weight multimodal mixture-of-experts model from Thinking Machines Lab, with 41B active parameters out of 975B total.
- Input / 1M
- $1
- Output / 1M
- $4.05
- Context
- 524K
Kimi K3 is a 2.8T parameter open-weight multimodal reasoning model from Moonshot AI.
- Input / 1M
- $0.19
- Output / 1M
- $15
- Context
- 1.05M
Comparing image generators? Compare image models
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Inkling
2.0x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Kimi K3
17.4 vs 12.5 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Kimi K3
1.05M vs 524K tokens
Newer release
Inkling
Released July 17, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Inkling vs Kimi K3 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.19 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $4.05 | $15 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.17 | $0.18 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 524K tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 472K tokens | 944K tokens |
| Input types | Audio, Image, Text | Image, Text, Video |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Max, High, Medium, Low, Minimal, None | Max, High, Low, None |
| Default reasoning effort | High | Max |
| Release date | July 17, 2026 | July 16, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Not supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Not supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Not supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
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- Kimi K3 vs GPT-5.6 Sol
- Kimi K3 vs GPT-6 Sol
- Kimi K3 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5
- Kimi K3 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6
- Kimi K3 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- Kimi K3 vs Claude Opus 4.8
- Kimi K3 vs Muse Wonder
Our take
Inkling is 2.0x cheaper for a typical chat. Kimi K3 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (17.4 vs 12.5). Kimi K3 has the larger context window (1.05M vs 524K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Inkling or Kimi K3 cheaper?
Inkling is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Inkling costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $4.05 per 1M output tokens, while Kimi K3 costs $0.19 per 1M input tokens and $15 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Inkling or Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 524K for Inkling.
Is Inkling smarter than Kimi K3?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Inkling scores 12.5 and Kimi K3 scores 17.4, putting Kimi K3 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Inkling and Kimi K3 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Inkling and Kimi K3 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Inkling and Kimi K3 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.