Kimi Code is Moonshot AI’s developer coding subscription, selling the K-series models through a CLI, desktop app, and VS Code extension under a membership quota. The same membership is sold at a yen ladder on kimi.com and a dollar ladder on kimi.ai, and the entry tiers do not convert between them.
What it is #
Moonshot AI sells Kimi Code as the developer service inside a Kimi membership, with CLI, desktop, IDE, and third-party requests drawing on one shared quota. Third-party harnesses connect through OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible endpoints on api.kimi.com. Model access is tiered: K2.7 Code for every paying member, K3 at full 1M context from the mid tier up, with RMB-billed Extra Usage as overflow.
Status #
Active and restructuring quickly: K3 shipped into Kimi Code on July 17, 2026, by late September a restructure had renamed tiers and dropped the weekly quota window for new members, and in October 2026 a second restructure renamed both ladders (Plus/Pro/Max/Ultra internationally, Go/Plus/Pro/Max in China) with the musical tiers kept on as legacy plans. The CLI is published on GitHub under MoonshotAI, with third-party coverage putting it at 3.2k stars in July 2026. Independent guides multiplied through 2026, which I read as genuine adoption.
Strengths #
- The $19 entry ($15 billed annually) undercuts Claude Pro and Cursor Pro while including a 1M-context frontier-class model at the mid tier.
- The yen ladder starts at ¥49 per month, well below the $19 international entry at any recent exchange rate.
- Anthropic-compatible endpoints mean Claude Code and OpenCode work without new tooling.
Cautions #
- Coding quota shares one pool with chat, Deep Research, and other Kimi features, so non-coding usage drains your coding allowance.
- The plan ladder moved twice in 2026, so quota rules at signup may not persist.
- A February 2026 checkout experiment offered personalized first months between $0.99 and $11.99, so two subscribers on one tier can pay different prices.
- One four-month user quit, reporting that higher tiers bought less inference per dollar, not more.
Pricing #
On kimi.ai (as of 2026-10-14, re-verified unchanged from the 2026-10-12 read): Plus $19, Pro $39, Max $99, Ultra $199 per month, annual effective $15/$31/$79/$159; the former musical tiers (Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, Vivace) are legacy plans at unchanged prices. On kimi.com (as of 2026-10-14, re-verified unchanged): Go ¥49, Plus ¥99, Pro ¥199, Max ¥699 per month, annual equivalents ¥39/¥79/¥159/¥559; the former musical tiers (Andante, Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro) are legacy plans at unchanged monthly prices, with annual billing added. On both ladders, Go has no coding quota, Plus and above include Kimi Code under a rolling 5-hour limit with no weekly limit, legacy plans keep both the 5-hour and weekly windows, and Pro and above unlock K3 at 1M context. The monthly pool is credits shared across every Kimi feature, and Kimi Code additionally runs under its own usage limit (a rolling 5-hour rate window for new members, the weekly window having been removed; the membership help page still phrases it as a 5-hour/weekly limit because legacy plans keep the weekly window, per the membership docs re-fetched 2026-10-11) that applies only to Kimi Code. Extra Usage is pay-as-you-go overflow with a ¥25 minimum top-up, generally non-refundable.
Price history #
| Date | Plan | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-17 | Moderato to Vivace | Listed $19/$39/$99/$199 with time-limited promos at $15/$31/$79/$159; Kimi and Kimi Code separation announced | |
| 2026-09-26 | Same tiers | Promos became standard annual pricing; new plans released at unchanged prices, weekly window dropped for new members | |
| 2026-10-12 | Both ladders | Tier rename: international Moderato/Allegretto/Allegro/Vivace became Plus/Pro/Max/Ultra and China Andante/Moderato/Allegretto/Allegro became Go/Plus/Pro/Max at unchanged monthly prices, musical tiers designated legacy, annual billing added on both ladders |
Compared to #
MiniMax Coding Plan meters tokens across modalities instead of time windows, cheaper at the top end but carrying 2026 billing-change baggage. NanoGPT fits when open-weight breadth matters more than one lab’s flagship. Claude Code or Cursor remain the picks when reliability per hour beats price per hour.
Bottom line #
Recommended for cost-sensitive daily coders who want K3’s 1M context at $15 to $39 per month and accept quota churn. Not for teams needing contract-stable plan terms after two restructures in one year. I will claim something arguable: the ¥49 China-market ladder proves this product profits at roughly a third of the international price, which makes $19 a regional tax, not a cost.
Changes #
- 2026-09-26 - Created.
- 2026-10-06 - Converted the Compared-to cross-references from plain-text paths into working links.
- 2026-10-06 - Pricing re-verified on both membership pages; the help docs now state that Kimi Code carries its own usage limit (a rolling 5-hour rate window, the weekly window removed for new members) on top of the shared monthly credit pool, and both ladder as-of dates moved to 2026-10-06.
- 2026-10-12 - Second restructure of the year: both membership ladders renamed (international Moderato/Allegretto/Allegro/Vivace to Plus/Pro/Max/Ultra, China Andante/Moderato/Allegretto/Allegro to Go/Plus/Pro/Max) at unchanged monthly prices, the musical tiers designated legacy with their 5-hour-plus-weekly windows retained, annual billing added on both ladders, and the rolling-5-hour, no-weekly-limit rule confirmed for new Kimi Code plans; price history row appended.
- 2026-10-14 - Both ladders re-verified unchanged two days after the rename, and the pay-per-token API listing for kimi-k3 recorded in the references for the first time (InferenceNet $0.73/$10.00, Wafer $0.72/$24.00, Morph $0.75/$14.90, official $3/$15), with the day-by-day API price history kept in the harnesses note.
- 2026-10-14 - Re-recorded the pay-per-token reference after the listing churned within the day: the main listing moved to $0.70/$15.00 (cache reads $0.32) and the endpoint floor to $0.56/$14.00 on Relace, with InferenceNet matching the main listing; the move-by-move history stays in the harnesses note.
- 2026-10-16 - Re-recorded the pay-per-token reference after the listing’s fifteenth recorded move: the main listing closed the day at $0.304/$11.936 (cache reads $0.21) after the output leg rose intraday from an earlier $11.588 reading, with InferenceNet matching, Relace’s endpoint at $0.35/$14.00, Morph at $1.00/$14.90, and Wafer’s two endpoints at $0.294/$28.00 and $0.36/$17.50; the move-by-move history stays in the harnesses note.
See also #
- MiniMax Coding Plan - the other first-party Chinese coding plan, token-metered where Kimi is window-metered.
- NanoGPT - the gateway alternative when model breadth beats model loyalty.
- OpenCode - a harness that drives Kimi Code’s Anthropic-compatible endpoint.
- Model selection for coding tasks - pick the model before the plan.
References #
https://www.kimi.com/code/en - official product page; surfaces and the K3 1M-context claim.
https://www.kimi.ai/help/membership/membership-pricing - dollar pricing $19/$39/$99/$199 monthly, $15/$31/$79/$159 annual, as of 2026-10-12, when the ladder read Plus/Pro/Max/Ultra with the musical tiers designated legacy (fetched, HTTP 200; re-fetched 2026-10-14 unchanged).
https://www.digitalapplied.com/blog/kimi-code-k3-hands-on-setup-plans-cache-2026 - July 17, 2026 snapshot of listed vs promo prices and the separation banner.
https://aihackers.net/value/deals/kimi-haggle/ - documented February 2026 first-month offers of $0.99 to $11.99, marked historical.
https://www.noemititarenco.com/blog/kimi-code-plan-after-4-months-of-use-honest-review/ - skeptical four-month user review and cancellation rationale.
https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models/moonshotai/kimi-k3/endpoints - the pay-per-token API listing for the K3 model the ladder gates: main listing $0.304/$11.936 per million tokens (cache reads $0.21) with InferenceNet matching it, the cheapest input endpoint at $0.294/$28.00 on Wafer (its US endpoint $0.36/$17.50), Relace at $0.35/$14.00, Morph at $1.00/$14.90, Sail Research at $0.84/$13.50, and Moonshot’s own endpoint at $3/$15 (fetched 2026-10-16; the per-move history of this churning listing is tracked in the harnesses note for the CLI).