Models

Kimi K3 vs MiniMax M3

Output tokens cost $15.00 per million on Kimi K3 and $1.15 per million on MiniMax M3. Input tokens cost $3.00 per million on Kimi K3 and $0.29 per million on MiniMax M3. Cached input tokens are billed at $0.30 per million on Kimi K3 and $0.29 per million on MiniMax M3. Context lengths are 1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3 and 204,800 tokens on MiniMax M3. Time to first token (TTFT) measured on AIHubMix is 0.9s on Kimi K3 and 1.1s on MiniMax M3. Measured output throughput is 73.1 tok/s on Kimi K3 and 68.4 tok/s on MiniMax M3. On the LMArena coding leaderboard Kimi K3 scores 1531 and MiniMax M3 scores 1498.

Moonshot AIKimi K3MinimaxMiniMax M3
Moonshot AI logo
Kimi K3
Moonshot AI · text, image, video → text

Kimi K3 is Kimi’s flagship model for long-horizon coding and end-to-end knowledge work, with a 1M-token context window and industry-leading intelligence.

Input$3.00 /M
Output$15.00 /M
Minimax logo
MiniMax M3
Minimax · text → text

The MiniMax M3 is a flagship programming model built for real-world productivity. As a production-grade model natively designed for Agent scenarios, it has achieved state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance in coding, agentic tool use, search, and office work.

Input$0.29 /M
Output$1.15 /M

Pricing & Specifications

Prices are per million tokens. Time to First Token and throughput are rolling averages measured on AIHubMix.

Kimi K3
MiniMax M3
Input /M
$3.00
$0.29
Output /M
$15.00
$1.15
Cache read /M
$0.30
$0.29
Context length
1,048,576
204,800
Max output
1,048,576
192,000
Time to First Token
0.9 s
1.1 s
Throughput
73.1 tok/s
68.4 tok/s
Modalities
textimagevideo
text
Supported Parameters
thinkingfunction callingstructured outputs
thinkingtoolsfunction callingstructured outputs
API Formats
Released
-
June 1, 2026

Promotional prices show the discounted rate; see each model page for promotion windows.

Activity Past 30 Days

Daily traffic served through AIHubMix — how demand for each model is trending.

kimi-k3minimax-m3

Tokens / day

-

Requests / day

-

Performance Past 3 Days

Measured on real AIHubMix traffic, hourly buckets. Gaps mean no traffic in that hour.

kimi-k3minimax-m3

Throughput (tok/s)

-

TTFT (s)

-

Uptime (%)

-

LMArena Benchmarks

LMArena ratings by capability (Bradley-Terry, commonly called Elo). Higher is better.

Text
kimi-k3minimax-m3
1380144015001560
Overall
14431486
Coding
14981531
Math
14381438
Hard prompts
14651505
Instruction following
14371479
Multi-turn
14521499
Creative writing
14051470
Longer query
14531502
Chinese
14691527
English
14561491

Source: LMArena (arena.ai) leaderboard, imported by AIHubMix. Models without published ratings are omitted per chart.

Cost calculator

Estimate your monthly bill for the same workload on each model.

MiniMax M3
$34.56 /mo
Kimi K3
$405 /mo

Monthly = daily × 30. Discounted rates applied where a promotion is active.

FAQ

Which is cheaper: Kimi K3, MiniMax M3?

MiniMax M3: $1.15/M output tokens; Kimi K3: $15.00/M. Use the cost calculator above to estimate your own workload.

How do their coding arena scores compare?

Kimi K3: 1531; MiniMax M3: 1498 (LMArena coding leaderboard).

Which responds faster?

Kimi K3: 0.9s time to first token measured on AIHubMix; see the live performance charts above for how each model behaves across the day.

How large is each context window?

Kimi K3 accepts 1,048,576 and MiniMax M3 accepts 204,800 input tokens. Maximum output per request is 1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3 and 192,000 tokens on MiniMax M3.

Which one generates tokens faster?

Kimi K3 at 73.1 tok/s and MiniMax M3 at 68.4 tok/s, measured as output throughput on AIHubMix — a separate metric from time to first token.

What inputs and capabilities does each model support?

Kimi K3 accepts text, image and video input and supports thinking, function calling and structured outputs; MiniMax M3 accepts text input and supports thinking, tool calling, function calling and structured outputs.

Can I call Kimi K3 and MiniMax M3 with the same API key?

Yes. AIHubMix serves every model on this page behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so switching between them is a one-line change to the model field — no second account, key or SDK.

Popular comparisons

Related model match-ups readers also look at.