Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Claude Opus 5.5 (2026-11)
As of 2026-11-11, Kimi K3.1 Pro is Moonshot's open-weight, always-thinking 3T-class model and Claude Opus 5.5 is Anthropic's closed flagship; both run on one QCode key. Below, the two vendors' official pages are compared item by item on release date, context, official maximum output, thinking behavior, official prices and vendor-reported benchmarks, with choices and switching steps for coding agents.
Updated 2026-11-11
Switch models on the same endpoint and measure the cost per token yourself; check /models for callable models.
- Billed per token — live rates on /models
- Pay by card (Visa / Mastercard), Apple Pay, Google Pay or crypto
- Self-service: top up and activate instantly
Four official points
Both have a 1M context
Moonshot's official pricing page says the K3.1 Pro series supports a 1,048,576-token context, and its platform docs describe a 3T-class model with native visual understanding and a 1M-token context window. Anthropic's official spec line gives Opus 5.5 a 1M context and 128K max output. QCode's /models shows 1M / 131K for kimi-k3.1-pro and 1M / 128K for claude-opus-5-5.
K3.1 Pro official price (USD)
Moonshot official price (USD, checked 2026-11-11; the official pricing page itself labels 2026-10-24 as its rate-check date): standard K3.1 Pro is $2.00 input, $10.00 output and $0.20 on a cache hit per million tokens. The CNY official price is ¥13.00 input, ¥68.00 output and ¥1.30 on a cache hit per MTok. A Highspeed variant is also official, at $4.00 input, $20.00 output and $0.20 on a cache hit in USD.
Opus 5.5 official price (USD)
Anthropic official price (USD, checked 2026-11-11): the official spec line gives Opus 5.5 $4 / MTok input and $20 / MTok output, and the pricing announcement gives $4 input and $20 output per million tokens, with cache reads at $0.20; Anthropic writes that cache reads make up the majority of agentic and coding work costs. The spec line also lists 128K max output.
Vendor-reported Terminal-Bench 4.0
Moonshot's official blog writes that on Terminal-Bench 4.0, K3.1 Pro scores 65.7%, ahead of GPT-6 Astra (58.2%) and narrowly behind Claude Opus 5.5 (66.4%); Anthropic's official announcement also self-reports Opus 5.5 at 66.4%. Both figures are vendor-reported.
Where the two models actually differ
As of 2026-11-11, Kimi K3.1 Pro and Claude Opus 5.5 differ mainly in open weights, release timing, thinking levels and official prices: Moonshot describes K3.1 Pro as the first model in the K3.1 series and a 3T-class open-weight model, with the series live on 2026-10-23 and full weights released by 2026-11-04; Anthropic describes Opus 5.5 as the first model in the Claude 5.5 family, released on 2026-09-22, with model ID claude-opus-5-5. Both have a 1M context and always-on thinking, but K3.1 Pro uses reasoning_effort at low, high or max (default max), while Opus 5.5 controls depth with effort and defaults to medium. Official prices are listed in each currency as published.
Both keep thinking always on
Moonshot's official API docs say K3.1 Pro always has thinking mode enabled, with reasoning_effort supporting low, high and max (default max); its official FAQ puts it as 'You can't — K3.1 Pro always thinks.'. Kimi Code only supports thinking mode, and disabling thinking returns a 400 error. Anthropic's official model page says Opus 5.5 has Adaptive thinking always on and can't be turned off, with effort controlling depth and medium as the default.
Timeline
Anthropic releases Claude Opus 5.5, which its official announcement calls the first model in the new Claude 5.5 family; model ID claude-opus-5-5.
Moonshot's K3.1 Pro series goes live; its official blog says full model weights will be released by 2026-11-04, and a moonshotai/Kimi-K3.1-Pro model card is on Hugging Face.
QCode's /models lists kimi-k3.1-pro alongside claude-opus-5-5; the official statements and QCode specs were both checked on 2026-11-11.
Confirmed vs not published
Confirmed (official wording)
① K3.1 Pro: Moonshot's official blog calls it the first model in the K3.1 series, a 3T-class open-weight model with a 1M context; its platform docs describe a 3T-class model with native visual understanding and a 1M-token context window. ② Full model weights will be released by 2026-11-04, a moonshotai/Kimi-K3.1-Pro model card is on Hugging Face, under the Kimi K3.1 Pro License; Anthropic's official model overview and pricing pages list only Opus 5.5 API specs and prices, no open weights, and its public Hugging Face org page has no Claude weight repos (checked 2026-11-11). ③ Release: the K3.1 Pro series went live on 2026-10-23; Opus 5.5 was released on 2026-09-22 with model ID claude-opus-5-5. ④ Context and max output: K3.1 Pro officially has a 1,048,576-token context, with max_completion_tokens defaulting to 131072 and settable up to 1048576; Opus 5.5 officially has a 1M context and 128K max output. ⑤ Thinking: K3.1 Pro always thinks, with reasoning_effort at low, high or max (default max); Opus 5.5 has Adaptive thinking always on and can't be turned off, with effort defaulting to medium. ⑥ Official price (checked 2026-11-11): K3.1 Pro is $2.00 input, $10.00 output and $0.20 on a cache hit per million tokens in USD, or ¥13.00 input, ¥68.00 output and ¥1.30 on a cache hit per MTok in CNY; Opus 5.5 is $4 input and $20 output per million tokens, with cache reads at $0.20. ⑦ Vendor-reported benchmarks: on Terminal-Bench 4.0, K3.1 Pro 65.7%, GPT-6 Astra 58.2% and Claude Opus 5.5 66.4%, with Anthropic's official announcement self-reporting Opus 5.5 at 66.4%.
No same-source comparison published
Neither vendor has put both models through one shared evaluation. Moonshot's Hugging Face model card notes that K3.1 Pro's Terminal-Bench 4.0 was run with the Claude Code harness, while the other scores come from each model's official blog or the official Terminal-Bench leaderboard; Anthropic's official announcement gives only its own 66.4%. These figures come from different evaluation setups and are all vendor-reported. Moonshot's official blog also says K3.1 Pro matches or approaches the strongest proprietary models across coding, agentic and knowledge benchmarks, which is the vendor's own assessment.
How to choose
Need self-hosting or open weights
Moonshot officially describes K3.1 Pro as an open-weight model, with a moonshotai/Kimi-K3.1-Pro model card and weights on Hugging Face under the Kimi K3.1 Pro License, and full weights released by 2026-11-04. If you need to self-host or get the weight files, follow the official open-weight route and pick K3.1 Pro.
Your stack is built on Anthropic's native API
Opus 5.5 has the official model ID claude-opus-5-5, and Anthropic's official models overview says that if you're unsure which model to use, start with Opus 5.5 for most workloads. Anthropic-protocol tools such as Claude Code are configured through the model field in their official docs; QCode's endpoints doc says Claude models are served only through the Anthropic Messages API and OpenAI-compatible endpoints do not serve Claude models. On QCode, kimi-k3.1-pro can be filled in under either the Anthropic or the OpenAI-compatible protocol, so choose by the tool you are wiring up.
How to use it
① In Claude Code, switch models as the official docs describe: use /model followed by a model name to switch immediately, or run /model with no argument to open the picker; to move to kimi-k3.1-pro, type /model kimi-k3.1-pro. ② To make it the default for new sessions, configure it permanently in your settings file using the model field; /model also saves your choice as the default for new sessions by writing the model field in your user settings. ANTHROPIC_MODEL applies only to the session you launch with it. ③ For OpenAI-compatible tools, set the Base URL to https://api.qcode.cc/openai/v1 and type kimi-k3.1-pro character by character in the model field; OpenAI-compatible mode often lists nothing, so fill the id manually. ④ QCode bills per token, with per-model rates on /models.
Specs on QCode
Since 2026-11-11, QCode's /models has listed kimi-k3.1-pro (shown as 1M / 131K) and claude-opus-5-5 (shown as 1M / 128K), with vision, tool calls and prompt caching in the feature column. On QCode, the single-output cap for kimi-k3.1-pro is 131,072 tokens, which differs from the official API docs where max_completion_tokens defaults to 131072 and can be set up to 1048576; on QCode, go by the 131,072 shown on /models. One API Key serves all three protocols, with the protocol chosen by the request path: Claude models use https://api.qcode.cc/api, and OpenAI-compatible tools take https://api.qcode.cc/openai/v1. QCode bills per token, with per-model rates on /models.
Frequently asked questions
Can Kimi K3.1 Pro replace Claude Opus 5.5?
Neither vendor's official pages give a same-source comparison of the two. K3.1 Pro is an open-weight, always-thinking 3T-class model at an official $2 / $10 (USD); Opus 5.5 is a closed model, the first in the 5.5 family with Adaptive thinking always on, at an official $4 / $20 (USD). Pick K3.1 Pro if you need to self-host or read the weights; pick Opus 5.5 if your stack is built on Anthropic's native API, or if you follow the Anthropic docs' advice to start with Opus 5.5 when unsure. Both run on the same QCode key, and you can switch between them per task.
How much do the official prices differ?
The two official prices (checked 2026-11-11), listed in their own currencies: K3.1 Pro is $2.00 input, $10.00 output and $0.20 on a cache hit per million tokens in USD, or ¥13.00 input, ¥68.00 output and ¥1.30 on a cache hit per MTok in CNY; Opus 5.5 is $4 input and $20 output per million tokens, with cache reads at $0.20. The two vendors use different currencies and billing units.
How do I use K3.1 Pro in Claude Code?
Per the Claude Code official docs: use /model followed by a model name to switch immediately, or run /model with no argument to open the picker; to move to kimi-k3.1-pro, type /model kimi-k3.1-pro. The model field in your settings file configures it permanently, and /model also saves your choice as the default for new sessions by writing the model field in your user settings. With Claude Code already pointed at QCode, there is no need to change ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL; just /model.
Can thinking be turned off?
Neither can be turned off. Moonshot's official FAQ says 'You can't — K3.1 Pro always thinks.', and its API docs say K3.1 Pro always has thinking mode enabled, with reasoning_effort at low, high or max (default max); Kimi Code only supports thinking mode and disabling thinking returns a 400 error. Anthropic's official model page says Opus 5.5 has Adaptive thinking always on and can't be turned off, with effort controlling depth and medium as the default.
Does QCode offer Highspeed?
No. As of 2026-11-11, QCode's /models does not list kimi-k3.1-pro-highspeed. A Kimi K3.1 Pro Highspeed variant does exist officially: Moonshot's platform docs list it as the high-speed variant, at an official USD price of $4.00 input, $20.00 output and $0.20 on a cache hit (checked 2026-11-11). QCode bills per token, with per-model rates on /models.
Can both models use the same key?
Yes. QCode's /models lists both kimi-k3.1-pro and claude-opus-5-5. One API Key serves all three protocols, with the protocol chosen by the request path: Claude models use https://api.qcode.cc/api, and OpenAI-compatible tools take https://api.qcode.cc/openai/v1. A single API Key works on all three domains, with only the hostname changing. QCode bills per token, with per-model rates on /models.
Sources
Moonshot official sources: the Kimi K3.1 Pro blog, the Kimi API pricing pages (USD and CNY), the K3.1 Pro quickstart, the platform models doc, the Kimi Code what's-new page and the Hugging Face model card. Anthropic official sources: the Opus 5.5 model page, the models overview and the pricing announcement. Claude Code official sources: the model-config and settings docs. QCode: qcode.cc/models and the endpoints and Chinese-models pages on docs.qcode.cc. All were fetched on 2026-11-11.
K3.1 Pro and Opus 5.5, item by item
Not ready for a monthly plan? Pay-as-you-go Packs start at $4 for a one-time quota you use within 7 days; if you already have a Personal Plan, add a booster pack when you need more quota.
Related
One-time quota packs: no monthly plan, valid 7 days
One-time quota packs valid for 7 days, no subscription; per-model rates are on /models.
Kimi K3.1 Pro API pricing and launch status (2026-10-23)
Checked 2026-10-26: kimi-k3.1-pro official price $2.00 input, $10.00 output, $0.20 cached; Highspeed $4.00 / $20.00 / $0.20; CNY prices listed separately; weights on Hugging Face (checked 2026-11-09). Since 2026-11-11, kimi-k3.1-pro is callable on QCode.
Claude Opus 5.5 complete guide
Claude Opus 5.5 guide: pricing, caching, the comparison with Opus 5, calling it on QCode (2026-10-19)
Crypto payment guide
Nine coins, 56 networks, zero platform fee for AI coding API credits.
Official statements checked on 2026-11-11 against Moonshot, Anthropic and Claude Code pages; model availability and rates follow qcode.cc/models.