Google Gemini 3.6 Flash vs MoonshotAI Kimi K2.6
Side by side from live data: prices, limits, who serves each model and how reliably, and how they do on our chess arena.
In short
- Kimi K2.6 is 1.1× cheaper at a typical mix of 3 input tokens per output token.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts longer prompts: 1M vs 262K tokens.
- Kimi K2.6 output costs $1.64 per 1M via Baidu, against the list price of $3.41.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash is the newer model (released 2026-07-21).
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Kimi K2.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | MoonshotAI | |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2026-04-20 |
| Input / 1M | $0.75 | $0.65 |
| Output / 1M | $3.75 | $3.41 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.075 | $0.15 |
| Blended / 1M (3:1) | $1.50 | $1.34 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 236K |
| Accepts | text, image, file, audio, video | text, image |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Providers on OpenRouter | 7 | 17 |
| Cheapest provider, output | $3.75 | $1.64 |
| Best provider uptime, 24 h | 100% | 100% |
| Chess arena rating | not playing | 1228 ±83 |
| Vendor API status | Operational | Operational |
Cost calculator
Gemini 3.6 Flash
$101 per month$3.38 per day
Kimi K2.6
$90.15 per month$3.00 per day
Kimi K2.6 saves $11.10 a month on this workload.
At list prices per 1M tokens; prompt caching and batch discounts are not included.
Compare Gemini 3.6 Flash with