Kimi K3 (max) API Provider Benchmarking & Analysis
This analysis is intended to support you in choosing the best API provider of Kimi K3 (max) for your use-case.
Fastest
Inco (FAST)
LithosAI (ULTRA)LithosAI (FAST)LithosAI
NebiusOutput speed
Total 14 providers
Lowest Latency
LithosAI (ULTRA)LithosAI (FAST)Inco (FAST)LithosAINebiusTime to first answer token
Total 14 providers
Lowest Price
LithosAI
Makora
DigitalOcean
Bitdeer AI
ModalBlended price (per 1M tokens)
Total 14 providers
Kimi K3 (max) is available through 14 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 Inco (FAST) (249.4 t/s), LithosAI (ULTRA) (228.1 t/s), and LithosAI (FAST) (221.0 t/s). Speed varies significantly across providers, with a 618% difference between the fastest and slowest.
- For latency, LithosAI (ULTRA) (9.54s), LithosAI (FAST) (9.82s), and Inco (FAST) (9.90s) offer the lowest time to first answer token.
- For pricing, LithosAI (1.85), Makora (1.96), and DigitalOcean (2.00) offer the lowest blended prices per 1M tokens. Prices vary up to 2.5x across providers.
Highlights
Update: Default performance benchmarking workload has updated to 10k input tokens to better reflect production use cases. You can still select different workloads above.
Pricing
Pricing: Cache Hit, Input, and Output
Pricing: Blended Price
Pricing: Cache Discount
Output Speed vs. Price
Speed
Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)
Output Speed: Kimi K3 (max)
Latency vs. Output Speed
Latency
Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token
Time to First Answer Token
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
Key Comparison Metrics & API Features
| Modal | 1.05M | Open | $1.81 | 93 | 0.89 | 27.69 | 21.44 | ||
 Together AI | 1.05M | Open | $4.34 | 56 | 1.21 | 45.69 | 35.59 | ||
| DigitalOcean | 1.05M | Open | $2.25 | 37 | 1.22 | 68.36 | 53.71 | ||
 Baseten | 1.05M | Open | $2.01 | 95 | 0.80 | 27.20 | 21.12 | ||
 Parasail | 1.05M | Open | $2.42 | 47 | 1.20 | 54.24 | 42.43 | ||
| Makora | 1.05M | Open | $1.21 | 46 | 1.70 | 56.17 | 43.57 | ||
| Nebius | 1.05M | Open | $9.22 | 177 | 1.57 | 15.72 | 11.32 | ||
 Databricks | 205k | Open | $1.85 | 142 | 0.95 | 18.61 | 14.13 | ||
| Bitdeer AI | 262k | Open | $2.70 | 87 | 1.78 | 30.61 | 23.07 | ||
| Inco | 1.05M | Open | $3.77 | 249 | 1.88 | 11.91 | 8.02 | ||
 Kimi | 1.05M | Open | $2.00 | 35 | 4.54 | 76.51 | 57.57 | ||
| LithosAI | 1.05M | Open | $1.69 | 216 | 0.81 | 12.38 | 9.26 | ||
| LithosAI | 1.05M | Open | $2.81 | 221 | 0.77 | 12.08 | 9.05 | ||
| LithosAI | 1.05M | Open | $3.93 | 228 | 0.78 | 11.74 | 8.77 | ||
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Kimi K3 (max) providers
Kimi K3 (max) is available through 14 API providers: Modal, Together AI, DigitalOcean, Baseten, Parasail, Makora, Nebius, Databricks, Bitdeer AI, Inco (FAST), Kimi, LithosAI, LithosAI (FAST), and LithosAI (ULTRA). Each provider offers different performance characteristics and pricing.
Kimi K3 (max) is currently available through 14 API providers that we benchmark and track.
The fastest providers for Kimi K3 (max) by output speed are Inco (FAST) (249.4 t/s), LithosAI (ULTRA) (228.1 t/s), and LithosAI (FAST) (221.0 t/s). Output speed measures how quickly tokens are generated after the model starts responding.
The providers with the lowest time to first answer token for Kimi K3 (max) are LithosAI (ULTRA) (9.54s), LithosAI (FAST) (9.82s), and Inco (FAST) (9.90s). Lower latency means faster initial response time.
The most affordable providers for Kimi K3 (max) by blended price are LithosAI ($1.85 per 1M tokens), Makora ($1.96 per 1M tokens), and DigitalOcean ($2.00 per 1M tokens). Blended price uses a 7:2:1 cache hit/input/output token ratio.
The providers with the lowest input token pricing for Kimi K3 (max) are LithosAI ($2.40 per 1M input tokens), DigitalOcean ($2.55 per 1M input tokens), and Makora ($2.55 per 1M input tokens).
The providers with the lowest output token pricing for Kimi K3 (max) are LithosAI ($12.00 per 1M output tokens), Makora ($12.75 per 1M output tokens), and DigitalOcean ($12.95 per 1M output tokens).
Prices for Kimi K3 (max) vary up to 2.5x across providers. The most affordable is LithosAI at $1.85 per 1M tokens, while Inco (FAST) charges $4.62 per 1M tokens.
Output speed for Kimi K3 (max) varies significantly across providers. Inco (FAST) is the fastest at 249.4 t/s, which is 7.2x faster than Kimi at 34.7 t/s.
All 14 providers of Kimi K3 (max) support JSON mode for structured output.
All 14 providers of Kimi K3 (max) support function calling (tool use).
The best provider for Kimi K3 (max) depends on your priorities: Inco (FAST) offers the highest output speed, LithosAI (ULTRA) has the lowest latency, and LithosAI provides the most competitive pricing.
When choosing a provider for Kimi K3 (max), 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 K3 (max)'s intelligence, capabilities, modalities, and how it compares to other models, see the model overview page. View model overview