---
title: "Compare alternatives to Kimi K3 · Undominated.ai"
canonical: https://undominated.ai/alternatives/moonshotai__kimi-k3/
description: "9 alternatives score at least as high as Kimi K3 and cost no more under at least one listed workload. 3 preserve recorded capabilities; 6 have named trade-offs."
---

# Compare alternatives to Kimi K3 · Undominated.ai

> 9 alternatives score at least as high as Kimi K3 and cost no more under at least one listed workload. 3 preserve recorded capabilities; 6 have named trade-offs.

# Alternatives to Kimi K3

Moonshot AI · LMArena 1475.9 · $3.76/M on a balanced workload · prices as of 2026-10-06

 [Compare models](https://undominated.ai/compare/) Comparison context

Choose up to three standard models in Compare.

Requirements and prompt length apply in Compare. This page keeps its stated price basis and workload controls.

## 3 models are higher-scoring or cheaper, with neither dimension worse.

Of the 144 models carrying both an independent score and a published price at the same delivery mode, **9** score at least as high as Kimi K3 and cost no more under at least one listed workload, with at least one of those dimensions improved. **3** match or beat its recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning. **6** have a recorded capability loss, named on every row.

Dominance is not a property of a model. It is a property of a model, a capability lens and a workload, and all three are named on every row. Scores are LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset; prices are blended per million tokens. A higher score is not a drop-in replacement.

This page is built only while a candidate improves score or price without worsening the other under a listed workload. When that comparison no longer holds, it is not generated.

## Where it holds

| Workload | Kimi K3 $/M | Recorded capabilities preserved | Recorded capability losses |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Balanced | $3.76 | 3 | 5 |
| Summarise | $1.23 | 3 | 2 |
| Chat | $5.54 | 3 | 6 |
| Code gen | $8.05 | 3 | 6 |
| Agentic | $2.39 | 3 | 5 |

Workload mixes are defined on the [methodology page](/methodology/). Cached input is priced at the cached rate, and reasoning tokens at the worse of the reasoning and output rates.

## What you would be replacing

| Intelligence | 1475.9 |
| --- | --- |
| Context window | 1M |
| Max output | 943K |
| Input modes | text, image, video |
| Tool use | yes |
| Extended reasoning | yes |

Preserving recorded capabilities requires matching or beating these fields. [Full record for Kimi K3](/models/moonshotai__kimi-k3/), or [check Kimi K3 against the whole catalogue](/check/moonshotai__kimi-k3/).

## Recorded capabilities preserved 3

Each option has a higher score or a lower price, with neither dimension worse under the listed workloads. It matches or beats Kimi K3 on recorded context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning.

| # | Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Muse Spark 1.3](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.3/) Meta | 1489.9 +14 | $2.00 | Balanced −47% Summarise −12% Chat −62% Code gen −63% Agentic −56% |
| 2 | [Muse Spark 1.2](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.2/) Meta | 1483.2 tie | $2.00 | Balanced −47% Summarise −12% Chat −62% Code gen −63% Agentic −56% |
| 3 | [Muse Spark 1.1](/models/meta__muse-spark-1.1/) Meta | 1479.2 tie | $2.00 | Balanced −47% Summarise −12% Chat −62% Code gen −63% Agentic −56% |

## Alternatives with recorded capability losses 6

These improve score or price without worsening the other under the listed workloads, but reduce at least one recorded capability. Read the last column before switching.

| Model | Intelligence | $/M | Holds under | Recorded capability loss |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [MiMo-V2.6-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.6-pro/) Xiaomi | 1491 +15.1 | $0.540 | Balanced −86% Summarise −73% Chat −91% Code gen −92% Agentic −90% | 944K → 131K max output |
| [Gemini 3.8 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) Google | 1497 +21.1 | $3.00 | Balanced −20% Chat −37% Code gen −38% Agentic −33% | 944K → 66K max output |
| [Gemini 3.7 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.7-flash/) Google | 1487 +11.1 | $3.00 | Balanced −20% Chat −37% Code gen −38% Agentic −33% | 944K → 66K max output |
| [Gemini 3.6 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.6-flash/) Google | 1479.5 tie | $1.50 | Balanced −60% Summarise −42% Chat −68% Code gen −69% Agentic −67% | 944K → 66K max output |
| [Gemini 3.5 Flash](/models/google__gemini-3.5-flash/) Google | 1477.7 tie | $3.38 | Balanced −10% Chat −26% Code gen −27% Agentic −24% | 944K → 66K max output |
| [Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview](/models/google__gemini-3.1-pro-preview/) Google | 1480.2 tie | $5.46 chat | Chat −1% Code gen −2% | 944K → 66K max output |

## What this compares, and what it leaves out

 - Quality is LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset. The 95% confidence interval on a difference between two scores is about ±10.47 points, so a gap smaller than that is marked *tie* rather than an improvement — see [significance bands](/significance/).
 - 204 further models at this delivery mode carry a price but no independent score. They are absent from the comparison in both directions — unrated is not a zero, and an unmeasured model is neither an alternative nor a worse buy.
 - Retired models are never offered as an alternative, and a model only competes against its own delivery mode: batch trades latency for price, so it is not a like-for-like swap.
 - Nothing here measures latency, throughput, rate limits or how a model behaves on your prompts. Two models with the same index score are not interchangeable.
 - Models with no higher-scoring or cheaper alternative that is no worse on the other axis are on the [value frontier](/frontier/). Models with such an alternative are [listed here](/alternatives/).

## Continue your investigation

 - [Check requirements](/check/)
- [Compare exact differences](/compare/)
- [Set a quality floor](/cheapest-at/)
- [Inspect tier boundaries](/cliffs/)