DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Kimi K3: API price, context and cost per task
The two big open-weight Chinese models: DeepSeek V4 Pro (1.6T total parameters) and Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 (2.8T parameters, multimodal).
On output, DeepSeek V4 Pro is 8.4x cheaper ($1.91 vs $16 per million tokens). On input, Kimi K3 is 5x cheaper ($0.192 vs $0.955 per million tokens).
Data updated 2026-11-11 - source: public OpenRouter model list, refreshed daily. Prices in USD, excluding VAT.
Specs and prices side by side
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | Kimi K3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Moonshot AI |
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.955 | $0.192 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $1.91 | $16 |
| Cached input, per 1M | $0.0796 | $0.182 |
| Batch (input / output) | not offered | $2.28 / $11.4 |
| Context window | 1,048,576 | 1,048,576 |
| Max output | 384,000 | 943,718 |
| Input types | text | text, images, video |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| On OpenRouter since | 24 Apr 2026 | 16 Jul 2026 |
Highlighted: the cheaper price or the larger limit. "Not published" means the figure is not in the public model listing yet.
What a month of work costs
Four typical workloads at today's list prices. Reasoning models also bill their thinking as output tokens, so treat output-heavy numbers as a floor.
| Workload | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Kimi K3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot10,000 conversations a month, about 1,500 input and 400 output tokens each | $21.97 | $66.88 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 3x cheaper |
| Coding agent300 tasks a month, about 80,000 input tokens (code context re-read across steps) and 8,000 output tokens each | $27.51 | $43.01 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 1.6x cheaper |
| Coding agent with caching70% of input served from the prompt cache | $12.80 | $42.84 | |
| Long-document analysis1,000 documents a month, about 50,000 tokens in and a 1,500-token summary out | $50.63 | $33.60 | Kimi K3 1.5x cheaper |
| Content drafting600 articles a month, about 3,000 tokens of brief in and 2,500 tokens of draft out | $4.59 | $24.35 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 5.3x cheaper |
Price stability over the last 30 days
- DeepSeek V4 Pro: 12 price changes since 12 Oct 2026. Input ranged $0.209 - $1.6, output $0.418 - $3.2 per million tokens. Volatile: the listed price follows whichever provider OpenRouter currently routes to, so budget with the upper end of the range.
- Kimi K3: 15 price changes since 12 Oct 2026. Input ranged $0.159 - $0.8, output $10 - $20 per million tokens. Volatile: the listed price follows whichever provider OpenRouter currently routes to, so budget with the upper end of the range.
DeepSeek V4 Pro: price log
| Date | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-10 | $0.955 | $1.91 |
| 2026-11-08 | $0.424 | $0.848 |
| 2026-11-07 | $0.88 | $1.76 |
| 2026-11-06 | $0.955 | $1.91 |
| 2026-10-31 | $1.6 | $3.2 |
| 2026-10-30 | $0.816 | $1.63 |
| 2026-10-26 | $0.955 | $1.91 |
| 2026-10-25 | $0.209 | $0.418 |
Kimi K3: price log
| Date | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-05 | $0.192 | $16 |
| 2026-11-04 | $0.2 | $16 |
| 2026-10-30 | $0.192 | $15 |
| 2026-10-29 | $0.192 | $20 |
| 2026-10-28 | $0.159 | $20 |
| 2026-10-27 | $0.2 | $20 |
| 2026-10-26 | $0.18 | $16 |
| 2026-10-24 | $0.239 | $10.8 |
What the vendors and benchmarks say
DeepSeek V4 Pro
"DeepSeek V4 Pro is a large-scale Mixture-of-Experts model from DeepSeek with 1.6T total parameters and 49B activated parameters, supporting a 1M-token context window."model card on OpenRouter
- Open-weight model. The same model can cost several times more or less depending on which provider serves it through OpenRouter. Source: OpenRouter provider listings
Kimi K3
"Kimi K3 is a 2.8T parameter open-weight multimodal reasoning model from Moonshot AI."model card on OpenRouter
- Open weights: you can run it on your own hardware instead of paying per token. Source: Moonshot AI
- First place in Frontend Code Arena (1679 points) in summer 2026 voting. Source: arena.ai
- 50.9% on the AA-Omniscience hallucination test (lower is better). Source: Artificial Analysis
Which one to pick
Both prices on OpenRouter swing with the serving provider, so compare the 30-day ranges above, not just today's figure. Kimi K3 accepts images and video and has a far larger output limit; V4 Pro is text-only and usually cheaper on output. In summer 2026 Kimi K3 topped Frontend Code Arena but scored 50.9% on Artificial Analysis' hallucination test, so keep it away from unchecked factual work.
Cheaper models with a similar context window
Models from our comparison set that cost less than both on a blended basis and support tool calling. They are not equivalent in quality - test before switching.
- GLM-5.3 (Z.ai): $0.0699 / $1.4 per million tokens, 1.05M context
- GPT-6 Luna (OpenAI): $0.1 / $0.5 per million tokens, 1.05M context
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (DeepSeek): $0.051 / $0.567 per million tokens, 1.05M context
Related reading
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 Appears on OpenRouter With No Announcement
- DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi and Qwen: Free AI or Cheap API?
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: API Pricing, Search API and My Test
- Kimi K3: input unchanged, output +3%. New rate: 0.30 / 11.94 dollars per million tokens
- Kimi K3: input -20%, output unchanged. New rate: 0.24 / 11.94 dollars per million tokens
- Kimi K3 API price cut: input tokens now $0.45 per million
How we calculate
Prices are the public per-token list rates from OpenRouter's model list, which match the vendors' own API prices for first-party models and show the current routed price for open-weight models served by several hosts. Monthly costs multiply those rates by the token volumes in each workload; caching assumes the stated share of input is billed at the cached-input rate. Benchmarks and claims are quoted from the named sources, mostly the vendors themselves - treat them as a guide and test on your own tasks. See also the AI cost calculator and all tracked model prices.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Kimi K3?
As of 11 Nov 2026, DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $0.955 per million input tokens and $1.91 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 costs $0.192 and $16. DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper in 3 of the 4 monthly workloads we price on this page. The real bill also depends on how many reasoning tokens each model writes.
Which has the larger context window?
DeepSeek V4 Pro reads up to 1,048,576 tokens and can write up to 384,000; Kimi K3 reads up to 1,048,576 and writes up to 943,718.
How much does a support chatbot cost on each model?
For 10,000 conversations a month (about 15 million input and 4 million output tokens) you would pay about $21.97 on DeepSeek V4 Pro and $66.88 on Kimi K3 at list prices, before any caching or batch discounts.
Do they offer prompt caching or batch discounts?
DeepSeek V4 Pro lists cached input at $0.0796 per million. Kimi K3 lists cached input at $0.182 per million and a batch rate of $2.28 / $11.4. Caching matters most for agents and chatbots that resend the same context on every turn.
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