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Moonshot AIAI Coding Agent

Kimi Code

Kimi Code is Moonshot AI's coding agent for the terminal, VS Code, the desktop, and Zed or JetBrains over the Agent Client Protocol, running Kimi models up to K3.1 Pro with a 1M context window. It comes with a Kimi subscription from Plus at $19 a month (Kimi's plan page shows $ without naming a currency), all clients share one quota, and Extra Usage is charged by actual usage once the quota runs out.

The 30-Second Take

Pick Kimi Code for Kimi's models in a coding agent at a low monthly price, or as a second reviewer.

It comes with a Kimi subscription from Plus at $19 a month (Kimi's plan page shows $ without naming a currency), and every client and API key draws on one quota. Developers praise its extensibility.

Best fit
Developers and small teams who want Kimi K3.1 Pro in a coding agent on a monthly plan.
Main constraint
One shared 5-hour window and monthly total per account, which long K3 sessions can use up quickly.
First move
Run a week of real tasks on Plus or Pro with Extra Usage off and record how many 5-hour windows each task takes.

Why

Watch the quota: practitioners report one long K3 task using up the 5-hour window, and bugs lead the complaints. Measure the window on your own sessions, cap Extra Usage and keep approvals on.

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners−36 Negative

39 practitioners, 48 sources reviewed, Updated Oct 31, 2026How this is measured

Read the GILD Review
Save a product your organization uses.Keep up with Kimi Code without adding it to your stack.Visit Website
Operating stack
Agentic Software Development

Comparisons

How does Kimi Code compare with the alternatives?

  1. Kimi Code vs Claude Code

    • AI Coding Agents

    Pick Kimi Code for Kimi K3.1 Pro at a lower monthly price per developer. Pick Claude Code when developers run long sessions all day and need larger Max allowances and documented permission modes.

  2. Kimi Code vs Qwen Code

    • AI Coding Agents

    Pick Kimi Code for Moonshot's models in one plan across CLI, IDE, and desktop. Pick Qwen Code for an open-source agent that runs on any model, with Alibaba's Coding Plan as one option.

Operator Insights

What are engineering leaders learning from deploying Kimi Code?

See all 4 operator accounts

Buying and deployment

What engineering leaders should verify before a broader rollout.

Sourced from Moonshot AI documentation

How you buy it

Kimi plan from Plus

Kimi Code comes with a Kimi subscription from Plus up; the Go tier has no coding quota.

Source 2, Moonshot AI, Quota and Extra Usage: Quota and Extra UsageSource 6, kimi.ai, Kimi Code: plan page: Kimi Code: plan page

Details

Kimi Code comes with a Kimi subscription: the Go tier has no coding quota, and Plus and above can use Kimi Code. The tiers were renamed with pricing unchanged, and Moonshot's docs send buyers to Kimi's plan page for prices. With annual billing, Kimi Code lists Plus at $15 a month (Kimi's plan page shows $ without naming a currency). Requests from the CLI, VS Code, the desktop app, and third-party tools all count toward the same plan quota.

Cost drivers

Rolling 5-hour window

Past the quota, Extra Usage is charged by actual usage, with an optional monthly spending cap.

Source 2, Moonshot AI, Quota and Extra Usage: Quota and Extra Usage

Details

New plans have a rolling 5-hour window and a monthly total shared with Kimi chat, with no weekly limit. Past the quota, Extra Usage is usage-based: it is charged by actual usage from a balance shown in RMB, at rates close to Kimi Open Platform API pricing, with an optional monthly spending cap.

Where it runs

Your machine

The CLI keeps sessions under ~/.kimi-code; model calls go to Moonshot's China or overseas endpoint.

Source 3, Moonshot AI, Data locations: Data locationsSource 4, kimi.com, FAQ: FAQSource 5, kimi.com, Providers and models: Providers and models

Details

The Kimi Code CLI runs on the developer's machine and keeps config, sessions, credentials, and logs under ~/.kimi-code. Model calls go to Moonshot's cloud API, with a China endpoint at api.kimi.com and an overseas endpoint at api.kimi.ai, separate from the pay-as-you-go Kimi Open Platform. The CLI can also add a third-party provider: you select the provider, enter its API key, and select a default model.

What to verify

No SSO or audit log

0 matches on 54 English docs pages (Nov 1, 2026).

Source 2, Moonshot AI, Quota and Extra Usage: Quota and Extra UsageSource 4, kimi.com, FAQ: FAQ

Details

All logged-in devices and API keys share one quota. Extra Usage is not yet supported for Enterprise. Moonshot documents no SSO, SAML or SCIM, audit log, data retention or training terms, or security certification for Kimi Code in English: GILD found 0 matches across the 54 pages of its English documentation, checked Nov 1, 2026. Confirm them with Moonshot before company code goes in.

Pages GILD searched, by set, Nov 1, 2026
WherePages readMatches
Kimi Code documentation in English, every page in its docs page map540
Kimi Code product pages20
GILD search record, Nov 1, 2026

Signals

What is the current evidence saying about Kimi Code?

A current read of what developers and small teams report publicly about coding with Kimi Code, with each finding linked to its sources.

Whose sources count

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners

−36 Negative net

of 42 sources that take a side, each author counted once.

How this figure is made

Leaders and teams have 1 accounts; GILD prints their sentiment from 20.

Current sentiment

Positive, mixed and negative sources

The score counts them as 8 positive, 9 mixed and 22 negative votes, one per author.

Across 42 sources, 9 are positive, 9 mixed, and 24 negative. Usage limits are raised in 8 sources and discussed in 6 more, and practitioners split on whether a plan is good value, while the praise centers on skills, plugins and MCP support.

Use a task pilot to measure accepted work and review time.

Evidence field. All 48 sources, one mark each.

Arrange by

Each mark is one source: positive, mixed, negative, no opinion stated, or documentation (not counted).

By sentiment, All practitioners. Every source GILD read, grouped as the field draws it.
GroupSourcesPositiveMixedNegativeNo opinion stated and not counted in the scoreDocumentation, checked and not counted
Positive990000
Mixed909000
Negative24002400
Documentation600006
Every source GILD read, by the quarter it was published, as the field's time axis counts it. Documentation is dated by the day it was checked.
QuarterSources
Q2 20262
Q3 202626
Q4 202614
Documentation, checked6

By sentiment

6 documentation pages check facts and are not counted.

Hover a mark for a quick look, click it or press Enter to open its source.Tap a mark to open its source, then step to its neighbors with Previous and Next.

What practitioners praise

Each mark is a source on it; filled marks praise it.

  1. Skills, MCP & PluginsAll 6 sources on it praise it

Most common concerns

Top concern of 2. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks raise it.

  1. CLI Bugs13 of 15 sources on it raise it as a concern
All 48 sources behind these findings
  1. VS Code window freezes and offers Reopen when loading a large session from the history listM3-c, MWN Software (self-described: Kimi Code VS Code extension 0.8.4 on Linux), GitHub issue, published Oct 29, 2026
  2. Kimi Code plansMoonshot AI (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  3. Membership benefitsMoonshot AI (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  4. Model configurationMoonshot AI (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  5. Getting startedMoonshot AI (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  6. Using Kimi Code CLI in IDEsMoonshot AI (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  7. Data locationsMoonshot AI (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  8. Integrate Kimi Code CLI as a third agentT0ha, owner of Camelot (self-described: Camelot, an agent orchestrator, verified against a local kimi-code 2.3.0), GitHub issue, published Oct 28, 2026
  9. VS Code extension: copying chat messages to clipboard does nothingkrasotun, frontend developer at InfoWatch (self-described: Kimi Code VS Code extension 0.8.3 on macOS), GitHub issue, published Oct 28, 2026
  10. Ultra plan usage stays at 0% despite active K3.1 Pro usageivanshnarski-netizen, GitHub user (self-described: Kimi Code CLI 2.3.3 on the Ultra plan with Kimi K3.1 Pro), GitHub issue, published Oct 27, 2026
  11. bug: reasoning remains English despite Chinese prompt and explicit Chinese-thinking requestliutengxi, GitHub user (self-described: Kimi Code CLI 2.3.3 and Desktop 1.1.2 with Kimi K3.1 Pro Highspeed), GitHub issue, published Oct 27, 2026
  12. Kimi Code CLI 2.3.2 stopped spawning subagents on its own.Om Londhe, Tech Lead Manager at Mercor (self-described: Kimi Code CLI for day-to-day tasks), X post, published Oct 26, 2026
  13. Agent-written OSC 133 marks are read as the shell'swong2kim, owner of wmux (self-described: wmux, a terminal multiplexer with shell integration), GitHub issue, published Oct 26, 2026
  14. EnterPlanMode over ACP leaves plan-mode state residue on failure and permanently wedges the sessionSHNN16, GitHub user (self-described: Kimi Code 2.3.1 and 2.3.3 driven over ACP, with Kimi K3.1 Pro), GitHub issue, published Oct 26, 2026
  15. My kimi usageD_D, r/kimi member (self-described: Several concurrent Kimi Code sessions), Reddit post, published Oct 24, 2026
  16. Add Kimi Code membership provider with K3.1 Protwilwa, owner of red-durable (self-described: red-durable, an agent host on a trusted machine), GitHub pull request, published Oct 24, 2026
  17. Add Kimi Code CLI providerSidney Gathrid, owner of agent-smith (self-described: agent-smith, a multi-provider coding worker system), GitHub pull request, published Oct 24, 2026
  18. Harness of harnesses: Hermes on a 4GB RPi driving Claude Code, Kimi and Copilot CLIsmsalsas, r/hermesagent member (self-described: A Hermes pipeline on a Raspberry Pi driving three coding CLIs), Reddit post, published Oct 19, 2026
  19. fix(integration): run the Kimi Code hook on WindowsPaulo R. Kraemer, owner of Luvus (self-described: Luvus, which tracks coding-agent sessions), GitHub pull request, published Oct 16, 2026
  20. Kimi Code and Pi kept winning, so the author stopped using Juniedools, runs BenkoPhone (self-described: Junie CLI, Kimi Code and Pi run side by side on different projects), Hacker News comment, published Oct 6, 2026
  21. Kimi crashes on startup on Node 23.0 to 23.7 despite the published engines rangescott-huberty, OSS developer and statistician at UCLA (self-described: Kimi Code installed from npm on Node 23.6.0, macOS), GitHub issue, published Sep 30, 2026
  22. Comment on: ChatGPT Pro 500bezier-curve, Hacker News commenter (self-described: ChatGPT Pro, Claude Max 5x, and Kimi Code side by side), Hacker News comment, published Sep 29, 2026
  23. I just measured Kimi Quota for Coding on Allegrettoricsipbr, r/kimi member (self-described: The legacy $39 Allegretto plan on K3-256k through OpenCode), Reddit post, published Sep 26, 2026
  24. Approval prompt never renders in web/desktop/VS Code clients when a PreToolUse or SessionHeartbeat hook is configuredNB-STAR, cyberpeace (self-described: Kimi Code CLI 0.43.1 and 2.0.0 in the web, desktop and VS Code clients), GitHub issue, published Sep 18, 2026
  25. Subagent default model not covered by subscription kills all spawns with 401Dinoraptor101, 3rd Path LLC (self-described: The managed Kimi Code provider with OAuth sign-in), GitHub issue, published Sep 13, 2026
  26. Restored session permanently loses tool/subagent access when its persisted runtime binding is stalemike-lmctl, founder of lmctl (self-described: Kimi Code sessions driven over kimi acp, then resumed in the terminal or headless), GitHub issue, published Sep 5, 2026
  27. VS Code 0.7.5: approval request never rendered, turn hangs silently until manual abortkeawewong, Digital Strategic Marketing Team (self-described: Kimi Code VS Code extension 0.7.5 with kimi-for-coding), GitHub issue, published Sep 5, 2026
  28. PreToolUse hook is never invoked for the plan-file Write on agent-core-v2Xule Lin, Research Associate at Imperial Business School (Kimi Code 0.39.1 to 0.42.0 on the Kimi subscription with K3), GitHub issue, published Sep 1, 2026
  29. feat: add kimi CodeFynn Fluegge, owner of agtx (self-described: agtx, a multi-agent task runner), GitHub pull request, published Aug 30, 2026
  30. Tool calls silently degraded: truncated tool names, dropped arguments, and no-op Bash substitutionsbrunoazoulay, Fusengine (self-described: Kimi Code 0.38.0 with K3 on the managed provider and about 12 MCP servers), GitHub issue, published Aug 24, 2026
  31. Add Kimi Code usage to Moonshot providerIan Allaway, owner of quota-widget (self-described: quota-widget, a desktop widget for AI plan quotas), GitHub pull request, published Aug 19, 2026
  32. Comment on: GPT 5.6 CyberFootprint0521, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Comparing plan limits), Hacker News comment, published Aug 11, 2026
  33. [Bug] Multi-step agent tasks stall for hours with zero user-visible feedback (ttft up to 243s, vanished requests, silent 429 retry loops)BougieZoe, Kimi Code CLI user on pay-as-you-go (self-described: Multi-step agent tasks on kimi-k3 with high thinking effort), GitHub issue, published Aug 3, 2026
  34. Kimi-code not performing wellairbreather, Hacker News user (self-described: Review, refactor, and feature work on JavaScript and Python codebases with imported Claude Code skills), Hacker News post, published Jul 30, 2026
  35. [CRITICAL] Unauthorized deletion of template files by AI agentjeffleelee, Kimi Code user on the Kimi Platform API (self-described: A project worked on with Kimi Code), GitHub issue, published Jul 28, 2026
  36. Kimi Code with K3 burned the 5-hour limit and $100 of extra usage on a security-auditing benchmark that was 11% doneSwellJoe, works on Virtualmin (self-described: Kimi Code with K3 on a Kimi Code plan with extra usage), Hacker News comment, published Jul 24, 2026
  37. Comment on: Kimi K3 Is Competitive with Fable; Kimi K3 and Fable Is SoTAKronisLV, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Long tasks across several agent harnesses), Hacker News comment, published Jul 22, 2026
  38. Comment on: Kimi K3 Is Competitive with Fable; Kimi K3 and Fable Is SoTAffsm8, Hacker News commenter (self-described: A 40 euro Kimi plan beside an Anthropic plan), Hacker News comment, published Jul 22, 2026
  39. Kimi Code's local web UI: a dead subagent stop button and input lag past 600 turnsKronisLV, software engineer (self-described: Kimi Code's local web UI with K3), Hacker News comment, published Jul 20, 2026
  40. Comment on: Moonshot AI suspends new subscriptions due to Kimi K3 demandthevinter, Hacker News commenter (self-described: A first $20 Kimi plan used for a repository report), Hacker News comment, published Jul 19, 2026
  41. Comment on: Moonshot AI suspends new subscriptions due to Kimi K3 demandAltern4tiveAcc, Hacker News commenter (self-described: The US$20 Kimi plan's API key used from OpenCode), Hacker News comment, published Jul 19, 2026
  42. Comment on: The Kimi K3 MomentSwellJoe, Hacker News commenter (self-described: A personal agent benchmark run across models), Hacker News comment, published Jul 18, 2026
  43. Add Kimi Code providerDoug Finke, owner of PSAISuite (self-described: PSAISuite, a PowerShell module that calls many AI providers), GitHub pull request, published Jul 18, 2026
  44. Support Kimi Code CLI as a builderMohid Makhdoomi, collaborator on Codev (self-described: Codev, an agentic development workflow with builder agents), GitHub issue, published Jul 18, 2026
  45. Comment on: Kimi K3: Open Frontier Intelligenceeasytiger, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Gift quota on a Kimi account), Hacker News comment, published Jul 17, 2026
  46. No thinking indictor makes it feel like it has hungSasank Chilamkurthy, Kimi Code CLI user (self-described: Daily use of the Kimi Code CLI), GitHub issue, published Jul 1, 2026
  47. Comment on: GLM 5.2 beats Claude in our benchmarksdools, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Vulnerability hunting with several models), Hacker News comment, published Jun 28, 2026
  48. Doc: adding Kimi Code CLI (Kimi K2.6) to Droid CLI via BYOKEvan-Kim2028, owner of agent-harness-optimizations (self-described: Running a Kimi Code subscription in the Droid CLI), GitHub issue, published May 19, 2026

May 2026 to Oct 2026.

42 sources from practitioners, by month and sentiment.

The full readExplore all Kimi Code Signals5 praise themes, 5 concerns, 0 points of agreement and 1 disagreement across all three groups, with all 48 sources open to inspect.

Where It Fits

Where does Kimi Code belong in the stack?

Open Where It Fits: the Stack Field and the full map

Kimi Code is Core across Build, supports Plan and Validate, and touches Ship and Operate.

Business area
Product & Engineering
Function
Software Development
Operating stack
Agentic Software Development
Primary role
Coding Agent on Kimi Models
Kimi Code beside the rest of its stackThe Stack Field, every product on every layer
FootprintKimi Code across the Agentic Software Development stack. Bar height is its role on each layer.

  1. Plan

    1. Work planning: Supports

      Work planning, supports. Plan mode reads the codebase and drafts an approach before any change, and Tower coordinates several agents on one job; planning stays in the team's tracker.

  2. Build

    1. Codebase context: Supports

      Codebase context, supports. Kimi Code reads and searches files with K3.1 Pro's 1M-token context window and loads AGENTS.md instructions; it keeps no hosted index of the repository.

    2. Coding: Core

      Coding, core. This is Kimi Code's primary role: reading code, editing files, and running commands across a repository from the CLI, VS Code, or the desktop app.

    3. Agent runtime: Core

      Agent runtime, core. The Kimi Code CLI, VS Code extension, and desktop app share one sign-in and one quota, and kimi acp brings the CLI into Zed and JetBrains IDEs.

    4. Tool execution: Core

      Tool execution, core. Kimi Code runs shell commands, MCP servers, skills, plugins, and hooks, asking before file changes and shell commands unless a permission rule allows them.

  3. Validate

    1. Debugging: Supports

      Debugging, supports. Kimi Code investigates failures by reading code and running commands and tests; debuggers and tracing stay with dedicated tools.

    2. Testing: Supports

      Testing, supports. Kimi Code runs test suites, builds, and scripts and checks the results, while test infrastructure and coverage stay with the team's tooling.

    3. Code review: Touches

      Code review, touches. Kimi Code can review a diff on request, but it is not a dedicated review product and posts no pull request reviews on its own.

    4. Application security: Touches

      Application security, touches. Permission rules and the approval prompt limit what the agent may run, but Kimi Code documents no sandbox and does no application security scanning.

  4. Ship

    1. Source control: Touches

      Source control, touches. Kimi Code runs git commands it is given access to, using Git Bash on Windows; Git and the code host stay the system of record.

    2. CI/CD: Touches

      CI/CD, touches. The CLI's server API and an API key let scripts call Kimi Code, but build and delivery stay in the team's CI/CD.

  5. Operate

    1. Observability: Touches

      Observability, touches. Kimi Code can read logs and run diagnostic commands it is given access to, but it provides no monitoring or alerting for your systems.

Market mapThe layers Kimi Code covers, and who else owns each one.

  1. Coding & implementation

    CoreBuild

  2. Agent interface & developer runtime

    CoreBuild

  3. Tool execution & integrations

    CoreBuild

  4. Work planning & task decomposition

    SupportsPlan

  5. Codebase context & intelligence

    SupportsBuild

7 more layers on the full map. Core, Supports and Touches describe coverage. They say nothing about quality.

Models

Which models run in Kimi Code?

The current releases GILD tracks that public sources record running in Kimi Code. Each model's page charts its public benchmark scores.

  1. Kimi K3.1 ProMoonshot AI's first K3.1 release, a post-trained Kimi K3 with a 1M-token context window and a Highspeed variant on the Kimi API. Weights under the Kimi K3.1 Pro License.Kimi K3.1Benchmarks

More on Kimi Code

  1. GILD ReviewGILD's evaluation, with the buying facts
  2. Research1 piece
  3. Guides1 guide
  4. Operator Insights4 operator accounts
  5. Where It FitsOn the Agentic Software Development stack
  6. Related Products4 products