DeepSeek V3 vs Kimi K2
DeepSeek V3 (2024) and Kimi K2 (2025) are compact production models from DeepSeek and Moonshot AI. DeepSeek V3 ships a 64k-token context window, while Kimi K2 ships a 262k-token context window. On pricing, DeepSeek V3 costs $0.10/1M input tokens versus $0.50/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
DeepSeek V3 is ~400% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Kimi K2 only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | DeepSeek V3 | Kimi K2 |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | tool-calling agents and provider-routed production | tool-calling agents and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, Agents, and Classification | RAG, Agents, and Long context |
| Context window | 64k | 262k |
| Cheapest output | $0.30/1M tokens | $2/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 13 tracked | 3 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- DeepSeek V3 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.30/1M tokens.
- DeepSeek V3 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags DeepSeek V3 for Coding, Agents, and Classification.
- Kimi K2 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Local decision data tags Kimi K2 for RAG, Agents, and Long context.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
DeepSeek V3
$155
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Bitdeer AI
Kimi K2
$900
Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock
Estimated monthly gap: $745. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Kimi K2 is $1.70/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- DeepSeek V3 is $1.70/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-12-26 | 2025-07-11 |
| Context window | 64k | 262k |
| Parameters | 671B | 1K |
| Architecture | Mixture of Experts | - |
| License | MITOSI-approved | MITOSI-approved |
| Openness | Open source | Open source |
| Weights | Available | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | DeepSeek V3 | Kimi K2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.50/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.30/1M tokens | $2/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | DeepSeek V3 | Kimi K2 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-29. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.