Kimi Code is Moonshot’s current coding membership path, and its public product page now shows K2.7 Code. It supports the official CLI, selected IDE workflows, and third-party coding agents through a stable kimi-for-coding model ID.
Use Kimi K2.7 Code for pay-as-you-go model specifications and pricing. Kimi Code membership is a separate quota and credit product.
Current Status
| Item | June 28 read |
|---|---|
| Product model shown | K2.7 Code |
| CLI | Current Node.js-based Kimi Code CLI |
| Stable third-party model ID | kimi-for-coding |
| Protocols | OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible endpoints |
| Membership accounting | Shared Kimi credits plus Kimi Code quota/rate windows |
| API platform billing | Separate pay-as-you-go Kimi Platform product |
The kimi-for-coding ID is not the same contract as the kimi-k2.7-code API ID. Kimi says the stable membership alias can map to newer backend models over time. Record the displayed backend model when reproducibility matters.
Install and Authenticate
| |
Use /login for the official OAuth flow. Membership users can also create API keys for supported third-party tools.
Current Kimi docs list:
- OpenAI-compatible base URL:
https://api.kimi.com/coding/v1 - Anthropic-compatible base URL:
https://api.kimi.com/coding/ - Model ID:
kimi-for-coding
Keep the tool’s real identity/User-Agent. Kimi warns that spoofing the client identity can suspend membership benefits.
CLI, IDE, and Third-Party Tools
Kimi documents code reading, file editing, command execution, web search, goals, MCP, skills, plugins, hooks, and subagents in the current CLI.
The VS Code path needs a caveat: current docs say new VS Code extension installations are limited to legacy Python CLI users while the TypeScript CLI integration is adapted. Existing users can continue, and other editors can connect through the CLI’s ACP protocol.
Third-party integrations include Claude Code, Roo Code, OpenCode, OpenClaw, and compatible agent frameworks. Compatibility does not mean unlimited use or a direct K2.7 pay-as-you-go entitlement.
Quotas and Credits
Two layers apply:
- Kimi Code quota refreshes every seven days from the subscription date; unused weekly quota does not carry over.
- A rolling five-hour frequency window can rate-limit bursts even when weekly quota remains.
All logged-in devices and Kimi Code API keys share the same account quota. Kimi also says membership features now use a unified monthly credit pool, including Kimi Code, and that exhausting monthly credits can freeze new Code work until refresh or upgrade.
Do not preserve older fixed request-count promises as current guarantees. Check the console and subscription page for the account’s remaining credits, frequency status, and next refresh.
Membership vs Pay-As-You-Go API
| Question | Kimi Code membership | Kimi Platform API |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Subscription credits and quotas | Pay as you go |
| Model ID | kimi-for-coding | kimi-k2.7-code or kimi-k2.7-code-highspeed |
| Best fit | Terminal/IDE agent programming | Product integration and measured API workloads |
| Reproducibility | Backend alias can upgrade | Explicit model ID |
| Limits | Weekly, five-hour, and monthly credit controls | Published API rates and provider rate limits |
Current K2.7 Code API pricing is $0.19 cache-hit input, $0.95 cache-miss input, and $4.00 output per million tokens. HighSpeed doubles those token prices. Do not use those API rates to calculate the value of a membership quota without measured consumption.
Model Evidence
benchmark artifact
Kimi Code and Current Alternatives
| Model | Provider | Status | Context | Input price | Output price | Coding signal | Tool-use signal | Benchmark evidence | Speed | Verdict | Sources | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi K2.7 Code | Moonshot AI | active Current Kimi coding API release; HighSpeed is the same model at higher token prices. | 256K | $0.95 / 1M | $4.00 / 1M | Kimi positions K2.7 Code as its current coding model; independent normalized benchmarks are not imported. | OpenAI-compatible API; thinking mode required in the documented K2.7 Code quickstart. |
| HighSpeed model ID exists at a higher token price; latency not independently measured here. | Current Kimi coding API lane when Kimi routing fits and 256K context is enough. | Kimi K2.7 Code quickstart [archive], Kimi K2.7 Code pricing [archive], Kimi Code K2.7 release notes [archive], SWE-bench, Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 2026-06-28 |
| GLM-5.2 | Z.AI | active Current Z.AI flagship coding model and supported-tool value lane. | 1M | $1.40 / 1M | $4.40 / 1M | Z.AI reports 62.1 on SWE-Bench Pro and 81.0 on Terminal-Bench 2.1. | Supported-tool coding lane; BFCL score not imported. |
| Artificial Analysis flags higher output-token use; measure total cost per successful task. | July value pick to test for supported coding-tool workflows; keep Opus/GPT for final arbitration until local evals pass. | Z.AI GLM-5.2 overview [archive], Z.AI pricing [archive], Artificial Analysis: GLM-5.2 article [archive], Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1, SWE-bench, Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 2026-06-28 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Anthropic | active Generally available across Claude plans, Claude Code, the Claude API, GitHub Copilot, and supported AWS paths. | 1M | $2.00 / 1M | $10.00 / 1M | Anthropic reports substantial coding and agentic gains over Sonnet 4.6; independent normalized results are pending. | Available in Claude Code and the Claude API; adaptive thinking is on by default. |
| No site-owned normalized latency result is verified. | First Claude cost/performance test before Opus API pricing; retain Opus for highest-accuracy arbitration. | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 launch [archive], Claude Sonnet 5 migration guide [archive], GitHub Copilot Claude Sonnet 5 launch [archive], Claude Sonnet 5 on AWS [archive] | 2026-07-01 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | active Current generally available Opus-tier premium baseline. | 1M | $5.00 / 1M | $25.00 / 1M | Practical premium Claude baseline; AIHackers recommends task-level comparison rather than blanket default routing. | Claude API and Claude-native workflow baseline; third-party routing must follow Anthropic terms. |
| Artificial Analysis measured 60.4 output tokens/s; provider and workload latency vary. | Premium review, architecture, hard-debugging, and final-arbitration lane. | Claude models overview [archive], Claude API pricing [archive], Artificial Analysis: Claude Opus 4.8 [archive], Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1, LMArena leaderboard dataset, Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 2026-06-28 |
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | active Generally available OpenAI baseline while GPT-5.6 remains in limited preview. | 1.05M API; 400K Codex | $5.00 / 1M | $30.00 / 1M | not verified | not verified | not verified | not verified | Primary coding seat while ChatGPT/Codex limits fit the workload. | OpenAI GPT-5.5 API model page, OpenAI GPT-5.5 ChatGPT limits, Artificial Analysis: GPT-5.5, LMArena leaderboard dataset | 2026-06-28 |
Kimi Code membership uses a provider-managed alias; the K2.7 row describes the explicit pay-as-you-go API model. Record the actual displayed backend model for tool evaluations.
Kimi’s release notes report improvements over K2.6 of 10.4% on Program-Bench, 11.4% on MCP Mark Verified, and 76.2% on SWE Marathon, plus 30% lower reasoning-token use. These are vendor-reported relative deltas; no normalized independent K2.7 result or AIHackers-owned repository eval is available yet.
Evaluation Checklist
- Confirm the displayed backend model and client version.
- Pin the repository commit and task.
- Record weekly quota, five-hour window, and monthly credit state.
- Run tests and review the final diff.
- Record retries, latency, accepted completion, and human repair.
- Re-run after a backend alias upgrade before comparing with older results.
Pricing and Checkout
Kimi’s live product page exposes plan purchase controls, but fetched public pages do not provide a stable, complete checkout table suitable for an evergreen price claim. Treat the signed-in checkout as the final source for plan price, renewal, promotion, tax, region, and cancellation terms.
Do not describe old haggling, first-month pricing, trial banners, or fixed benefit counts as current unless the live checkout and terms still show them.
Verdict
Choose Kimi Code when you want the official Kimi CLI or a membership-backed route into compatible coding agents. Choose the explicit K2.7 API when model identity, per-token accounting, multimodal API behavior, or reproducible evaluation matters more than membership convenience.
Sources
- Kimi: Kimi Code
- Kimi: Kimi Code documentation (Archive)
- Kimi: K2.7 Code release notes (Archive)
- Kimi: Membership credit update (Archive)
- Kimi Platform: K2.7 Code quickstart (Archive)
- Kimi Platform: K2.7 Code pricing (Archive)
Related links
- /models/kimi-k2.7-code/
- /value/kimi-access/
- /compare/codex-vs-claude-vs-kimi/
- /compare/models/budget-tier/
- /risks/kimi/
Last verified: June 28, 2026. Backend aliases, credits, rate windows, supported clients, checkout prices, and promotions can change independently.