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Model comparison

Kimi K3 vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

Kimi K3 (Moonshot) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (Meta) side by side: what each costs per million tokens through Rapid Router, how much context each takes, what each supports, and where independent benchmarks place them. Same API, same key; switching is a one-string change.

Kimi K3Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
Input price per 1M$0.304$0.020
Output price per 1M$11.94$0.040
Context window1M tokens131K tokens
Max output131K tokens118K tokens
Input typestext, image, videotext
Capabilitiestools, JSON, vision, reasoningtools, JSON
AuthorMoonshotMeta

What a month costs on each

WorkloadKimi K3Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
Chatbot month (15M in, 4M out)$52.30$0.460
RAG month (40M in, 3M out)$47.97$0.920
Coding month (60M in, 10M out)$137.60$1.60

On a typical 75/25 input-output mix, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs less (about 99% less than Kimi K3). Kimi K3 takes the longer prompt at 1M tokens. Try your own numbers in the cost calculator.

Call either one

curl https://rapidrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RAPIDROUTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "moonshotai/kimi-k3", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]}'

# the other one: change the model string
  -d '{"model": "meta-llama/meta-llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free", ...}'

Common questions

Which is cheaper, Kimi K3 or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper on a typical mix of 75% input and 25% output tokens, by about 99%. Through Rapid Router both are billed at the provider list price per million tokens.

Which has the larger context window?

Kimi K3, at 1M tokens. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct offers 131K tokens.

Can I switch between Kimi K3 and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct without changing code?

Yes. Both are callable at https://rapidrouter.ai/api/v1 with the same OpenAI-compatible request; only the model string changes (moonshotai/kimi-k3 or meta-llama/meta-llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free).

How do I pay for Kimi K3 or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Top up a Rapid Router balance by card in US dollars, and both models debit that balance per request.

More Kimi models: Moonshot API pricing · More Llama: Meta API pricing