Kimi K2.6 vs DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash
At 6,000 chat requests per month (1,500 in / 400 out), DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash costs $5.58 and Kimi K2.6 costs $18.15 — roughly 3.3× the spend.
| Spec | Kimi K2.6 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Moonshot AI | DeepSeek |
| Input / 1M tokens | $0.950 | $0.300 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $4 | $1.20 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.160 | $0.0060 |
| Context window | 262.1K tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | — | 384K tokens |
| Input modalities | text | text, image |
| Released | — | — |
| Cost per 1M cached reads | $0.160 | $0.0060 |
Published list prices, last verified Oct 15, 2026. Source links are on each model's page.
Cost at three workloads
| Workload | Kimi K2.6 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support reply (1,500 in / 400 out) | $0.0030 | $0.0009 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash cheaper by $0.0021 |
| Document summary (20,000 in / 1,000 out) | $0.023 | $0.0072 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash cheaper by $0.016 |
| Code review pass (8,000 in / 1,500 out) | $0.014 | $0.0042 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash cheaper by $0.0094 |
Which one fits your workload
- Long context: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash accepts more — 1M versus 262.1K tokens. If your retrieved context regularly exceeds 262.1K, only one of these will hold it.
- Long answers: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash has the lower output price ($1.20 vs $4 per million), which matters most when answers are long.
- High-volume, short answers: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash is cheaper on input ($0.300 vs $0.950 per million).
- Caching: at least one of these vendors publishes a discounted cached-input rate; if you resend the same system prompt and context, model the cache-hit rate or you will overestimate cost.
This comparison uses published price and specification data only. It does not rank output quality — run your own evaluation on your own prompts before switching a production default.