API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥Kimi K2.6 vs 🔥GPT-5.5

Pick Kimi K2.6 for lower cost; pick GPT-5.5 only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Kimi K2.6 for lower cost; pick GPT-5.5 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Kimi K2.6 is estimated at $2.49 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $17.51 (87.5% lower).

Cost-first pickKimi K2.6
Context-first pickGPT-5.5
Sample savings$17.5187.5%
10x traffic gap$175.1

GPT-5.5 has more context, but Kimi K2.6 saves $17.51 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $175.1. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cheaper input Kimi K2.6 $0.74 vs $5 / 1M

Kimi K2.6 is $4.26 cheaper per 1M input tokens (85.2% lower; 6.76x difference).

Cheaper output Kimi K2.6 $3.5 vs $30 / 1M

Kimi K2.6 is $26.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (88.3% lower; 8.57x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.5 262.14K vs 1.05M

GPT-5.5 has 787.86K more context (4.01x larger).

Sample workload Kimi K2.6 $2.49 vs $20

Kimi K2.6 is $17.51 cheaper on the standard workload (87.5% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Kimi K2.6 Calculating… Estimated API cost
GPT-5.5 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

Kimi K2.6 has the lower input price; Kimi K2.6 has the lower output price; GPT-5.5 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Kimi K2.6 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $2.49 for Kimi K2.6 and $20 for GPT-5.5.

Best Fit

Choose Kimi K2.6 when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Choose GPT-5.5 when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Kimi K2.6 is estimated at $2.49 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $17.51 (87.5% lower).
  • Kimi K2.6 is $17.51 cheaper on the standard workload (87.5% lower).
  • Kimi K2.6 is $4.26 cheaper per 1M input tokens (85.2% lower; 6.76x difference).
  • Kimi K2.6 is $26.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (88.3% lower; 8.57x difference).
  • GPT-5.5 has 787.86K more context (4.01x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
Feature🔥Kimi K2.6
(MoonshotAI)
🔥GPT-5.5
(OpenAI)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M
$0.74$5
Completion Price
per 1M tokens
$3.5$30
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output
$2.49$20
Context Window262.14K1.05M
Release Date2026-04-202026-04-24
Popularity Rank
current rank
#5#19

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionKimi K2.6On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Kimi K2.6 is estimated at $2.49 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $17.51 (87.5% lower).
High-volume input processingKimi K2.6Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsKimi K2.6Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workGPT-5.5A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

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MoonshotAI catalog

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OpenAI catalog

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Kimi K2.6

Kimi K2.6 is Moonshot AI's next-generation multimodal model, designed for long-horizon coding, coding-driven UI/UX generation, and multi-agent orchestration. It handles complex end-to-end coding tasks across Python, Rust, and Go, and...

GPT-5.5

GPT-5.5 is OpenAI’s frontier model designed for complex professional workloads, building on GPT-5.4 with stronger reasoning, higher reliability, and improved token efficiency on hard tasks. It features a 1M+ token...