[good]

Moonshot AI

Kimi K2

Open Source
5.0
out of 10

Kimi K2 (0905) is the flagship model from Moonshot AI, a Beijing-based startup — and the current default model on T3.chat. It's a Mixture-of-Experts model with 1 trillion total parameters and 32 billion active per forward pass, released September 2025. Kimi K2 scores an AA Intelligence Index of 31 (#6 of 36 in open-weights large models) and is available as open weights under a permissive license. At $0.39/$1.90 per 1M tokens via the Moonshot API with a 262K context window, it offers strong capability per dollar. Also available in a dedicated Thinking mode for complex reasoning. A newer version (Kimi K2.5) has since launched.

Context window

262K tokens

API (blended)

$0.77/1M

Consumer access

Free (limited)

Multimodal

Text only

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Strengths

  • +Open weights (1T parameters, 32B active MoE) — can self-host or fine-tune
  • +AA Intelligence Index 31 — #6 of 36 in open-weights large model class
  • +262K context window — more than double GPT-5.2's 400K is better, but Kimi K2's 262K beats many open models
  • +Aggressive pricing: $0.39/$1.90 per 1M — strong value for API pipelines
  • +Thinking mode available for complex reasoning tasks
  • +T3.chat's default model — widely accessible and tested by many users

Weaknesses

  • -Chinese company (Moonshot AI, Beijing) — data jurisdiction concerns for sensitive workloads
  • -Newer Kimi K2.5 released — this model is one generation behind as of Feb 2026
  • -AA Index 31 is significantly below frontier models (Gemini 3.1 Pro: 57, Claude Opus: 53)
  • -Consumer interface (kimi.ai) is primarily Chinese-language — not ideal for English-first users
  • -Limited Western enterprise support and SLAs

Best for

cost-sensitive API pipelines needing strong open-model performanceself-hosting and fine-tuning (open weights, large context)developers comfortable with Chinese provider infrastructureagentic workflows on a budget

Not ideal for

sensitive enterprise workloads (Chinese data jurisdiction)users needing English-first consumer chat products (kimi.ai is Chinese-first)applications requiring highest-tier intelligence (use Gemini 3.1 Pro or Claude Opus)

Pricing details

Subscription plans

Kimi.ai FreeWeb chat with Kimi K2, web search, file uploads — free with daily limits(Daily message limits; primarily Chinese-language interface)
Free

API pricing

Moonshot APIKimi K2 0905: $0.39/$1.90 per 1M tokens. Context window: 262K tokens. Also available on Together AI, OpenRouter, and other third-party providers at varying rates. Thinking mode available separately.
$0.39/$1.9

Prices verified February 2026. LLM pricing changes frequently — verify at the provider's site before budgeting.

Last updated: February 2026