Two Separate Things: API Credit and a kimi.com Subscription
Kimi K3 pricing splits into two systems that do not fund each other. A kimi.com subscription pays for chat access on Moonshot's own site and app. A Moonshot API key pays for programmatic access, which is what powers K3 running inside a third-party product like OpenClaw or Hermes Agent. Paying for one does not unlock the other — if you want to run K3 as your always-on agent's model, you need API credit, not a kimi.com plan.
Moonshot API Pricing
The API model id is kimi-k3, priced flat across the full 1,048,576-token context window:
- $3.00 per 1M input tokens (cache miss)
- $0.30 per 1M cached input tokens
- $15.00 per 1M output tokens
There is a $1 minimum top-up to activate API access at all. K3 ships with always-on thinking mode; at launch only the “max” effort level is available. It supports native vision input, structured output, and tool calling out of the box.
For context on how that stacks up against what it actually costs to complete a task rather than just per-token price, see our Kimi K3 benchmarks post — Artificial Analysis puts K3 at roughly $0.94 per completed task, cheaper than GPT-5.6 Sol or Opus 4.8.
kimi.com Subscription Tiers
Separately, kimi.com sells five consumer tiers:
- Adagio — free, 6 agent credits
- Moderato — $19/mo ($15/mo billed annually)
- Allegretto — $39/mo ($31/mo annually), adds Kimi Claw
- Allegro — $99/mo ($79/mo annually)
- Vivace — $199/mo ($159/mo annually)
These are consumption plans for chatting with K3 directly on Moonshot's site, comparable to a ChatGPT or Claude subscription — not an API key, and not something you can point a Telegram bot at.
Moonshot Paused New Subscriptions
Around July 20, 2026, Moonshot paused new K3 subscriptions on kimi.com, citing compute strain from demand following the launch. Existing subscribers were reportedly unaffected, but new sign-ups were closed. The API has not been reported as paused, though OpenRouter users have seen intermittent 429 rate-limit responses as upstream capacity catches up — a sign Moonshot is capacity-constrained across both surfaces right now, not just the consumer app.
Running K3 on an Always-On Agent
If the goal is a bot that lives on Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, WeChat, or the web and answers with K3, that is an API-credit problem, not a kimi.com subscription problem. K3 is available directly through the Moonshot API and through OpenRouter (model slug moonshotai/kimi-k3 — note the moonshotai org prefix, not moonshot, or you'll get a 404). Both OpenClaw and Hermes Agent accept a Moonshot or OpenRouter key directly. On OpenClaw Launch you bring your own key and pick K3 from the model dropdown — no separate kimi.com subscription required. See also what OpenRouter is and how to wire it up if you would rather route through there than a direct Moonshot key.