Open-weight & challenger labs
Moonshot AI (Kimi)
A Chinese lab whose Kimi K-series is frequently cited alongside DeepSeek and Qwen as top-tier open-weight competition.
Checked September 19, 2026
No lab publishes a real roadmap
So this page keeps three things apart on purpose. What has already shipped is dated. What is coming is listed only where the lab itself has said it in public, with the source named. Everything else sits under “What to watch” and is my own read of their shipping pattern — informed guessing, not news. If a date matters to you, check the lab's own page linked above.
What they are
Moonshot's Kimi K-series is routinely cited alongside DeepSeek and Qwen as top-tier open-weight competition, particularly for coding and agentic work.
There is a catch worth naming: the newest flagship's weights are public, but Moonshot's own free app tier does not include it.
What they currently ship
Every model in the directory entry, with its free-tier status.
- Kimi K3— Current flagship (July 2026) with strong coding and agentic performance; public weights under Moonshot’s own license. The free tier of Moonshot’s own Kimi app does not include K3 — only the older K2.6.Free, open-weight
- Kimi K2.6— Prior flagship — free with limits in Moonshot’s free “Adagio” app tier, and also free to download and self-host.Free with limits
What you get for free
The honest version, in one paragraph.
Free to download, partly free to use. The flagship weights are public, so self-hosting or a third-party host gets you the best model at no license cost. Moonshot's own free app gives you the previous generation instead.
Track record
Things that actually happened, oldest first, each with a date.
- 2023Moonshot launches Kimi, initially known for very long context handling.
- 2025The K2 generation establishes Kimi as serious open-weight competition.
- July 2026Kimi K3 ships as the current flagship with strong coding and agentic performance.
Confirmed and announced
Only what the lab has stated in public. Nothing here rests on a rumor.
K3's weights are published under Moonshot's own license; the free “Adagio” app tier includes K2.6 rather than K3.
Stated on the lab's own pricing or docs page
What to watch
My own read of where this lab is heading, based on how it has shipped so far. Not announcements — treat these as questions to check, not facts.
- — Whether K3 reaches the free app tier, which is how most people would actually try it.
- — The license text on each release — Moonshot uses its own terms, not Apache 2.0, so read them before commercial use.
- — Agentic coding benchmarks, which is where this lab has been closing on the majors fastest.
Their ethics and safety policies
What Moonshot AI (Kimi) has published about safety and ethics, the documents themselves, what those documents leave out — and my own read, kept separate.
Looking for which tool to actually use? See AI Models Compared