Kimi K2.6
Moonshot AIOpen weightsModified MITReleased Apr 20, 2026
Kimi K2.6 has no arena.ai Agents result yet, so on our leaderboard it is listed after models that do. Kimi K2.6 ranks #59 on the LMArena Text leaderboard (style control) with an Arena score of 1460.8 (±4.5, 40,013 votes). Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 27.0. API price: $0.95 input / $4.00 output per 1M tokens. Context: 262K. Nearest rivals: Claude Sonnet 5 (1461.1) above and Qwen3.6 Max (1460.6) below.
Quick answer
- Agents leaderboard
- No result yet
- Text (LMArena)
- #59 · 1460.8
- 17NAS overall
- #60 of 84
- API price (in / out)
- $0.95 / $4.00 per 1M tokens
- Closest rival
- Claude Sonnet 5 · 1461.1
- Cheaper alternative
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Text 1474.6, output $1.20 (70% cheaper)
- Data updated
- Oct 16, 2026 · synced daily
Sources: arena.ai, LMArena, Artificial Analysis, OpenRouter
Key metrics
Reasoning effort comparison
Artificial Analysis measurements per reasoning effort of the same model| Effort | Intelligence | Coding | tok/s | TTFT (s) | First answer (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| reasoningUsed in table | 27.0 | 61.8 | – | – | – |
| non-reasoning | 23.6 | – | – | – | – |
Models ranked nearby
Sorted by Arena score| # | Model | Arena | Intel. | Output $ | tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 |  GLM-5.1 | 1465.2 | 26.1 | $4.07 | – |
| 43 |  DeepSeek V4 Pro | 1464.6 | 36.0 | $3.96 | 93 |
| 44 |  Claude Sonnet 5 | 1461.1 | 38.2 | $10.00 | – |
| 45 | Kimi K2.6This page | 1460.8 | 27.0 | $4.00 | – |
| 46 |  Qwen3.6 Max | 1460.6 | 28.4 | – | – |
| 47 |  GPT-6 Sol | 1459.0 | 47.6 | $10.00 | – |
| 48 | GLM-5 | 1457.3 | 27.9 | $3.20 | – |
More from Moonshot AI
| # | Model | Arena | Intel. | Output $ | tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Kimi K3 | 1487.1 | 43.6 | $15.00 | 45 |
| 55 | Kimi K2.5 | 1449.8 | 23.5 | $2.75 | – |
| – | Kimi K2.7 Code | – | 25.8 | $4.00 | 52 |
Pricing
- Official API list price: $0.95 input and $4.00 output per 1M tokens (USD).
- At a typical 3:1 input-to-output ratio, the blended cost is about $1.71 per 1M tokens.
- Among 79 models with an output price, it is the #32 cheapest.
- The cheapest OpenRouter route charges $0.65 input / $3.41 output.
Sources & methodology
Kimi K2.6 has no arena.ai Agents result yet, so on our leaderboard it is listed after models that do.
- arena.ai Agents — agent task success rate, 95% interval, sessions and rank (via the public Hugging Face dataset, CC BY 4.0).
- LMArena — Arena score (Text leaderboard with style control, the same view arena.ai shows by default), 95% confidence interval, votes and rank.
- Artificial Analysis — Intelligence / Coding Index, output speed and latency (medians).
- OpenRouter — Route prices, context length and listing date.
Arena scores use the Bradley-Terry model (not Elo); ± is the half-width of the 95% confidence interval. Latency figures are Artificial Analysis medians; for reasoning models, time to first token and to first answer include the thinking phase. Data syncs daily at 14:20 (UTC+8).
Limits: Arena scores come from anonymous users voting on chats, so they reflect conversational preference rather than agent or coding benchmarks; with few votes the interval is wide and ranks move. Prices and speeds change as providers update them.
FAQ
What rank is Kimi K2.6 right now?
Kimi K2.6 is #45 on our leaderboard of 69 scored models (Arena score 1460.8); its raw LMArena rank is #59.
What does Kimi K2.6 cost via API?
Input $0.95 / output $4.00 per 1M tokens (official API list price; the OpenRouter quote when no official price is available). At a typical 3:1 input-to-output ratio, the blended cost is about $1.71 per 1M tokens.
How close is Kimi K2.6 to the models ranked next to it?
It is 0.3 points behind Claude Sonnet 5 (1461.1) and 0.2 points ahead of Qwen3.6 Max (1460.6); gaps smaller than the confidence interval (±4.5) are not significant.
Is Kimi K2.6 open source? Can it be self-hosted?
Kimi K2.6 is an open-weights model (license: Modified MIT); you can download the weights and self-host.
What is the context length of Kimi K2.6?
262K (262,144 tokens, as listed on OpenRouter).
Kimi K2.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5: which is better?
On the LMArena Text leaderboard Kimi K2.6 scores 1460.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1461.1 (a 0.3-point gap, within the confidence interval, so not significant). On price, Kimi K2.6 costs $4.00 and Claude Sonnet 5 $10.00 per 1M output tokens.
Is there a cheaper model close to Kimi K2.6?
Yes: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores 1474.6 on the Text leaderboard (Kimi K2.6: 1460.8) and costs $1.20 per 1M output tokens, about 70% less than Kimi K2.6 ($4.00).
Where does the Kimi K2.6 data come from and how often is it updated?
Agent success rates come from the arena.ai Agents leaderboard (CC BY 4.0), Text scores from LMArena, intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis, and prices and context from official list prices and OpenRouter. 17NAS syncs daily at 06:20 UTC; this page was last updated Oct 16, 2026.