TL;DR — Kimi K2.6 is ~3× cheaper on input ($0.60 vs $1.74) but ~15% pricier on output ($4.00 vs $3.48). Every number below is from our weekly-verified pricing tracker (verified 2026-08-26).
Pricing side by side (per 1M tokens, USD)
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | |-------|----------|-------|--------| | DeepSeek V4 Pro | DeepSeek | $1.74 | $3.48 | | Kimi K2.6 | Moonshot | $0.6 | $4 |
Verified 2026-08-26 against official rate cards — the tracker keeps the change log.
What a real month costs
At a standard workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens/month:
- DeepSeek V4 Pro: $24.36
- Kimi K2.6: $14.00
On this mix, Kimi K2.6 is the cheaper column (1.7× gap). Your ratio will differ — run your own mix through the LLM cost calculator.
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro if
output-heavy reasoning: DeepSeek's cheaper output wins generation-dominant workloads, and the flat pricing is easy to model.
Choose Kimi K2.6 if
input-heavy work: at $0.60 input, Kimi reads tokens at a third of DeepSeek's price — long-document analysis tilts hard this way.
Routing decision card
- Another true crossover pair: input-heavy → Kimi, output-heavy → DeepSeek, and the break-even is simple arithmetic
- Both sit in the value-reasoning slot; run a quality A/B on your actual tasks before letting price decide
- Value-tier depth (this pair plus GLM-5.1) is why 2026 routing pools rarely need frontier models for mid-difficulty work
- The router answer: most teams shouldn't hard-pick one — ClawRouters routes each request to whichever side fits it, so the comparison becomes a per-call decision instead of a bet.
Part of the LLM model comparison index. Prices move fast in 2026 — the tracker logs every change with dates.