API cost decision in 10 seconds

Kimi K2 0905 vs Claude 3 Haiku

Pick Claude 3 Haiku for lower cost; pick Kimi K2 0905 only if the larger context window matters more.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T15:08:08Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-27T17:07:56Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Claude 3 Haiku for lower cost; pick Kimi K2 0905 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Claude 3 Haiku is estimated at $0.88 vs $1.85 for Kimi K2 0905, saving $0.98 (52.7% lower).

Cost-first pickClaude 3 Haiku

Context-first pickKimi K2 0905

Sample savings$0.9852.7%

10x traffic gap$9.75

Kimi K2 0905 has more context, but Claude 3 Haiku saves $0.98 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $9.75. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Claude 3 Haiku stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Kimi K2 0905	Claude 3 Haiku
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Claude 3 Haiku	$4.25	$1.88
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Claude 3 Haiku	$3.1	$1.5
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Claude 3 Haiku	$13.1	$6.5

Cheaper input Claude 3 Haiku $0.6 vs $0.25 / 1M

Claude 3 Haiku is $0.35 cheaper per 1M input tokens (58.3% lower; 2.4x difference).

Cheaper output Claude 3 Haiku $2.5 vs $1.25 / 1M

Claude 3 Haiku is $1.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (50% lower; 2x difference).

Larger context Kimi K2 0905 262.14K vs 200K

Kimi K2 0905 has 62.14K more context (1.31x larger).

Sample workload Claude 3 Haiku $1.85 vs $0.88

Claude 3 Haiku is $0.98 cheaper on the standard workload (52.7% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Kimi K2 0905 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Claude 3 Haiku Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Claude 3 Haiku has the lower input price; Claude 3 Haiku has the lower output price; Kimi K2 0905 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Claude 3 Haiku is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.85 for Kimi K2 0905 and $0.88 for Claude 3 Haiku.

Best Fit

Choose Kimi K2 0905 when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Claude 3 Haiku when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Claude 3 Haiku is estimated at $0.88 vs $1.85 for Kimi K2 0905, saving $0.98 (52.7% lower).
Claude 3 Haiku is $0.98 cheaper on the standard workload (52.7% lower).
Claude 3 Haiku is $0.35 cheaper per 1M input tokens (58.3% lower; 2.4x difference).
Claude 3 Haiku is $1.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (50% lower; 2x difference).
Kimi K2 0905 has 62.14K more context (1.31x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Kimi K2 0905 (MoonshotAI)	Claude 3 Haiku (Anthropic)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.6	$0.25
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$2.5	$1.25
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$1.85	$0.88
Context Window	262.14K	200K
Release Date	2025-09-04	2024-03-13
Popularity	#90	#150

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Claude 3 Haiku	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Claude 3 Haiku is estimated at $0.88 vs $1.85 for Kimi K2 0905, saving $0.98 (52.7% lower).
High-volume input processing	Claude 3 Haiku	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Claude 3 Haiku	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Kimi K2 0905	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Kimi K2.5 can replace Kimi K2 0905 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.35.
Kimi K2 0711 can replace Kimi K2 0905 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $1.72.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #1
DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #2
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #3
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

MoonshotAI catalog

Review all tracked MoonshotAI models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

Open MoonshotAI models

Anthropic catalog

Check other Anthropic models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open Anthropic models

Kimi K2 0905

Kimi K2 0905 is the September update of [Kimi K2 0711](moonshotai/kimi-k2). It is a large-scale Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model developed by Moonshot AI, featuring 1 trillion total parameters with 32...

Claude 3 Haiku

Claude 3 Haiku is Anthropic's fastest and most compact model for near-instant responsiveness. Quick and accurate targeted performance. See the launch announcement and benchmark results [here](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-haiku) #multimodal