DeepSeek and Kimi both cover Writing, Coding, Learning & Research. DeepSeek: Open-weight model lab with a chat app and very low-cost API (See official site). Kimi: Moonshot AI's assistant for slide decks, documents, spreadsheets and deep research (See official site). This page compares published facts only; we have not run a head-to-head test.
DeepSeek vs Kimi at a glance
| DeepSeek | Kimi | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | DeepSeek | Moonshot AI |
| What it is | DeepSeek researches general-purpose large models and has open-sourced models such as DeepSeek-V4 and DeepSeek-R1. It offers a chat app plus a developer API billed per token, with a 1M-token context window and both OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible endpoints, so many coding tools can plug in directly. A strong choice if you want capable reasoning at low cost. | Kimi is the AI assistant from Moonshot AI. The site currently highlights its K3 model, positioned for agentic coding and knowledge work. Beyond chat it can build slide decks, work with Excel and PDF files, run deep research, build web pages, and schedule tasks or run several agents in parallel. A good fit if you work through lots of material and want research turned straight into a presentation. |
| Good for | Writing, analysis and reasoning questions Power coding tools as the backend model Batch-process text through the API Self-host the open-weight models | Condense long reports and PDFs into key points Generate a slide deck from a topic Run deep research on a market or competitor Build a simple web page or game from a prompt |
| Use cases | Writing, Coding, Learning & Research | Writing, Office & Slides, Learning & Research, Coding |
| Pricing model | See official site | See official site |
| Pricing details | API is billed per 1M tokens (official page, 2026-11-14): deepseek-flash input (cache miss) $0.30 peak / $0.15 off-peak, cache hit $0.006 / $0.003, output $1.20 peak / $0.60 off-peak; deepseek-v4-pro input (cache miss) $1.32 peak / $0.66 off-peak, output $3.96 peak / $1.98 off-peak. Off-peak is half the peak rate (peak = 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays). Web search and web fetch $0.75 per 1,000 each; file parsing/OCR $0.225 per 1,000 pages. Check the site for chat app pricing. | No clear public price list on the official site; check the official site. |
| Sources | api-docs.deepseek.com | kimi.com |
| Last verified |
FAQ
Is DeepSeek or Kimi cheaper?
DeepSeek: API is billed per 1M tokens (official page, 2026-11-14): deepseek-flash input (cache miss) $0.30 peak / $0.15 off-peak, cache hit $0.006 / $0.003, output $1.20 peak / $0.60 off-peak; deepseek-v4-pro input (cache miss) $1.32 peak / $0.66 off-peak, output $3.96 peak / $1.98 off-peak. Off-peak is half the peak rate (peak = 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays). Web search and web fetch $0.75 per 1,000 each; file parsing/OCR $0.225 per 1,000 pages. Check the site for chat app pricing. Kimi: No clear public price list on the official site; check the official site. Prices change; check the official sites before paying.
Should I choose DeepSeek or Kimi?
Choose DeepSeek if you mainly need: Writing, analysis and reasoning questions; Power coding tools as the backend model; Batch-process text through the API; Self-host the open-weight models. Choose Kimi if you mainly need: Condense long reports and PDFs into key points; Generate a slide deck from a topic; Run deep research on a market or competitor; Build a simple web page or game from a prompt.
More alternatives to DeepSeek → · More alternatives to Kimi →