Kimi K3.1 Pro pricing and FinOps guide

Updated October 27, 2026 · first published October 27, 2026

Kimi K3.1 Pro arrived on October 23, 2026. The Moonshot developer forum announcement calls it the first K3.1-series model; the API platform lists a 1-million-token context and current usage rates of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. That is a cheaper rate card than Kimi K3, but it does not establish lower cost per completed task. Long prompts, output volume, cache hits, retries, tool calls, and quality all affect the invoice.

Current API rates

Moonshot’s public platform currently lists these rates in USD per million tokens. Confirm them before budgeting because provider prices and availability can change.

K3.1 Pro’s standard uncached rates are one-third below K3’s input and output rates. Highspeed is twice the standard K3.1 Pro rate for uncached input and output, while the listed cache-hit price stays at $0.20. This means cache status matters especially when comparing Highspeed: do not apply a blanket 2× multiplier to cached input. The platform describes Highspeed as roughly three times faster with the same intelligence and 1M context; verify that latency claim against your own workload.

Translate the rate card into request cost

For a simple illustration, assume each completed request uses 10,000 uncached input tokens and 2,000 output tokens, with no tools, retries, or other charges:

These are list-rate calculations, not observed bills. At the same token counts, K3.1 Pro saves $2,000 per 100,000 requests against K3. Highspeed costs $2,000 more than K3 at those assumptions; its business case requires the faster response to improve throughput or task completion enough to pay for the premium. If every request has 8,000 cache-hit input tokens and 2,000 uncached input tokens instead, K3.1 Pro’s input cost drops to $0.0056 per request ($0.0016 cached plus $0.004 uncached). Track cache-hit and uncached input separately in your usage records.

A million-token context is a ceiling, not a budget

The large context window can support long code, research, and financial-modeling workflows, but sending more context still creates token charges. A single million-token uncached input would cost $2 on K3.1 Pro before output; 100,000 output tokens would add $1. That illustrative call costs $3 before any tools or retries. A nominal 1M context therefore says how much may fit, not what a typical request costs or whether the model will use the full window efficiently.

For agent workflows, measure the entire run rather than one API call: accumulated history, repeated tool results, retries, and final output can make multi-step work much more expensive than the first turn suggests. The K3 launch announcement noted K3’s 2.8-trillion total parameters and 1M context; K3.1 Pro is described as 3T-class, but parameter counts do not directly predict your serving bill.

FinOps rollout: benchmark accepted work

1. Start with a representative sample. Replay real requests through K3 and K3.1 Pro, stratified by task type and prompt length. Keep the task, tools, and success criteria fixed.
2. Log token categories. Capture model ID, uncached input, cache writes, cache hits, output, latency, retries, and tool charges for each task. Reconcile sampled usage to provider invoices.
3. Compare cost per accepted outcome. Include failed tasks, human review, and fallback calls. Lower price per token is not a saving if the new route needs extra attempts.
4. Route by value. Use standard K3.1 Pro where it meets quality and latency targets. Reserve Highspeed for work with a measurable value from lower latency. Keep a fallback for tasks where evaluation shows a quality gap.
5. Set budgets below the context ceiling. Apply per-task token and spend limits, compact stale history, and cap oversized tool results. Alert on tail behavior, not just average tokens.

Moonshot describes API pay-as-you-go and Kimi memberships as separate products; do not treat a consumer subscription as an API allowance. Also model tool and infrastructure charges separately when they are outside the token price.

Sources

• Moonshot AI Kimi Forum announcement, October 23, 2026
• Kimi API Platform: current model prices and specifications
• Moonshot AI: Kimi K3 launch and API pricing

Related

• Cost per task across frontier models

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