Kimi AI: how to use it in 2026

Section 01What Kimi is and who makes it

Kimi is a chatbot plus a set of work tools from Moonshot AI, a company based in Beijing. Moonshot was founded in March 2023, and the first version of Kimi came out that October. Back then its big strength was reading very long texts: whole books and stacks of contracts in one go. In China, Kimi quickly became one of the most popular AI assistants.

The rest of the world really noticed Kimi in the summer of 2025. In July, the K2 model came out, and Moonshot released its weights openly: any developer could download it and run it on their own hardware. In January 2026, K2.5 learned to work with images and video. On July 16, 2026, K3 arrived – a model with 2.8 trillion parameters and a context window of a million tokens. That's roughly 700,000 words at once, several thick books in a single conversation. In October 2026 it was joined by K3.1 Pro, tuned for coding and long agent tasks.

You'll see the word "agent" all over Kimi, so let me explain it right away. A regular chat answers with text. An agent takes a task and runs several steps in a row on its own: searches the web, writes code, assembles a file, checks the result. You ask for "a 10-slide deck about my course," and you get a finished file to download.

Kimi has two addresses, and this is the first thing that trips up beginners. kimi.com is the version for mainland China: you sign in with WeChat or a Chinese phone number with the +86 code. That one isn't for you. kimi.ai is the international version: you sign in with Google or a phone number. The kimi.ai sign-in window even says that mainland China users should go to kimi.com. So everyone else goes to kimi.ai.

Here's what you'll find inside if you open kimi.ai today:

Section 02Is Kimi available in the US, and is it safe

Yes, Kimi works in the US. kimi.ai is the international version for everyone outside mainland China, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. kimi.com is the version for mainland China. You open kimi.ai in a regular browser, sign in with Google, and start working. No special setup needed.

Payment is just as simple. Paid plans are billed in dollars, and you pay with a regular credit or debit card. More on the plans in Section 6. If you'd rather not pay at all, the free plan is enough for your first tasks.

Now the safety question, and here I'll be direct. Kimi is a service from a Chinese company, with its own servers and its own data storage rules. My rule is the same for any AI tool: only send it what you'd calmly show an outside contractor. With Kimi, I'm especially careful about three things:

• client personal data: names together with phone numbers, chat histories, health or therapy details;
• passwords, logins, and access keys;
• financial details: bank data, financial reports, deal terms with partners.

Your own posts, service descriptions, public competitor pages, and anonymized client questions are fine. The full list of what to keep out and how to anonymize a real case is in Section 13.

Section 03Sign up in two minutes

Signing up for Kimi is easier than for most AI tools: no forms, no long questionnaires. Here's the whole path.

Section 04Interface and answer language

I opened kimi.ai on November 2, 2026, in a browser set to US English, and the whole interface was in English: New chat, Scheduled, Slides, Deep Research, Build, Docs, Sheets, and an input box that says "Ask anything, or task an agent…". Kimi detects your browser language and translates the menus on its own. Among the options are English, 简体中文, and other languages. To switch by hand, open Language at the bottom left and pick the one you want.

Kimi answers in the language you ask in. Write in English and you get English. Write in Spanish and you get Spanish. The writing is clean, but sometimes the sentences run long and a little formal. For posts and client emails, one line at the end of the prompt fixes it: "Write in plain, conversational English, short sentences, no corporate jargon." This trick works in any AI tool, more on it in Section 8.

If you work with clients in several languages, you can keep the interface in English and simply write each prompt in the language you need. Kimi switches with you, and you don't have to change any settings.

Section 05What you get for free

You can use Kimi for free, with no trial period and no card on file. According to the official pricing table as of November 2, 2026, the Free plan includes the following:

Regular chat on the free plan has no hard message counter, but answers can slow down when the servers are busy. The agent modes – Slides, Docs, Sheets, Deep Research, Build – spend agent credits. The official page doesn't say how many credits the free plan gets: it only says paid plans have more, 2x, 5x, and 10x. In practice, the free allowance is enough to try each mode and see whether you need it.

My advice: don't burn your free agent credits on "let's see what happens" experiments. Pick one real task that's been sitting on your list, like the deck for your next live session. Then your very first try brings real value, and you can honestly compare Kimi with what you use now. For more AI tools you can use without a subscription, see free AI tools in 2026.

Section 06Plans and payment

Kimi has four paid plans for individuals. Prices as of November 2, 2026:

Which one to pick. If you use Kimi mostly as a chat and make a deck or a research report once a week, the free plan is enough. If the agent modes have become part of your work and your credits run out by mid-month, get Plus. Pro makes sense when you keep hitting the K3.1 Pro queue or run lots of tasks in parallel. Max and Ultra are for people who run Kimi all day, and a typical small business owner won't need them.

Paying is straightforward. On the pricing page, choose Monthly or Annually, click Subscribe, and pay with a regular credit or debit card. A few details worth knowing:

• Yearly billing saves up to 20%. Plus drops from $19 to $15 a month, but you pay $180 up front. Try a month first, then switch to yearly if Kimi sticks.
• Gift codes. The pricing page has a Redeem button for a subscription code. Handy if someone gives you a subscription as a gift.
• Business and API. The same page has Business and API tabs. For working in the chat, the Individual plans are all you need.

Subscriptions renew automatically. If you paid for one month as a test, turn off auto-renewal in your subscription settings right away, so there's no surprise next month. There's also a Kimi API for developers: pay per token, no subscription, through platform.kimi.ai. You don't need it to work in the chat.

Section 07K3 and K3.1 Pro: which model to pick

At the bottom right of the input box you'll see the model name and the thinking level, for example "K3 High." This is your main quality switch.

K3 has been the main model since July 2026. It understands text, images, and video, holds up to a million tokens in memory, and it's the default for everyone, including the free plan. For posts, emails, reviews, decks, and research, it's more than enough.

K3.1 Pro is the newest model, released in October 2026. Moonshot focuses it on coding, financial analysis, and long agent tasks. The faster K3.1 Pro Highspeed is available from the Pro plan up. At launch, as Kimi itself honestly warns, requests to it may wait in a queue.

The thinking level is how long the model thinks before answering. "High" gives a more considered result but takes longer. For simple asks like "rephrase this paragraph," you can lower the level and get a faster answer. For strategy, numbers, and niche analysis, keep it on high.

Section 08Your first prompt: a formula that works

Kimi, like any strong AI model, answers exactly what you ask. Ask for "post ideas" and you get five bland topics that could fit anyone. Tell it who you are and who you write for, and you get topics you can publish tomorrow.

A four-part formula that works in any AI tool:

1. Who you are. Your profession, how you work, who you serve. "I'm a therapist in private practice online, working with anxiety in women 30–45."
2. The task. What exactly to do. "Come up with 5 Telegram post topics that will bring clients to a consultation."
3. The format. How to lay out the answer. "For each topic, a headline and one line about what the post covers."
4. The limits. Language, style, what to avoid. "Write in English, keep it short, no jargon, no promises to cure anything."

I ran this kind of prompt myself. Kimi won't let you send a message without signing in – the site opens the sign-in window right away – so the answer below comes from Claude. The formula works the same way in any strong model, and in Kimi you'll get your own version at the same level.

Look at the fourth topic. A post on "what happens at the first session" removes a new client's biggest fear – the unknown. Posts like this usually bring in more bookings than the smartest expert content. The AI suggested it on its own because it had the context: therapist, online, needs clients.

Three more moves that make Kimi's answers noticeably better:

• Give it a sample. Paste two of your old posts and write, "Write in the same style." Kimi picks up your paragraph length, tone, and favorite words.
• Ask for options. "Give me 3 different headlines: one bold, one with a number, one as a question." Choosing from three is easier than rewriting one.
• Keep the conversation going. The first answer is a draft. Say it plainly: "point two is too general, add a real-life example," "cut it in half." Kimi remembers the whole conversation.

Section 09A deck in Slides mode

This mode is why many people come to Kimi. You describe the topic, Kimi writes the copy, builds the structure, and designs the slides. You end up with a deck you can download and polish.

Kimi makes a deck fast, but the design has a recognizable "AI-made" look. For a live session with your own followers, that's enough. For a sales webinar to a cold audience, I'd polish the slides by hand or in a dedicated tool. Compare with how Gamma makes a presentation in 10 minutes: it has more ready templates and easier design edits. And if you're preparing a full sales webinar, see how to build a webinar script and deck with Claude.

Section 10Deep Research for your niche

Deep Research is the mode where Kimi spends a few minutes reading the web before it answers. It opens dozens of pages, compares what each one says, and puts together a report with links to sources. For client work it's one of the most useful modes, because this kind of work used to take a full day by hand.

What you can hand to Deep Research:

• Competitor review: who in your niche sells similar services, at what prices, what they promise on their sites.
• Audience pain points: what people write on forums and in reviews about the problem you solve.
• Trends: what changed in your field over the past year, what's worth telling your followers about.
• Idea check: whether there's demand for a new product you want to launch.

A sample prompt for a nutritionist:

The report arrives in a few minutes. Read it as a draft from a sharp assistant: check the links and spot-check the numbers. AI can mix up dates or pull a price from an old page. Still, in 10 minutes you get a map of the market that used to take a day.

If you prefer a "search engine with sources" format, see how Perplexity works. And if you want an agent that runs long chains of tasks in the browser for you, read about Manus, the AI agent that works for you.

Section 11Docs, Sheets, Build, and Scheduled tasks

Docs

The mode for long texts you need as a file: a course outline, a client handout, instructions for an assistant, a draft agreement. Write the prompt the same way as for a deck: who you are, who the document is for, which sections it needs. For example: "Write a handout for clients of my fitness challenge: what to buy before the start, how to keep a food journal, what to do if you miss a workout. 2 pages, friendly tone." Always show legal documents from Kimi to a lawyer: AI doesn't know the latest changes in your local law.

Sheets

Kimi builds spreadsheets with formulas from a plain description. "Make a lead tracker: date, name, source, service, amount, payment status. At the bottom, the total of paid amounts and the lead-to-payment conversion rate." You get a file that opens in Excel or Google Sheets. For a monthly content plan, an ad budget, or a tutor's class schedule, it saves an hour of fiddling with cells.

Build

Here Kimi makes a simple website or web app and publishes it at a link. A one-page site, a consultation booking page, a service price calculator, a mini quiz for your followers. Describe what should be on the page and which buttons it needs. Publishing sites with a database is available on paid plans. For a full sales site with payments and lead forms you'll want a proper site builder. For testing an idea in an evening, Build is plenty.

Scheduled tasks

Kimi can run a task at a set time on its own and send you the result. For example, every Monday at 9 a.m., collect the top news in your niche for the week and suggest three post topics. The free plan gives you two such tasks, Plus gives ten. This is the first step toward what people call AI agents: a helper that keeps working while you're busy with something else. For more on how these helpers work, see what an AI agent is.

Projects

A project is a folder where Kimi remembers your files and context. Upload a description of your services, sample posts, and common client questions, and every new chat inside the project starts with that knowledge. The free plan gives you two projects and 500 MB, enough for one work topic.

Section 1210 ready prompts for your work

Copy, fill in your details in the square brackets, and send. Every prompt follows the same structure: who you are, the task, the format, and the limits.

Section 13What not to upload to Kimi

Kimi is a service from a Chinese company, with its own servers and data storage rules. The same caution applies to any AI tool, so I use one rule for all of them: only what you'd calmly show an outside contractor goes into the AI.

• Don't upload client personal data: full names together with phone numbers, message histories, medical or therapy details, ID numbers. If you need to work through a real case, change the name and remove the details that could identify the person.
• Don't upload passwords, logins, or bank details. In any form, not even as a screenshot.
• Be careful with company documents. Financial reports, partner agreements, and commercial terms are better anonymized before you upload them.
• Fine to upload: your own posts, service descriptions, public competitor pages, anonymized client questions, drafts of articles and decks.

There's another side too. Chinese models answer politically sensitive topics related to China differently: they dodge the question or give the official view. For marketing, copy, and decks it doesn't get in the way, but for geopolitical analysis Kimi is a poor source.

Section 14If something goes wrong

Section 15Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen, and Claude

Kimi often gets compared with other Chinese AI tools and with Western ones. In short, who each one suits:

Step-by-step guides for each: how to use DeepSeek and how to use Qwen, Alibaba's free AI. For a wider overview, see the best AI tools of 2026.

My take. Keep Kimi handy for its agent modes: when you need a deck, a spreadsheet, or a research report in 10 minutes. For copy that sells – posts, emails, scripts – I still use Claude: it holds a natural voice and the author's style better. How to start with it from zero is in Claude from scratch. And if you're choosing between the two big Western assistants, here's an honest comparison of Claude and ChatGPT.

Section 16The whole path in one minute

Start today with one action: take a live session, consultation, or webinar you have coming up, and make a deck for it in Slides mode with prompt #3. In 10 minutes you'll have a draft, and you'll see for yourself whether Kimi earns a spot in your work week.