Moonshot AI (Kimi)

Moonshot provides the Kimi API with OpenAI-compatible endpoints. Supports Kimi K2.5 and thinking models. Separate provider from Kimi Coding (different keys/endpoints).

Moonshot AI is a Beijing-based company that builds the Kimi model family — one of the most capable Chinese AI model lines. The Kimi K2.5 model is a 1-trillion-parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model that has earned strong benchmark results, competing with models like Claude Sonnet and GPT-4o on coding and reasoning tasks while being offered at very low or free pricing. The Moonshot API platform provides OpenAI-compatible endpoints with a rich set of built-in tools: web search, code execution (Python and JavaScript), memory/persistence, Excel analysis, URL fetching, unit conversion, and more. This makes it one of the most tool-rich platforms available — many of these capabilities are typically handled by the agent framework, but Moonshot bakes them into the model API itself. Kimi K2.5 is the flagship model with a 256K context window and strong coding performance. The K2 Thinking variants add explicit reasoning/thinking capabilities similar to DeepSeek R1 or Claude's extended thinking. The Turbo variants trade some quality for speed. All models are currently offered at no cost through the API, making Moonshot one of the most cost-effective providers for experimentation. For OpenClaw, Moonshot is a separate provider from Kimi Coding (which uses different API keys and endpoints). The Moonshot provider is best for general-purpose agent tasks, while Kimi Coding is optimized specifically for software engineering workflows. Both share the same underlying Kimi model architecture but have distinct authentication and routing.

Tags: kimi, chinese-ai, openai-compatible, native-thinking, web-search, tool-rich

Use Cases

  • Zero-cost OpenClaw agent for experimentation and non-critical workflows
  • Free heartbeat and cron job execution using Kimi K2.5
  • Reasoning-intensive tasks using Kimi K2 Thinking models
  • Multilingual agent workflows — Kimi excels at Chinese and English
  • Backup/fallback provider with zero marginal cost
  • Long-document processing leveraging 256K context window

Tips

  • Use Kimi K2.5 as a zero-cost alternative for heartbeats, cron jobs, and experimentation — it's surprisingly capable for free.
  • The Thinking variants (kimi-k2-thinking) are excellent for complex reasoning tasks. Use Turbo for faster but slightly less thorough reasoning.
  • Moonshot's API includes built-in web search — useful for fact-checking and current-information queries without external search tools.
  • For coding tasks, prefer the Kimi Coding provider instead — it's specifically optimized for software engineering.
  • Set up as a secondary provider in OpenClaw for zero-cost fallback when your primary provider hits rate limits.
  • The 256K context window is generous — one of the largest among free-tier models.

Known Issues & Gotchas

  • Moonshot and Kimi Coding are SEPARATE providers in OpenClaw — different API keys, different endpoints. Don't confuse them.
  • Free pricing is promotional and may change. Don't rely on $0 pricing for production workloads long-term.
  • No vision/image support in current Kimi models through the Moonshot API.
  • The API is based in China — latency may be higher from Western locations. Data privacy considerations apply.
  • Rate limits on free tier can be restrictive during peak hours. Chinese business hours (UTC+8) see highest load.
  • The built-in tools (web search, code runner) may interfere with OpenClaw's own tool-calling workflow. Test carefully.
  • Documentation is primarily in Chinese with English translations that can be incomplete or lag behind.

Alternatives

  • Together AI (Kimi K2.5)
  • Hugging Face (Kimi K2.5)
  • DeepSeek
  • Anthropic (Claude)

Community Feedback

Kimi K2.5 is genuinely impressive for a free model. The MoE architecture with 1T parameters but only 32B active gives you frontier-level quality at open-source pricing.

— Reddit r/LocalLLaMA

Moonshot's built-in web search and code execution tools are a nice touch. Most other providers make you handle that in your agent framework.

— Reddit r/artificial

The free pricing on Kimi K2.5 won't last forever. Enjoy it while it lasts, but don't build production workflows on zero-cost assumptions.

— Hacker News

Configuration Examples

Basic Moonshot setup

providers:
  moonshot:
    apiKey: your-moonshot-api-key
    model: moonshot/kimi-k2.5

Moonshot with thinking model

providers:
  moonshot:
    apiKey: your-moonshot-api-key
    model: moonshot/kimi-k2-thinking
thinking: on  # Enable thinking for reasoning tasks

Moonshot as free fallback

providers:
  anthropic:
    apiKey: sk-ant-xxxxx
    model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6
  moonshot:
    apiKey: your-moonshot-api-key
    model: moonshot/kimi-k2.5
    # Free fallback when Anthropic hits limits