Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, a 2.8 trillion parameter model

Moonshot AI has released Kimi K3, a new artificial intelligence model featuring 2.8 trillion parameters. The company describes it as its most capable model to date and plans to release the open weights by July 27, 2026. Currently, the model is accessible through the company’s website and API.

In performance evaluations, Kimi K3 shows significant improvements over its predecessor, Kimi K2.6, and ranks highly on industry benchmarks, including the Arena.ai frontend code arena. While it trails behind top-tier models like Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol in some categories, it outperforms others in long-horizon knowledge work. The model is notably more expensive than previous Moonshot releases, with pricing set at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, matching the cost of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet series.

Practical testing of the model reveals high reasoning token usage, which contributes to higher operational costs for simple tasks. Despite the expense, the model demonstrates strong vision capabilities and spatial awareness, successfully generating complex SVG images and accurate image descriptions. While simple creative prompts like generating a pelican on a bicycle serve as a basic functional test, the model’s true value lies in its ability to handle complex agentic tool calling and extended conversations.