Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K2.6
Detailed comparison of API pricing, technical specifications, and benchmark scores. Updated 2026-07-01.
Cost at a Glance
Claude Sonnet 5 is 2.4× more expensive than Kimi K2.6 — switching could save 57.5% on your monthly API bill.
At 5M input + 2M output tokens per month:
Choosing Kimi K2.6 could save you $17.25/mo
Price Comparison (per 1M tokens)
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | Kimi K2.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Input (per 1M tokens) | $2.00 | $0.95 |
| Output (per 1M tokens) | $10.00 | $4.00 |
| Cache Write (per 1M tokens) | $2.50 | — |
| Cache Read (per 1M tokens) | $0.20 | — |
| Batch Input (per 1M tokens) | $1.00 | — |
| Batch Output (per 1M tokens) | $5.00 | — |
Prices are per 1 million tokens. Actual costs depend on your monthly token volume. Use the calculator →
Specifications
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 5 | Kimi K2.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1M | 262K |
| Max Output Tokens | 128K | 64K |
| Knowledge Cutoff | 2026-01 | 2026-04 |
| Modalities | Text, Image | Text |
| Prompt Caching | Yes | No |
| Batch API | Yes | No |
| Thinking / Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
Benchmark Scores
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Kimi K2.6 |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 82.1 | 80.2 |
| MMLU-Pro | 86.5 | 83.0 |
| HumanEval | 94.8 | 92.5 |
Benchmark scores from official provider reports. Higher is better. Missing scores indicate the provider has not published that benchmark yet.
Use Cases
Claude Sonnet 5
Kimi K2.6
About the Providers
Claude Sonnet 5 is developed by Anthropic. Kimi K2.6 is developed by Moonshot AI. This is a cross-provider comparison between Anthropic and Moonshot AI models. For the most up-to-date pricing, always check the official API documentation from each provider.