Kimi has launched a newer model, Kimi K2.5, we suggest considering this model instead.
For more information, see Comparison of Kimi K2.5 to other models and API provider benchmarks for Kimi K2.5.
Kimi K2 Thinking API Provider Benchmarking & Analysis
Analysis of API providers for Kimi K2 Thinking across performance metrics including latency (time to first token), output speed (output tokens per second), price and others. API providers benchmarked include Kimi Turbo, Kimi, Google Vertex, Amazon Bedrock, Together.ai, Baseten, Parasail, DeepInfra, Novita, Microsoft Azure.
Fastest
Google Vertex
Together.ai
Baseten
Kimi Turbo
AmazonOutput speed
Total 10 providers
Lowest Latency
Google Vertex
DeepInfra
AzureBaseten
ParasailTime to first token
Total 10 providers
Lowest Price
DeepInfraParasailKimiGoogle VertexAmazonBlended price (per 1M tokens)
Total 10 providers
Kimi K2 Thinking is available through 10 API providers, each offering different performance characteristics and pricing. Below is a comparison of the key metrics across providers.
- For output speed, the top providers are Google Vertex (268.5 t/s), Together.ai (197.0 t/s), Baseten (144.5 t/s). Speed varies significantly across providers, with a 186% difference between the fastest and slowest.
- For latency, Google Vertex (0.28s), DeepInfra (0.33s), Azure (0.50s) offer the lowest time to first token.
- For pricing, DeepInfra (0.85), Parasail (0.94), Kimi (1.07) offer the lowest blended prices per 1M tokens.
- Google Vertex offers the best performance with both the highest speed and lowest latency. For cost optimization, DeepInfra provides the most competitive pricing.
Pricing
Pricing: Input and Output Prices: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Price per token included in the request/message sent to the API, represented as USD per million Tokens.
Price per token generated by the model (received from the API), represented as USD per million Tokens.
Speed vs. Price: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).
Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).
Figures represent median (P50) measurement over the past 72 hours to reflect sustained changes in performance.
Speed
Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)
Output Speed: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).
Figures represent median (P50) measurement over the past 72 hours to reflect sustained changes in performance.
Latency vs. Output Speed: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).
Time to first token received, in seconds, after API request sent. For reasoning models which share reasoning tokens, this will be the first reasoning token. For models which do not support streaming, this represents time to receive the completion.
Price per token, represented as USD per million Tokens. Price is a blend of Input & Output token prices (3:1 ratio).
Figures represent median (P50) measurement over the past 72 hours to reflect sustained changes in performance.
Latency
Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token
Time to First Answer Token: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Time to first answer token received, in seconds, after API request sent. For reasoning models, this includes the 'thinking' time of the model before providing an answer. For models which do not support streaming, this represents time to receive the completion.
Figures represent median (P50) measurement over the past 72 hours to reflect sustained changes in performance.
End-to-End Response Time
Seconds to output 500 Tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed
End-to-End Response Time: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Seconds to receive a 500 token response. Key components:
- Input time: Time to receive the first response token
- Thinking time (only for reasoning models): Time reasoning models spend outputting tokens to reason prior to providing an answer. Amount of tokens based on the average reasoning tokens across a diverse set of 60 prompts (methodology details).
- Answer time: Time to generate 500 output tokens, based on output speed
For fair comparison, the number of reasoning tokens is standardized across all providers for each model based on the model's representative query token counts.
Figures represent median (P50) measurement over the past 72 hours to reflect sustained changes in performance.
API Features
Function (Tool) Calling & JSON Mode: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Kimi Turbo
DeepInfra
NovitaIndicates whether the provider supports function calling in their API. Function calling is also known as 'Tool Calling'.
Indicates whether the provider supports JSON mode in their API. When JSON mode is enabled, the models will always return a valid JSON object.
Context Window: Kimi K2 Thinking Providers
Maximum number of combined input & output tokens. Output tokens commonly have a significantly lower limit (varied by model).
While models have their own context window, in cases this is limited by providers.
Summary Table of Key Comparison Metrics
FAQ
Common questions about Kimi K2 Thinking providers
Kimi K2 Thinking is available through 10 API providers: Kimi Turbo, Kimi, Google Vertex, Amazon, Together.ai, Baseten, Parasail, DeepInfra, Novita, and Azure. Each provider offers different performance characteristics and pricing.
Kimi K2 Thinking is currently available through 10 API providers that we benchmark and track.
The fastest providers for Kimi K2 Thinking by output speed are Google Vertex (268.5 t/s), Together.ai (197.0 t/s), and Baseten (144.5 t/s). Output speed measures how quickly tokens are generated after the model starts responding.
The providers with the lowest time to first token for Kimi K2 Thinking are Google Vertex (0.28s), DeepInfra (0.33s), and Azure (0.50s). Lower latency means faster initial response time.
Prices for Kimi K2 Thinking vary up to 3.4x across providers. The most affordable is DeepInfra at $0.85 per 1M tokens, while Kimi Turbo charges $2.86 per 1M tokens.
Output speed for Kimi K2 Thinking varies significantly across providers. Google Vertex is the fastest at 268.5 t/s, which is 8.1x faster than Azure at 33.0 t/s.
7 of 10 providers support JSON mode for Kimi K2 Thinking: Kimi Turbo, Kimi, Google Vertex, Baseten, DeepInfra, Novita, and Azure.
9 of 10 providers support function calling for Kimi K2 Thinking: Kimi Turbo, Kimi, Google Vertex, Amazon, Together.ai, Baseten, DeepInfra, Novita, and Azure.
For Kimi K2 Thinking, Google Vertex offers the best performance with highest speed and lowest latency. For cost optimization, DeepInfra provides the most competitive pricing.
When choosing a provider for Kimi K2 Thinking, consider: output speed (for throughput-intensive tasks), latency (for interactive applications requiring quick first responses), pricing (for cost-sensitive workloads), and API features like JSON mode or function calling.
Yes, provider performance can vary over time due to infrastructure changes, load balancing, and updates. We continuously benchmark all providers and display historical performance trends in the "Over Time" charts.
For information about Kimi K2 Thinking's intelligence, capabilities, modalities, and how it compares to other models, see the model overview page. View model overview →