Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K2.6
Anthropic's mid-tier against Moonshot AI's open-weight coding model — published pricing, context windows and specs, side by side.
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K2.6: side-by-side
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Kimi K2.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Moonshot AI |
| Released | 30 June 2026 | 20 April 2026 |
| Tier | Mid-tier | Open-weight coding model |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (default & max) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | Up to 128,000 tokens | 262,142 tokens |
| API price (per 1M) | $2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard | $0.60 / $2.50 per 1M tokens (official) |
| Access | Proprietary — Claude API & claude.ai (default model on Free & Pro plans) | Open weights — Modified MIT licence (MoE, 1T total params / 32B active) |
| Best at | Agentic coding, high-volume production work, large-codebase tasks | Long-horizon coding, multi-agent orchestration |
| Standout | 1M context by default; early-access partners report it finishes tasks earlier Sonnets stopped short on and checks its own output | Text, images and video in one architecture; Multi-head Latent Attention |
Price comparison
| Model | Input (per 1M) | Output (per 1M) |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5 (intro, to 31 Aug 2026) | $2.00 | $10.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 (standard, from 1 Sep 2026) | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| Kimi K2.6 | $0.60 | $2.50 |
Published benchmark figures
Each figure below is the model's own published score as listed on its AI Model Hub page. Different suites (and suite versions) are not directly comparable.
| Model | Benchmark | Published score |
|---|---|---|
| Kimi K2.6 | SWE-bench Pro | 58.6% |
| Kimi K2.6 | Humanity's Last Exam (with tools) | 54.0% |
What the table says
- Pricing. Claude Sonnet 5 lists at $2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard; Kimi K2.6 lists at $0.60 / $2.50 per 1M tokens (official). On these published rates, Kimi K2.6's input price is 3.3x lower than Claude Sonnet 5's, and Kimi K2.6's output price is 4x lower than Claude Sonnet 5's. Claude Sonnet 5's standard rate card from 1 September 2026 is $3 / $15 per 1M tokens.
- Context. Claude Sonnet 5's context window (1,000,000 tokens (default & max)) is about 3.8x the size of Kimi K2.6's (262,144 tokens).
- Access. Kimi K2.6 publishes open weights (Modified MIT licence), so it can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 5 is proprietary and available only through hosted APIs and apps.
- Benchmarks. The two model pages report results on different benchmark suites, so the published scores are not directly comparable head-to-head; the tables below list each model's own published figures.
Key takeaway
Everything above is drawn from the two models' published rate cards and spec sheets. Which one fits depends on the workload you price it against — run your own token volumes through the pricing calculator to see the monthly difference.
Full Claude Sonnet 5 overview Full Kimi K2.6 overview
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K2.6?
Kimi K2.6 — it lists at $0.60 / $2.50 per 1M tokens (official) versus $2 / $10 intro (to 31 Aug 2026) · $3 / $15 standard for Claude Sonnet 5.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K2.6?
Claude Sonnet 5 — 1,000,000 tokens (default & max), versus 262,144 tokens for Kimi K2.6.
Which model is newer?
Claude Sonnet 5 is the more recent release (30 June 2026); Kimi K2.6 was released 20 April 2026.
Can I run Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K2.6 locally?
Only Kimi K2.6 — it publishes open weights under the Modified MIT licence. Claude Sonnet 5 is proprietary and only available via hosted APIs and apps.
Related comparisons
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.5 →
- Kimi K2.6 vs DeepSeek V4 →
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash →
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek V4 →