Skip to content
Moonshot AI

Kimi K3

Kimi K3 is Moonshot AI's open-source model with native visual understanding, always-on thinking, and a context window of 1.0M tokens, built for long-horizon software engineering and available through AI Gateway via Moonshot AI, Fireworks, Baseten, Morph, Nebius, Together AI, DigitalOcean. Your use is subject to Moonshot AI's Terms & Privacy Policies.

ReasoningTool UseImplicit CachingFile InputVision (Image)
Use with AI GatewayView docs
import { streamText } from 'ai'


const result = streamText({
  model: 'moonshotai/kimi-k3',
  prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?'
})
Read docs
OverviewAPIAboutProvidersThroughputLatencyUptimeStatusSimilarFAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What input types does Kimi K3 accept?

    Text, image, and video. Visual understanding is native to Kimi K3, so screenshots, design references, and screen recordings go in alongside your prompt without a separate vision model. Confirm modality limits on https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/pricing/chat-k3 before you build a media-heavy pipeline.

  • Can I turn off thinking mode on Kimi K3?

    No. Thinking mode is always on, so every response includes a deliberation pass. Budget output tokens for it, and reach for a non-thinking Kimi K2 variant when deliberation doesn't improve the result.

  • What kind of engineering work is Kimi K3 built for?

    Long-horizon software engineering, knowledge work, and deep reasoning. Moonshot AI highlights tasks where code meets visual and spatial reasoning, which covers frontend development, game development, and CAD workflows.

  • How do I get lower latency from Kimi K3?

    Set the speed option to fast and keep the model ID on moonshotai/kimi-k3. Requests route to the faster serving path and fall back to standard speed when that tier isn't available. Calling kimi-k3-fast directly pins every request to the fast tier at a higher per-token rate.

  • Can I keep Kimi K3 inference in the United States?

    Yes. AI Gateway serves Kimi K3 from US-based providers, and inferenceRegion restricts a request to US data centers. Regional inference lists above the standard rate, so check the pricing panel on this page before you route production traffic.

  • Is Kimi K3 open source?

    Yes. Moonshot AI released Kimi K3 as an open-source model. Through AI Gateway you get hosted access across Moonshot AI, Fireworks, Baseten, Morph, Nebius, Together AI, DigitalOcean without running the deployment yourself.

  • Can I use Kimi K3 in my coding agent?

    Yes. Run vercel ai-gateway coding-agents setup and select Kimi K3. The command detects the agents on your machine, provisions an AI Gateway key, and writes their configuration.

  • How do I use Kimi K3 on AI Gateway?

    Use the identifier moonshotai/kimi-k3 with the AI SDK or any supported interface like Chat Completions, Responses, or Messages. AI Gateway routes across moonshotai, fireworks, baseten, morph, nebius, togetherai, digitalocean and handles failover automatically.

  • Does Kimi K3 support zero data retention?

    Yes, Zero Data Retention is available for this model. Zero Data Retention is offered on a per-provider basis. See https://vercel.com/docs/ai-gateway/capabilities/zdr for details.