Kimi K3 alternatives
Quick answer · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to Kimi K3 is Kimi K2.7 Code — comparable intelligence (41.9 vs —); for a cheaper option, GPT-5.6 Terra runs $2.50/M vs $3.00/M; for more speed, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview hits 252 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is GLM 5.2.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
gpt-5.6-terra
$2.50/M input · 55.0 intel
grok-4.5
$2.00/M input · 53.8 intel
claude-sonnet-5
$2.00/M input · 53.4 intel
gpt-5.4
$2.50/M input · 51.4 intel
gpt-5.6-luna
$1.00/M input · 51.2 intel
glm-5.2
$0.932/M input · 51.1 intel
Faster alternatives
gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview
252 t/s · 1.4s ttft
gemini-2.5-flash-lite
154 t/s · 396ms ttft
gpt-5.4-mini
137 t/s · 1.6s ttft
gpt-5.6-luna
135 t/s · 2.0s ttft
gemini-3.1-flash-lite
115 t/s · 1.4s ttft
gemini-3-flash-preview
104 t/s · 1.9s ttft
Open-source alternatives
glm-5.2
51.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3
44.4 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
deepseek-v4-pro
44.3 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.6
44.2 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
mimo-v2.5-pro
42.2 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.7-code
41.9 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to Kimi K3?
Kimi K2.7 Code is the closest alternative to Kimi K3, with an Intelligence Index of 41.9 (Kimi K3 scores —) at $0.750 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Kimi K3?
Yes — GPT-5.6 Terra costs $2.50 per million input tokens versus $3.00 for Kimi K3, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to Kimi K3?
GLM 5.2 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Kimi K3 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 51.1 on intelligence.