Kimi K2.6 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Kimi's cheaper previous flagship against OpenAI's mid tier at under half the price. Both list prices from the makers’ own pages, and what three everyday jobs cost on each.
US dollars, standard rate, shortest context band. Price only: this page does not rank quality.
- Kimi K2.6
- $4.45
- GPT-5.6 Terra
- $10.80
- Kimi K2.6, per M tokens
- $0.95 / $4
- GPT-5.6 Terra, per M tokens
- $2 / $12
3,000 tokens in and 400 out each, at list price.
Per million tokens, Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 in and $4 out; GPT-5.6 Terra costs $2 in and $12 out. 1,000 support replies cost $10.80 on GPT-5.6 Terra and $4.45 on Kimi K2.6, so GPT-5.6 Terra costs 2.4 times as much. Kimi K2.6 reads up to 262K tokens at once, GPT-5.6 Terra up to 1.05M.
Side by side
Each maker’s published rate for its standard tier. Cached input is what a repeated prompt prefix costs once the provider has stored it.
| Fact | Kimi K2.6 | GPT-5.6 Terra |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Moonshot AI | OpenAI |
| Tier | Workhorses | Workhorses |
| Input, per M tokens | $0.95 | $2.00 |
| Output, per M tokens | $4.00 | $12.00 |
| Cached input | $0.16 | $0.20 |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Released | Apr 2026 | 9 Jul 2026 |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
What a job costs on each
1,000 runs of each job at the two list prices. The gap moves from job to job because the models price input, output and cached context differently.
| Job | Kimi K2.6 | GPT-5.6 Terra | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support reply3,000 in, 400 out. | $4.45 | $10.80 | Kimi K2.6, 59% less |
| Document summary25,000 in, 1,000 out. | $27.75 | $62.00 | Kimi K2.6, 55% less |
| Agent task80,000 in (70,000 cached), 3,000 out. | $32.70 | $70.00 | Kimi K2.6, 53% less |
The token counts are ours, chosen to look like real work; the prices are the makers’. A model with no published cache price bills the agent task’s repeated context at its full input rate.
The small print
What each base rate leaves out, from the makers’ own pages: surcharges, discounts, promotions and cache pricing.
- Kimi K2.6
- Input price is the cache-miss rate; cache hit $0.16. Previous-generation model kept as the cheaper option. Open weights on Hugging Face (moonshotai/Kimi-K2.6). Changelog gives the month only. Moonshot AI’s pricing page
- GPT-5.6 Terra
- OpenAI calls it the mini tier of the 5.6 family; tiered mid here on price. Price cut 20% on 2026-07-30. Requests above 272K input tokens bill 2x input and 1.5x output ($4 / $18). Cache write $2.50. Batch and Flex 50% off. Data residency adds 10%. OpenAI’s pricing page
Other comparisons
Every head to head on the list that involves Kimi K2.6 or GPT-5.6 Terra.
Run GPT-5.6 Terra for a quarter of list price
AIGROW API credit covers GPT-5.6 Terra and is metered at the list prices above: $25 buys $100 of usage.
Prices checked 22 September 2026