Kimi Code vs Claude Code
Kimi Code and Claude Code side by side: what each one is, verified plan pricing and install commands where we have them, and the full review of each.
Kimi Code
Open-source terminal coding agent from Moonshot AI. Launched on Kimi K2.5 and now runs Kimi K3 with up to 1M tokens of context. Agent Swarm runs up to 100 parallel sub-agents.
Claude Code
Daily DriverAnthropic's agentic coding CLI. Runs in your terminal, edits files autonomously, spawns sub-agents, and maintains memory across sessions. Defaults to Claude Opus 5.5 on paid plans as of October 2026.
At a glance
| Field | | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI Coding | AI Coding |
| Website | kimi.com | docs.anthropic.com |
| Pricing | Plus - $19/mo, or $15/mo billed annually ($180/yr); K3 included; Pro - $39/mo, or $31/mo billed annually ($372/yr); unlocks the 1M-token K3 context and the K2.7 Code HighSpeed tier; Max - $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually ($948/yr); Ultra - $199/mo, or $159/mo billed annually ($1,908/yr); CLI is free and open source (MIT); usage comes from a Kimi membership or a pay-as-you-go Kimi Platform API key | Pro - $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front): includes Claude Code; Max - $100/mo (5x Pro usage) or $200/mo (20x Pro usage), plus $100 to $200/mo in API credits; Team - Standard seat $20/seat/mo billed annually ($25 monthly); Premium seat $100/seat/mo billed annually ($125 monthly); 2 to 150 seats; Enterprise - $20/seat/mo billed annually, 20 seat minimum, plus usage at API rates; Console (API key) - pay per token at Anthropic API rates; Free claude.ai plan - does not include Claude Code |
| Install | curl -fsSL https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.sh | bash or irm https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.ps1 | iex or npm install -g @moonshot-ai/kimi-code | curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash or brew install --cask claude-code or npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code |
| Models | Kimi Code runs Moonshot's K3 (k3 with up to 1M context on Pro and above, or k3-256k), K2.8 Preview (kimi-for-coding) and K2.7 Code HighSpeed (kimi-for-coding-highspeed, Pro and above). Switch with /model in the CLI; Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and other providers can be added in ~/.kimi-code/config.toml. | Defaults to Claude Opus 5.5 on Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise, and the Anthropic API (Sonnet 4.5 on Microsoft Foundry). Switch with /model, claude --model, or ANTHROPIC_MODEL using the opus, sonnet, haiku, and fable aliases (Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1 on the Anthropic API) or a full model name; Fable is never the default and must be picked explicitly. |
| Last verified | October 17, 2026 | October 17, 2026 |
In Depth
Kimi Code
Kimi Code is an open-source, terminal-based AI coding agent from Moonshot AI, now a TypeScript CLI released under the MIT license (the original Python kimi-cli, Apache 2.0, is archived). It launched on Kimi K2.5, a 1 trillion parameter mixture-of-experts model that activates 32 billion parameters per request, and as of October 2026 Moonshot runs it on Kimi K3 with up to 1M tokens of context, which makes it strong for long-document analysis and large codebase understanding. Agent Swarm coordinates up to 100 parallel sub-agents, cutting execution time on parallelizable tasks. The fact that Cursor built its Composer 2 on top of Kimi K2.5 was significant validation of the underlying model line.
Claude Code
Claude Code is a terminal-based coding agent from Anthropic. You give it a prompt, and it reads your codebase, plans changes, edits files, runs tests, and commits - all autonomously. It spawns sub-agents for parallel work, uses persistent memory (CLAUDE.md files) to remember project context between sessions, and integrates with MCP servers for external tools. I run it on the Max plan (from $100/mo) and it handles everything from multi-file refactors to full feature builds. My video on Claude Code sub-agents hit 160,000 views - it's the tool my audience asks about most. As of October 2026 it defaults to Claude Opus 5.5 on Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise, and API accounts, and you can switch models per session.
FAQ
Answers taken from each tool's verified fact sheet, with the date it was last checked.
How much does Kimi Code cost?
As of October 17, 2026: Plus - $19/mo, or $15/mo billed annually ($180/yr); K3 included; Pro - $39/mo, or $31/mo billed annually ($372/yr); unlocks the 1M-token K3 context and the K2.7 Code HighSpeed tier; Max - $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually ($948/yr); Ultra - $199/mo, or $159/mo billed annually ($1,908/yr); CLI is free and open source (MIT); usage comes from a Kimi membership or a pay-as-you-go Kimi Platform API key. Source: Kimi Code product page and plans, Kimi Code docs overview, Migrating from kimi-cli, Kimi Code CLI getting started, MoonshotAI/kimi-code README, MoonshotAI/kimi-code releases.
How do I install Kimi Code?
Official install commands as of October 17, 2026: curl -fsSL https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.sh | bash or irm https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.ps1 | iex or npm install -g @moonshot-ai/kimi-code.
Which models does Kimi Code use?
As of October 17, 2026: Kimi Code runs Moonshot's K3 (k3 with up to 1M context on Pro and above, or k3-256k), K2.8 Preview (kimi-for-coding) and K2.7 Code HighSpeed (kimi-for-coding-highspeed, Pro and above). Switch with /model in the CLI; Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and other providers can be added in ~/.kimi-code/config.toml.
How much does Claude Code cost?
As of October 17, 2026: Pro - $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front): includes Claude Code; Max - $100/mo (5x Pro usage) or $200/mo (20x Pro usage), plus $100 to $200/mo in API credits; Team - Standard seat $20/seat/mo billed annually ($25 monthly); Premium seat $100/seat/mo billed annually ($125 monthly); 2 to 150 seats; Enterprise - $20/seat/mo billed annually, 20 seat minimum, plus usage at API rates; Console (API key) - pay per token at Anthropic API rates; Free claude.ai plan - does not include Claude Code. Source: Claude Code setup docs, Claude Code model configuration, Claude pricing, anthropics/claude-code CHANGELOG, anthropics/claude-code releases, @anthropic-ai/claude-code on npm (release dates).
How do I install Claude Code?
Official install commands as of October 17, 2026: curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash or brew install --cask claude-code or npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code.
Which models does Claude Code use?
As of October 17, 2026: Defaults to Claude Opus 5.5 on Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise, and the Anthropic API (Sonnet 4.5 on Microsoft Foundry). Switch with /model, claude --model, or ANTHROPIC_MODEL using the opus, sonnet, haiku, and fable aliases (Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1 on the Anthropic API) or a full model name; Fable is never the default and must be picked explicitly.
