Kimi K3 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro

A practical comparison of Moonshot’s Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4 Pro — capability, cost, license, modality, and when to route each.

Kimi K3 · Moonshot

2.8T Stable LatentMoE · 16/896 experts

Deepseek V4 Pro

1.6T MoE · 49B active · 384 experts + shared

Head-To-Head · What Actually Moves The Needle

Blended task cost often favors DeepSeek by ~10–20× — pay Kimi only when the harder job needs it.

Pick Kimi K3 When

Long-horizon coding / agent runs need top open IQ