Is Kimi Free? Plans, Credits, and Limits
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Quick answer
Kimi has a free Chat path, but its current named memberships are paid. Kimi’s official help says K2.6 in Chat is free for all users and does not consume membership credits. The four subscription tiers—Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, and Vivace—add different shared-credit pools, concurrency, priority, and plan-specific tools.
There is no current membership simply named Kimi Pro. Some Kimi material describes Allegretto as a pro-oriented choice, but that does not make it free or turn “Kimi Pro” into a durable plan name.
Plan labels, prices, credits, models, and experimental features were checked on August 11, 2026. Confirm the live membership and signed-in checkout before paying.
Free Kimi versus paid memberships
| Need | Best starting surface | Limit to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary Kimi chat | Free Chat | Current model, context, files, and rate messages |
| Agent, research, documents, or sites | Membership feature in Kimi | Shared-credit consumption and task concurrency |
| Kimi Code | Kimi Code in an eligible plan | Shared credits plus its separate 5-hour and weekly limit |
| Kimi Claw or other gated tools | Current membership table | Eligible tier, device, region, and rollout |
| Build software with a Kimi model | Moonshot API | Model ID, token prices, cache rules, and rate limits |
The answer changes by surface. “Free chat” does not mean every Agent, Code, Claw, research, or API workflow is free.
What is free?
Kimi’s current membership help states that K2.6 in Chat is free for all users and does not consume membership credits. That is the clearest durable answer to “Is Kimi free?”
Use Chat to test a real task before buying a membership:
- open the signed-in Chat product and confirm the model label;
- use an authorized, representative prompt or file;
- record context, file, rate, and feature messages;
- review the answer for sources, omissions, and unsupported claims; and
- identify whether the actual blocker is Chat capacity or a membership feature.
The same K2.6 model used inside Kimi Work or an Agent workflow may consume membership credits. Model identity does not make every product surface share the same economics.
What do paid Kimi memberships add?
Kimi currently documents four paid subscriptions:
- Moderato for a smaller paid allowance and lower concurrency;
- Allegretto for more credits and access to additional tools;
- Allegro for heavier parallel work and plan-specific capacity; and
- Vivace for the largest listed individual allowance.
Do not choose from the music-inspired name alone. Compare the current table on these dimensions:
- shared membership credits;
- concurrent Agent tasks and Swarm subtasks;
- Kimi Code allowance and separate rate limits;
- availability of Kimi Claw, K3, extra-long chat, or experimental tools;
- queue priority, scheduled tasks, and professional database calls; and
- monthly versus annual renewal terms.
Prices and inclusions can change. Save the signed-in plan table and checkout date with the decision rather than copying a static price into a long-lived budget.
How Kimi’s shared credits work
Kimi membership features use one shared pool. Official examples include Agent, Deep Research, Slides, Docs, Sheets, Kimi Code, Kimi Work, Kimi Claw, websites, and other membership tools.
Credits are based on actual token usage. A long input, long output, tool-heavy task, or multi-step Agent can cost more than a short request. Therefore an “Agent task equivalent” is an estimate, not a fixed promise that every job consumes one unit.
Current documented rules include:
- credits refresh on the subscription billing cycle;
- unused plan credits do not roll over;
- bonus credits may expire on their own date and are spent before plan credits;
- one feature can draw down the pool available to other features; and
- individual tasks may also face concurrency or time-window controls shown in the product.
Track the credit percentage used by a repeatable task. That is more useful than comparing the largest headline allowance.
Kimi Code has an additional limit
Kimi Code draws from the shared membership pool and also has a separate 5-hour and weekly rate limit. Kimi says that separate limit applies only to Code; reaching it should not consume or stop unrelated features in the same way as exhausting the shared credit pool.
For a coding workflow, record both:
- credit consumption for the task; and
- the time-window limit and reset message shown in Code.
This prevents a user from upgrading for more shared credits when the actual blocker is a separate Code window—or waiting for a Code reset when the shared pool is exhausted.
Kimi membership and API billing are separate
The Kimi consumer workspace and Moonshot developer platform solve different problems. Membership credits do not automatically buy API calls, and an API token price does not describe limits in Chat or Agent.
Use a membership when you want Kimi’s hosted workspace and tools. Use the API when you need a documented model ID, programmatic calls, usage logs, caching rules, rate-limit handling, and application-level controls.
For an API decision, verify:
- exact model identifier and lifecycle;
- input, cached-input, and output pricing units;
- context and rate limits;
- tool or batch charges;
- data handling and retention; and
- account budget, alerts, and key permissions.
The Kimi FAQ for professional use covers security and performance boundaries. The Kimi alternatives guide helps compare other long-context workflows without assuming equivalent limits.
A measured upgrade test
- Run two or three representative jobs through free Chat.
- If the job needs Agent, Work, Code, Claw, or another paid feature, open that exact product surface.
- Record credits, concurrency, queueing, time-window limits, corrections, and accepted outcomes.
- Select the smallest tier that changes the measured blocker.
- Test monthly before taking a longer commitment unless demand is already stable.
- Recheck the live plan because features and models can move between tiers.
For document-heavy tasks, compare the Kimi long-document workflow with your actual files and review requirements. For model-oriented exploration, see the Kimi K2.5 agent overview while confirming the current live model label.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi free to use?
Kimi documents free Chat access: K2.6 in Chat is free for all users and does not consume membership credits. Kimi’s four named membership subscriptions are paid and add shared credits, concurrency, priority, and plan-specific features.
Is there a free Kimi Pro plan?
No official plan is simply named Kimi Pro in the current membership overview. The four paid memberships are Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, and Vivace. Some pages describe Allegretto as a pro-oriented choice, but it is a paid membership.
How do Kimi membership credits work?
Membership features share one credit pool and consume credits according to actual token usage. Credits refresh each billing cycle and do not roll over. Kimi Code also has a separate 5-hour and weekly rate limit.
Does a Kimi membership include Moonshot API usage?
Do not assume so. The Kimi app membership and Moonshot developer API are separate access and billing surfaces. Verify API model IDs, token prices, rate limits, and account billing in the developer documentation.