XAI VS MOONSHOT AI
Grok 4.5 vs Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 is about 1.8x cheaper than Grok 4.5 on a blended 3:1 input:output rate — the same 10K-in/2K-out request costs $0.0175 vs $0.032. Grok 4.5 has the larger context window (500,000 vs 262,144 tokens).
Pricing verified
API pricing per 1M tokens
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Blended (3:1 mix) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4.5 | $2.00 | $6.00 | $3.00 |
| Kimi K2.6 | $0.95 | $4.00 | $1.713 |
Rates from official xAI pricing and official Moonshot AI pricing, checked 2026-08-11.
What a real workload costs
Example: one request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens, then that request at 100,000 runs per month.
| Model | Per request (10K in / 2K out) | Per month (100K requests) | Monthly delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4.5 | $0.032 | $3,200 | +$1,450 |
| Kimi K2.6 | $0.0175 | $1,750 | — |
Model your own prompt sizes and volumes in the token cost analyzer, or check caching savings with the prompt caching calculator.
Specs side by side
| Spec | Grok 4.5 | Kimi K2.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Moonshot AI |
| Context window | 500,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Model class | Reasoning | General text |
| Tokenizer | Proprietary (counts estimated) | Proprietary (counts estimated) |
Count tokens for each model on its own page: Grok 4.5 token counter and Kimi K2.6 token counter. All xAI models are on the Grok Token Counter. All Moonshot AI models are on the Kimi Token Counter.
FAQ
Grok 4.5 vs Kimi K2.6 FAQ
Which is cheaper, Grok 4.5 or Kimi K2.6?
Kimi K2.6 is cheaper. At rates checked 2026-08-11, Grok 4.5 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, while Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 input / $4.00 output — about a 1.8x difference on a typical 3:1 input-heavy workload.
How much does a real request cost on Grok 4.5 vs Kimi K2.6?
A request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens costs about $0.032 on Grok 4.5 and $0.0175 on Kimi K2.6. At 100,000 such requests per month that is $3,200 vs $1,750 — a difference of $1,450 per month.
Which has the bigger context window, Grok 4.5 or Kimi K2.6?
Grok 4.5. It supports 500,000 tokens of context versus 262,144 tokens — roughly 375,000 English words in one request.
Do Grok 4.5 and Kimi K2.6 count tokens the same way?
Not exactly. Grok 4.5 uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates) and Kimi K2.6 uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates). The same prompt will tokenize differently, which shifts effective cost per word.