FreeLLMKimi K3.1 Pro is free to try in the Kimi app: what you get and what stays paid
Moonshot's strongest model now has a free plan with limited usage on the web and in Kimi Work. What the free plan includes, what the paid plans and the API add, and what Moonshot shows it can build.
Yesterday we wrote that Kimi K3.1 Pro was a paid model until its weights come out. That is no longer the whole story. On 26 October 2026 Moonshot AI sent its users an email titled "Kimi K3.1 Pro is Here", and its official pricing page, updated the same day, lists K3.1 Pro on the Free plan with "Limited usage" on the web and in Kimi Work.
So you can now try the model that sits 8th in the Arena coding ranking, above every open model on that list, without paying and without an API key. The catch is in the word "limited": Moonshot does not say how much you get.
This guide covers what the free plan really includes, what stays behind the paid plans and the API, what Moonshot says K3.1 Pro is good at, and three examples from its own announcement.
In short
- K3.1 Pro is on Moonshot's Free plan, on the web and in the Kimi Work desktop app, with "Limited usage" and no published quota.
- The free plan does not include Kimi Code or the faster K3.1 Pro Highspeed.
- Paid plans start at $15 a month (Plus) with annual billing; the API is billed separately at $2 / $10 per million tokens.
- Moonshot still promises the open weights by 4 November 2026. Until then, the app is the only free way in.
How to try it for free
- Open kimi.ai in a browser, or update the Kimi app to the latest version. The email says: "Update to the latest version and meet Kimi K3.1 Pro."
- Sign in with a free account. Logins and accounts are Moonshot's, not ours: check its terms and privacy policy before you upload anything personal or confidential.
- Pick K3.1 Pro in the model menu and start a chat. For the agent features (files, apps, scheduled tasks), download Kimi Work, Moonshot's desktop app.
When you reach the free limit, the app asks you to wait or to upgrade. Moonshot does not publish the size of the free allowance, so we cannot tell you how many messages that is. If you need a predictable budget, the API is the honest option: you pay per token and you know the price in advance.
Free plan vs paid plans
This is what Moonshot's pricing page lists on 26 October 2026. Prices are the effective monthly rate with annual billing; the page does not show a month-by-month option.
| Free | Plus | Pro | Max | Ultra | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per month (annual billing) | $0 | $15 | $31 | $79 | $159 |
| K3.1 Pro on web and Kimi Work | Limited usage | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| K3.1 Pro in Kimi Code | No | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| K3.1 Pro Highspeed | No | No | Included | Included | Included |
| Agent credits | Basic | More | 2× | 5× | 10× |
| Agent tasks at the same time | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Scheduled tasks | 2 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Projects | 2 | 20 | 20 | 100 | 100 |
| Project storage | 500 MB | 20 GB | 20 GB | 50 GB | 50 GB |
Two things the table does not say. First, a membership does not include the API: the pricing page states that "a membership covers the product benefits in your plan", and API calls are billed on their own. Second, there is no message count for any plan; the page only says that Max and Ultra have higher usage allowances.
For most people who want to test the model, the free plan is enough to judge it. For daily coding work inside an editor, the free plan does not help: Kimi Code starts at Plus.
What Moonshot says K3.1 Pro is good at
The announcement email lists eight areas. We report them as Moonshot's claims; we have not tested each one ourselves.
- Coding: "Quick fixes in real codebases, complete project builds". This one has independent support: K3.1 Pro scores 1692 in the Arena coding ranking, from blind votes by users, 37 points above Kimi K3.
- 3D: from text, a sketch or a reference image, Kimi writes and runs Blender and CAD scripts for modeling, materials and scene assembly, and the result can go into Three.js or a game engine.
- Finance: DCF and LBO models, earnings reviews, sector deep dives and investment committee decks, with "every figure" traced back to its source. If you use it for money decisions, check the figures yourself: a model that cites sources can still read them wrong.
- Games: puzzles, adventures and 3D worlds, with Unity and Unreal running inside Kimi Work.
- Apps: web apps and native iOS and Android apps, "with Kimi inside" for your users.
- Office work: audio transcription and revision history are now built in.
- Connectors: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Notion and Obsidian; GitHub, Cloudflare, Vercel and Supabase for coding; plus computer-use and browser plugins that act on your screen.
- Inspiration library: 3D sites, games and poster designs you can remix, and Pinterest boards you can turn into templates.
The connectors and the screen-control plugins are the part to think about before you turn them on. An assistant that can read your email and click on your computer can also make mistakes there. Start with a test account or read-only access, and give it more only when you trust the results.
Three examples from the announcement
Moonshot's email shows three short clips, all labelled "Generated by K3.1 Pro". They are Moonshot's own showcase, picked by Moonshot, so take them as what the model can do at its best, not as an average result.
All three are the kind of work Moonshot pushes hardest in this release: code that draws 3D scenes in a browser or a game engine. That fits the Arena data, where K3.1 Pro's strongest result is in coding. It does not tell you how it handles your own codebase; for that, the free plan is the cheapest test.
Free app, paid API, open weights: which one is for you
| Way to use it | Cost today | Good for | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi app and Kimi Work, Free plan | $0 | Trying the model, occasional chats and small projects | Unknown quota; no Kimi Code, no Highspeed |
| Kimi membership (Plus and up) | From $15 a month, annual billing | Daily use, Kimi Code, more agent tasks | API not included |
| Kimi API | $2 input / $10 output per million tokens ($4 / $20 for Highspeed) | Your own apps and scripts, predictable cost | Needs a top-up of at least $1 |
| Open weights | Free to download, when published | Companies and labs with their own servers | Promised by 4 November; needs about 8 data-center GPUs |
If you were waiting for the weights to run it at home, the free app changes less than it seems: K3.1 Pro has 2.8 trillion parameters and will not fit a home PC even after release. The real news of the weights will be other companies hosting it, with new free tiers. Until then, the app is the free door.
What we could not verify
- The size of the free allowance. Moonshot only writes "Limited usage". We will add a number if Moonshot publishes one.
- Whether the free plan is permanent. Nothing on the page says it is a temporary offer, but nothing promises it will last either.
- The quality of each showcase. The three clips are Moonshot's selection. Independent tests of 3D, finance and app building do not exist yet.
FAQ
Is Kimi K3.1 Pro free? Yes, in a limited way: on 26 October 2026 Moonshot's Free plan includes K3.1 Pro on the web and in Kimi Work with "Limited usage". The API and Kimi Code are paid.
Do I need an API key? No, not for the app. You need a Kimi account. The API is a separate, paid service.
Is the free plan the same model as the paid one? The pricing page lists the same K3.1 Pro on every plan. The paid plans add more usage, Kimi Code and, from Pro up, the faster Highspeed version.
Can I use it for work? Read Moonshot's terms first, and do not paste confidential data into any free AI service without checking how it is stored and used.
When can I download it? Moonshot promises the weights by 4 November 2026. Our full K3.1 Pro guide covers the likely license and the hardware it needs.
Sources
- Moonshot AI, "Kimi K3.1 Pro is Here", email to Kimi users, 26 October 2026 (images in this article come from it).
- Kimi K3.1 Pro pricing, Moonshot AI, updated 26 October 2026 (official).
- Arena coding ranking, from the Arena leaderboard dataset, as used in our free leaderboard.
To see which free models beat it on the tasks you care about, open the free leaderboard.
Is Kimi K3 (Max) the right model for you?
See every free model ranked by blind human votes, with size, memory and speed on a home GPU.