Kimi K3
Moonshot AI's 2.8T-parameter multimodal chatbot with a 1M-token context window, tuned for coding and long-horizon agentic tasks.
Updated 2026-07-17
Yes, within limits. Kimi K3 runs a free tier with paid plans above it.
Listed pricing: Free tier + paid from $19/mo; API $3/$15 per M tokens.
Overview
Kimi K3 is Moonshot AI's flagship chat assistant, powered by a 2.8-trillion-parameter (mixture-of-experts) multimodal model with a 1-million-token context window. It's positioned squarely at the frontier tier — the July 16, 2026 launch put it near the top of several frontend-coding leaderboards, where Moonshot pitches it directly against Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol. You reach it through the kimi.com web app and mobile clients, or via an OpenAI-compatible API for developers.
The pitch is agentic work over very long inputs: reasoning across whole codebases, multi-file refactors, and multi-step tool use without losing the thread. The 1M context is the headline, but the more interesting story is price — Moonshot has consistently undercut US frontier labs, and K3's API rate of $3 in / $15 out per million tokens lands well below comparable Claude and GPT tiers while claiming similar coding scores. That combination is what's driving the attention, especially among developers who found earlier Kimi releases capable but rough around the edges in English.
Who's it for? Developers and power users who want a long-context, coding-strong assistant and care about token economics — and who are comfortable with a Chinese lab's data-handling and availability tradeoffs. Benchmark leadership at launch is common and rarely durable, so treat the leaderboard claims as a starting point rather than a settled verdict.
Is Kimi K3 free?
Yes, within limits. Kimi K3 runs a free tier with paid plans above it.
What the free tier covers: Free access to Kimi K3 with limits on messages and long-context usage.
Listed pricing: Free tier + paid from $19/mo; API $3/$15 per M tokens.
Pricing on this page has not been re-verified. The entry was last edited on , and no separate pricing check has been run since. Treat the figures as a record of what was published then and confirm on the official site.
What the free tier leaves out
Read straight off the plan list below. Vendors move features between tiers, so check the current split before you pay.
- Paid From $19/mo Higher rate limits, priority access, and expanded long-context usage. Check website for exact tier breakdown.
- API $3 / $15 per M tokens OpenAI-compatible API billed per token (input / output) for developers building on K3.
Kimi K3 pricing
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Access to Kimi K3 via web and mobile with usage limits on messages and long-context requests. |
| Paid | From $19/mo | Higher rate limits, priority access, and expanded long-context usage. Check website for exact tier breakdown. |
| API | $3 / $15 per M tokens | OpenAI-compatible API billed per token (input / output) for developers building on K3. |
Access to Kimi K3 via web and mobile with usage limits on messages and long-context requests.
Higher rate limits, priority access, and expanded long-context usage. Check website for exact tier breakdown.
OpenAI-compatible API billed per token (input / output) for developers building on K3.
Pricing on this page has not been re-verified. The entry was last edited on , and no separate pricing check has been run since. Treat the figures as a record of what was published then and confirm on the official site.
Is Kimi K3 worth it?
Worth it for Developers and power users who want a long-context, coding-focused chatbot with lower token costs than comparable frontier tiers.
You can test that on the free tier before paying anything. The recorded trade-offs are listed below, and any one of them can settle the question on its own.
The 8.5/10 AI Score is an editorial read of published capability, price and shipping pace. Nobody here has hands-on hours with Kimi K3. How we verify.
Worth it if
The strengths recorded against this entry.
- 1M-token context window handles whole codebases and long document sets in one session
- Strong frontend-coding benchmark results at launch, competitive with Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol
- API pricing ($3/$15 per M tokens) undercuts comparable US frontier tiers
- Multimodal input plus an OpenAI-compatible API make it easy to drop into existing tooling
- Generous free tier for trying it before committing
Not worth it if
Any one of these blocks your use case.
- Launch-day benchmark leadership rarely holds as rivals ship and independent testing catches up
- Chinese-lab data handling, content policies, and regional availability may be dealbreakers for some teams
- Exact paid-tier limits and long-context caps aren't fully transparent — check the site
- As a brand-new release, real-world reliability under sustained agentic workloads is still unproven
What sets Kimi K3 apart
- 1M-token context window for whole-codebase and long-document reasoning
- API priced at $3 in / $15 out per M tokens, undercutting comparable US frontier tiers
- Multimodal input paired with an OpenAI-compatible API for existing tooling
- Topped several frontend-coding leaderboards at its July 2026 launch
Key features
1M-token context
Holds roughly a million tokens in a single session, enough to load large codebases or long document sets without chunking, which matters for whole-repo reasoning and extended agent runs.
Agentic coding
Tuned for multi-step tool use and multi-file code changes; Moonshot's launch benchmarks emphasized frontend coding tasks where K3 topped several leaderboards at release.
Multimodal input
Accepts images alongside text so you can feed screenshots, diagrams, or UI mockups into the same conversation as code and prose.
Low-cost API
OpenAI-compatible endpoint priced at $3 input / $15 output per million tokens, undercutting comparable frontier tiers from US labs for high-volume agent workloads.
How it compares
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi K3 | Developers and power users who want a long-context, coding-focused chatbot with lower token costs than comparable frontier tiers. | Free tier + paid from $19/mo; API $3/$15 per M tokens | 8.5/10 |
| ChatGPT vs ChatGPT → | Users who want one subscription covering reasoning, voice, vision, image and video generation, and agentic browsing in a single app. | Free tier + Plus $20/mo + Pro $200/mo | 9.5/10 |
| Claude vs Claude → | Developers and professionals who need agentic coding, computer control, and large-document or codebase analysis in one assistant. | Free tier + Pro $20/mo + Team $30/mo/user | 9.5/10 |
| Gemini vs Gemini → | Google Workspace users who want an assistant that can read their Gmail, Drive, and Calendar while reasoning across huge documents or videos in one pass. | Free tier + Advanced $19.99/mo | 9.2/10 |
Compare head-to-head
Related reading
Kimi K3 vs GPT-5.6 Sol: What 2.8T Really Means
Kimi K3's "2.8 trillion parameters" is the figure every writeup repeats. Here's where it comes from, what it measures, and what it does to your budget.
Kimi K3 vs Fable 5: Moonshot's Open Challenge
Moonshot's 2.8T Kimi K3 lands July 16 with open weights due July 27, and its real contrast with Anthropic's Fable 5 is access, not score.
Kimi K3 Explained: Moonshot's 2.8T MoE Model
Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 is a 2.8T-parameter open MoE model with 1M context and weights due July 27. Here's what the specs actually mean.
Ready to try Kimi K3?
Head to the official site to start with Kimi K3 — pricing and plans are listed above.
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