Kimi Code: 7-Day Free Trial ($19/mo): Features, Pricing, and Risks

The official Kimi k2.5 IDE. 7-day free trial, then $19/month (Moderato). Native integration, no token anxiety, and 76.8% SWE-bench performance at 8.3x lower API cost than Claude Opus 4.5.

TL;DR

Kimi Code Moderato offers 7 days free (card required), then $19/month for unlimited Kimi k2.5 access in Moonshot’s official IDE. At $1 cheaper than Claude Pro ($20), you get frontier-level coding performance (76.8% SWE-bench, comparable to Claude Sonnet 4.5) plus native vision capabilities for mockup-to-code workflows.

The catch: Auto-renews after 7 days unless cancelled. Kimi k2.5 only—no model switching. Chinese company data handling (verify terms vs your compliance needs).

Best for: Users who want the official Kimi experience, plan sustained daily use, or prioritize native IDE integration over free alternatives like OpenCode Zen.

What You Get: The 7-Day Trial

Trial Terms (Verified January 31, 2026):

Duration: 7 days free from signup
Auto-renewal: $19/month (Moderato) unless cancelled before day 7
Card required: Yes, upfront
Model access: Kimi k2.5 only (76.8% SWE-bench)
Usage: Unlimited within fair use (rate limits not published)

**Source:** Pricing screenshot from kimi.com/code showing "Moderato $0 7-day Free" and "Automatically renews at $19 in 7 days" (verified January 31, 2026).

Post-Trial Pricing Tiers:

Plan	Monthly	Annual	Best For
Moderato	$19	—	Individual developers, moderate usage
Allegretto	$39	—	Power users, “Recommended” tier
Vivace	$199	—	Teams, heavy usage, complex projects

Annual savings: Allegretto offers “Save up to $480” when billed annually (per pricing page UI element).

Why Kimi Code vs Alternatives

Price-Performance vs Minimum GPT/Claude Offerings

Service	Monthly Cost	Model	SWE-bench	Key Limitation
Kimi Code Moderato	$19	Kimi k2.5	76.8%	Kimi only, auto-renews
Claude Pro	$20	Sonnet 4.5	~78%	No Opus 4.5 (Max $100-200 required)
ChatGPT Plus	$20	GPT-5.2 (limited)	~77%	Rate limits, limited flagship access

Critical distinction: Kimi Code at $19 gives you the full k2.5 model with no rate limits mentioned. Claude Pro at $20 does NOT include Opus 4.5—that requires $100-200 Max plan. For comparable Sonnet-level performance, Kimi Code is $1 cheaper.

API Cost Comparison (Per Million Tokens)

For context on what you’re getting with the flat $19/month:

Model	Input	Output	Context	Cost Efficiency
Kimi k2.5	$0.60 ($0.10 cache)	$3.00	256K	Baseline
Claude Opus 4.5	$5.00	$25.00	200K	8.3x more expensive
Claude Sonnet 4.5	$3.00	$15.00	200K	5x more expensive
GPT-5.2	$1.75	$14.00	400K	4.7x more expensive
Gemini 3 Flash	FREE	$3.00	1M	Free input, same output

Sources:

Kimi k2.5: Moonshot Platform Pricing (January 28, 2026)
Claude Opus/Sonnet: Anthropic Pricing (verified January 31, 2026)
GPT-5.2: OpenAI API Pricing (verified January 31, 2026)

Break-Even Analysis

When does $19/month beat pay-as-you-go API costs?

Typical developer usage: 500K input + 200K output tokens/month

Kimi k2.5 API cost: $0.90 (input) + $0.60 (output) = **$1.50/month**
Kimi Code Moderato: $19/month

Break-even point: ~10M+ tokens/month (heavy usage)

But the value isn’t just raw tokens:

No token anxiety (unlimited usage within fair use)
Native IDE integration (faster workflow than API + client setup)
Official support from Moonshot
No API key management

Verdict: Kimi Code wins on convenience and peace of mind, not pure cost efficiency for light usage.

Capabilities

Kimi k2.5: What You’re Getting

Performance: 76.8% SWE-bench Verified (software engineering tasks) — within 4 points of Claude Opus 4.5 (80.9%) at 8.3x lower cost.

Native Multimodal:

Vision-to-code: Upload mockups, screenshots, or videos → get working code
Video understanding: Reconstruct websites from screen recordings
UI implementation: Pixel-perfect frontend from design files

Agent Architecture:

Self-direct up to 100 sub-agents in parallel
Batch processing multiple files simultaneously
Parallel research queries (4.5x faster than sequential)

Context Window: 256K tokens (~200K words or large codebases)

IDE Features

Kimi CLI: Terminal integration (curl -L code.kimi.com/install.sh | bash)
VS Code/IDE support: Works with major editors
Real-time console: Balance tracking, refresh countdown, request logs
One subscription, multiple contexts: Use across CLI, IDE, and web

Source: kimi.com/code documentation (verified January 31, 2026)

The Catch

Auto-Renewal Risk

Critical: The 7-day trial automatically converts to $19/month Moderato unless cancelled. Set a calendar reminder for day 6.

**Action required:** Cancellation must happen before day 7 ends. Trial converts automatically—no grace period mentioned in terms.

Model Lock-In

Kimi k2.5 only. No switching to Claude, GPT, or Gemini within the same subscription.
If you need multi-model workflows, consider OpenCode Zen (free, multiple models) or Claude Pro ($20, Sonnet + Haiku).

Data Handling

Geographic considerations:

Moonshot AI is a Chinese company
Verify data residency and training policies against your compliance requirements
Not available in mainland China (per promotion terms)
Some regions restricted due to “payment capabilities or policy regulations”

Source: Kimi New User First-Month Deal Terms (verified January 31, 2026)

Rate Limits (Unpublished)

Unlike OpenCode Zen (which discloses pay-as-you-go spending limits), Kimi Code doesn’t publish exact rate limits for Moderato tier. Usage is “unlimited within fair use”—expect throttling at extreme volumes.

Geographic Restrictions

Mainland China: Not supported
Some regions: Restricted due to payment/policy (check signup flow)
Event availability: “Outside mainland China only” per terms

When to Choose Kimi Code Moderato

Choose this when:

You want the official experience: Native Moonshot IDE, official support, seamless integration
You’re already paying $20/month: Kimi Code is $1 cheaper than Claude Pro with comparable performance
Vision-to-code is your workflow: Kimi k2.5’s native multimodal beats text-only alternatives for UI work
You hate token anxiety: Flat $19/month vs watching API meter tick
You plan sustained daily use: Breaks even vs API at heavy usage, plus convenience premium

Consider alternatives when:

You need model flexibility: OpenCode Zen (free, Kimi + GLM) or Claude Pro ($20, Sonnet + Haiku)
You need Opus 4.5’s reasoning edge: Antigravity (free Opus 4.5) or Claude Max ($100-200)
You want free long-term: OpenCode Zen offers ongoing free Kimi k2.5 (beta, rate-limited)
Strict enterprise compliance required: Anthropic/Google may offer better data residency terms
High-context workflows: Gemini 3 Flash offers 1M context with free input tokens

Setup

1. Start the Trial

Visit kimi.com/code or run:

1
curl -L code.kimi.com/install.sh | bash

2. Select Moderato Plan

Choose “Moderato” ($0 7-day Free)
Enter payment details (card required upfront)
Set calendar reminder for day 6 to evaluate cancellation

3. Configure Your Environment

1
2
3
4
5
6
# Kimi CLI is ready to use
kimi --version

# Or integrate with your IDE
# VS Code: Install Kimi Code extension
# JetBrains: Plugin available

4. Monitor Usage

Real-time console shows balance, refresh countdown, request logs
Track if you’re approaching any unpublished limits

Where Next

Want free Kimi k2.5 long-term? → OpenCode Zen - Ongoing free tier (beta, rate limits apply)

Need Opus 4.5 for free? → Antigravity - Free Opus 4.5 during public preview → AMP Ad-Supported - $10/day free credits

Want model flexibility? → Claude Pro - $20/month, Sonnet 4.5 + Haiku 4.5

Considering direct API? → Kimi k2.5 API - $0.60/$3.00 per 1M tokens

Kimi k2.5 Model Guide - Full capabilities and benchmarks
Free Frontier Stack - All free tier options
Smart Spend Guide - When to pay vs stay free
Budget LLM Comparison - Kimi vs Gemini vs Claude API pricing

Verification & Sources

Last verified: January 31, 2026