Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.5 or Kimi K3?

DeepSeek V3.5 is cheaper at the input + output rate combined: $0.420 versus $1.50 per million tokens.

Which has higher quality, DeepSeek V3.5 or Kimi K3?

DeepSeek V3.5 has the higher AA Intelligence Index score: 81 versus 80.

Can I switch between DeepSeek V3.5 and Kimi K3 via one API?

Both DeepSeek V3.5 and Kimi K3 are accessible through OpenRouter's unified gateway, which lets you switch models with one API key. Phase 2 of AIpricly will add scenario-routed automatic primary + fallback chains.

DeepSeek V3.5 vs Kimi K3

Side-by-side pricing, capabilities, real-world cost across common scenarios, and our editorial pick.

添加模型最多可对比 4 个模型

全部价格按美元 / 百万 token 计

OVERALL WINNER

DeepSeek V3.5

DeepSeek · released 2025-12-01

Quality (AA Index)81

Input price$0.14

Output price$0.28

Context128K

Throughput95 tok/s

P50 latency1.5s

View full pricing

Kimi K3

Moonshot · released 2026-03-15

Quality (AA Index)80

Input price$0.30

Output price$1.20

Context200K

Throughput150 tok/s

P50 latency0.8s

View full pricing

通过 OpenRouter 试用 DeepSeek V3.5 通过 OpenRouter 试用 Kimi K3

链接通过我们的 OpenRouter 推荐链接在新标签页打开。查看推广披露

规格对比

绿色列 = 该指标获胜方

Metric	DeepSeek V3.5	Kimi K3	Verdict
Input price /百万 tokens	$0.14	$0.30	DeepSeek V3.5 −53%
Output price /百万 tokens	$0.28	$1.20	DeepSeek V3.5 −77%
Context window max input length	128K	200K	Kimi K3 +1.6×
AA Quality AA Intelligence Index (0–100)	81	80	DeepSeek V3.5 +1pt
Arena Elo LMArena human-pref Elo (800–2000)	—	—	Tied
Throughput tokens per second	95	150	Kimi K3 +58%
P50 latency first token	1.5s	0.8s	Kimi K3 −47%
Vision multimodal	—	—	Tied
Function calling tool use			Tied
Reasoning mode chain-of-thought	—	—	Tied

常见场景月度费用

默认用量假设

Scenario	DeepSeek V3.5	Kimi K3
customer support 1000K req · 600/180 tok	$134	$396
chat with docs 300K req · 4000/300 tok	$193	$468
code generation 500K req · 2000/500 tok	$210	$600
voice assistant 600K req · 800/200 tok	$101	$288

Our pick

For most workloads, choose DeepSeek V3.5.

53% cheaper input price, which compounds at scale

Roughly GPT-4o-class quality at roughly 90% off. Tradeoff is region availability (Chinese provider) and slower output throughput than Western frontier tiers.

Choose Kimi K3 instead if: 尚未记录这对模型的具体取舍。两者质量差距可能很小，最终决定因素更多是工作负载契合度、集成成本与团队熟悉度。

阅读完整深度分析

The Cheapest LLM API for Production in 2026

为何选择？通过智能路由同时使用两者

第二阶段 · 带故障转移链的网关

Set DeepSeek V3.5 as primary, Kimi K3 as fallback. One key, one bill, automatic failover when DeepSeek V3.5 errors.

第二阶段预览 · 网关尚未上线该接口目前不存在。网关计划在第二阶段上线——下面只是规划中的接口形态预览，不是可用的 API。上线时会通过 newsletter 通知订阅者。

查看计划中的 API 调用形态

$ curl https://api.aipricly.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIPC_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "routing": {
      "primary": "deepseek/deepseek-v3-5",
      "fallback": ["moonshot/kimi-k3"]
    },
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}]
  }'