Grok 4.6 vs Kimi K2-Thinking-0905
Comparing Grok 4.6 and Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
xAI · Moonshot AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok 4.6 and Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 is roughly 3.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Grok 4.6
- you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
Choose Kimi K2-Thinking-0905
- cost matters — it's about 3.5x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok 4.6 and Kimi K2-Thinking-0905don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 4.3x more expensive than Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 ($0.47/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 3.0x more expensive than Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 ($2.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok 4.6 is more expensive than Kimi K2-Thinking-0905.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Kimi K2-Thinking-0905's 262,144 tokens. Only Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 does not.
Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Grok 4.6
Kimi K2-Thinking-0905
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 was released on 2025-09-05.
Grok 4.6 is 11 months newer than Kimi K2-Thinking-0905.
Aug 12, 2026
1 weeks ago
11mo newerSep 5, 2025
11 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Kimi K2-Thinking-0905's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Kimi K2-Thinking-0905's cutoff date.
Feb 2026
—
Provider Availability
Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Fireworks.
Grok 4.6
Kimi K2-Thinking-0905
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Kimi K2-Thinking-0905 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Kimi K2-Thinking-0905.