Claude Opus 5 Max vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: which responds faster?

Kimi K3.1 Pro leads the intelligence index 46.5 to 44.2. Kimi K3.1 Pro costs 60% less on blended price. See token costs, speed and which to pick.

Metric	Claude Opus 5 (Max)	Kimi K3.1 Pro
Intelligence Index	44.2	46.5
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$5.00	$2.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$25.00	$10.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	50	27
Time to first token	62s	3.0s
Release date	2026-07-24	2026-10-23

Metric

Claude Opus 5 (Max)

Kimi K3.1 Pro

Intelligence Index

44.2

46.5

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$5.00

$2.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$25.00

$10.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

Time to first token

62s

3.0s

Release date

2026-07-24

2026-10-23

There is very little daylight between Claude Opus 5 (Max) (Anthropic) and Kimi K3.1 Pro (Kimi) on the overall index. The widest gap is the wait for the first token: 3.0 seconds for Kimi K3.1 Pro against 62 seconds for Claude Opus 5 Max. No hands-on testing went into this write-up; it summarises the recorded benchmark, price and speed data for both models.

How fast they respond

Claude Opus 5 Max generates about 50 tokens per second and Kimi K3.1 Pro about 27 tokens per second. That makes Claude Opus 5 Max roughly 1.8 times as fast at writing. The wait for the first token averages 62 seconds on Claude Opus 5 Max against 3.0 seconds on Kimi K3.1 Pro. That is a genuine trade-off: Kimi K3.1 Pro starts sooner, while Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first once outputs run beyond about 3,500 tokens. Waits that long are felt on every chat-style request, though they matter less for batch jobs.

Add the two numbers up for a 600-token reply and Kimi K3.1 Pro finishes first: 74 seconds for Claude Opus 5 Max, 25 seconds for Kimi K3.1 Pro.

Overall capability: 2.3 points apart

Claude Opus 5 Max records 44.2 on the intelligence index and Kimi K3.1 Pro records 46.5. The lead is visible but narrow, so it should not decide the choice on its own.

Among 109 active scored models, Claude Opus 5 Max sits 26th and Kimi K3.1 Pro 23rd.

There are no coding or math index scores for either model in the catalogue, which keeps this comparison at the aggregate level.

Token pricing and a sample bill

The list prices are $5.00 in and $25.00 out for Claude Opus 5 Max, and $2.00 in and $10.00 out for Kimi K3.1 Pro, per million tokens. For output tokens, Claude Opus 5 Max is 2.5 times the price of Kimi K3.1 Pro.

A reference job of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens costs $10.00 with Claude Opus 5 Max and $4.00 with Kimi K3.1 Pro, so Kimi K3.1 Pro saves $6.00. A bigger example, an agent that reads 50 million tokens and writes 5 million in a month, costs $375 on Claude Opus 5 Max and $150 on Kimi K3.1 Pro: a gap of $225. On a 3:1 blend of input to output tokens, that works out to $10.00 versus $4.00 per million.

Is the price in proportion?

Dividing the blended price by the intelligence index gives a rough cost per point: $0.23 for Claude Opus 5 Max and $0.086 for Kimi K3.1 Pro, per million tokens. With the higher score and the lower cost per point, Kimi K3.1 Pro is the better value per point on these numbers.

Generation gap

Claude Opus 5 Max came first, on July 24, 2026; Kimi K3.1 Pro followed on October 23, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi K3.1 Pro better than Claude Opus 5 Max?

Not across the board: Kimi K3.1 Pro scores higher on the intelligence index, 46.5 to 44.2; Kimi K3.1 Pro is 60% cheaper on blended price; Claude Opus 5 Max streams output 1.8 times as fast; and Kimi K3.1 Pro reaches its first token sooner.

Where do these numbers come from?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 5 Max or Kimi K3.1 Pro?

Claude Opus 5 Max generates output faster, at 50 tokens per second against 27 tokens per second. Kimi K3.1 Pro reaches its first token sooner (3.0 seconds against 62 seconds). Counting the first-token wait, Kimi K3.1 Pro finishes short replies first and Claude Opus 5 Max pulls ahead beyond about 3,500 tokens.

Are Claude Opus 5 Max and Kimi K3.1 Pro from the same company?

Claude Opus 5 Max is made by Anthropic and Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi. Claude Opus 5 Max was released on July 24, 2026 and Kimi K3.1 Pro on October 23, 2026.

When were Claude Opus 5 Max and Kimi K3.1 Pro released?

Kimi K3.1 Pro is newer. It was released on October 23, 2026, about 3 months after Claude Opus 5 Max (July 24, 2026).

Final whistle

The verdict: on balance the numbers favour Kimi K3.1 Pro, though Claude Opus 5 Max keeps a case of its own. Pick Claude Opus 5 Max if your outputs often run past about 3,500 tokens. Pick Kimi K3.1 Pro if users are waiting on the first word and cost matters ($10.00 against $25.00 per million output tokens).

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Opus 5 (Max) and Kimi K3.1 Pro pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.