# Kimi Model

> **TL;DR.** "Kimi model" is the umbrella term for Moonshot AI's family of large language models, spanning the original 2023 chatbot through K1.

- **Category:** AI / Frontier Models / Model Families
- **Stage:** emergent
- **Age:** 11 days
- **Origin date:** 2026-07-16
- **First detected:** 2026-07-20
- **Canonical URL:** https://earlyterms.com/term/kimi-model
- **Sources:** 8 primary URLs

## Definition

"Kimi model" is the umbrella term for Moonshot AI's family of large language models, spanning the original 2023 chatbot through K1.5, K2, K2.5, K2.6, K2.7 Code, and the current flagship, [Kimi K3](https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k3). Beijing-based Moonshot AI is the company behind every version.

The current search surge traces to July 16, 2026, when Moonshot released Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model that ranked top-3 on Artificial Analysis's Intelligence Index and undercut Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol on price, prompting Constellation Research's Holger Mueller to call it "the DeepSeek Act II."

## Example

Kimi K3 illustrates the pattern: launched July 16, 2026 with a 1-million-token context window and $15-per-million-token output pricing, it topped Hacker News with 2,098 points and forced Moonshot to pause new API subscriptions within three days due to demand.

## Analogy

Think of the K-numbers like iPhone generations: K1 introduced the format, K2 went open-weight, K3 is this month's flagship model.

## Why it's emerging now

Moonshot AI released Kimi K3 on July 16, 2026 — a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model that beat GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Fable 5 on several benchmarks while undercutting them on price. The launch pushed Hacker News to 2,098 points, forced a temporary API subscription pause, and made "which Kimi model" a live disambiguation query.

## Related terms

- *child:* Kimi K3
- *child:* Kimi K2.7 Code
- *child:* Kimi K2.6
- *related:* Kimi AI
- *related:* Open Frontier Intelligence
- *related:* Moonshot AI
- *competitor:* DeepSeek V4 Pro
- *competitor:* GLM-5.2
- *competitor:* Qwen3.6
- *competitor:* Claude Opus 4.8
- *competitor:* GPT-5.6 Sol
- *alias:* 月之暗面

## Sources

1. [Moonshot AI — Kimi K3: Open Frontier Intelligence](https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k3)
2. [Wikipedia — Kimi (chatbot): model history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimi_(chatbot))
3. [Hacker News — Kimi K3: Open Frontier Intelligence (2,098 points)](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48935342)
4. [Interconnects (Nathan Lambert) — Kimi K3, the open-weights escalation](https://www.interconnects.ai/p/kimi-k3-the-open-weights-escalation)
5. [Constellation Research — Moonshot AI launches Kimi K3](https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/moonshot-ai-launches-kimi-k3)
6. [Simon Willison — Kimi K3 and the pelican benchmark](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/16/kimi-k3/)
7. [VentureBeat — China's Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3](https://venturebeat.com/technology/chinas-moonshot-ai-releases-kimi-k3-the-largest-open-source-model-ever-rivaling-top-u-s-systems)
8. [Moonshot AI — Kimi K3 API quickstart](https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/guide/kimi-k3-quickstart)

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_Generated by EarlyTerms · https://earlyterms.com/term/kimi-model_