8 ms·

I've been using this model (as a coding agent) for the past few days, and it's the first time I've felt that an open source model really competes with the big l

by zeroxfe 8mo ago

I've been using this model (as a coding agent) for the past few days, and it's the first time I've felt that an open source model really competes with the big labs. So far it's been able to handle most things I've thrown at it. I'm almost hesitant to say that this is as good as Opus.

thesurlydev 8mo ago
Can you share how you're running it?
- gigatexal 8mo ago
  Yeah I too am curious. Because Claude code is so good and the ecosystem so just it works that I’m Willing to pay them.
  - epolanski 8mo ago
    You can plug another model in place of Anthropic ones in Claude Code.
    - zeroxfe 8mo ago
      That tends to work quite poorly because Claude Code does not use standard completions APIs. I tried it with Kimi, using litellm[proxy], and it failed in too many places.
      - AnonymousPlanet 8mo ago
        It worked very well for me using qwen3 coder behind a litellm. Most other models just fail in weird ways though.
      - samtheprogram 8mo ago
        opencode is a good alternative that doesnt flake out in this way.
      - xxr3376 8mo ago
        You can try Kimi's Anthropic-compatible API. Just connect Claude Code to Kimi's API endpoint and everything works well https://www.kimi.com/code/docs/en/more/third-party-agents.html https://www.kimi.com/code/docs/en/more/third-party-agents.ht...
    - miroljub 8mo ago
      If you don't use Antrophic models there's no reason to use Claude Code at all. Opencode gives so much more choice.
  - Imustaskforhelp 8mo ago
    I tried kimi k2.5 and first I didn't really like it. I was critical of it but then I started liking it. Also, the model has kind of replaced how I use chatgpt too & I really love kimi 2.5 the most right now (although gemini models come close too) To be honest, I do feel like kimi k2.5 is the best open source model. It's not the best model itself right now tho but its really price performant and for many use cases might be nice depending on it. It might not be the completely SOTA that people say but it comes pretty close and its open source and I trust the open source part because I feel like other providers can also run it and just about a lot of other things too (also considering that iirc chatgpt recently slashed some old models) I really appreciate kimi for still open sourcing their complete SOTA and then releasing some research papers on top of them unlike Qwen which has closed source its complete SOTA. Thank you Kimi!
- explorigin 8mo ago
  https://unsloth.ai/docs/models/kimi-k2.5 https://unsloth.ai/docs/models/kimi-k2.5 Requirements are listed.
  - KolmogorovComp 8mo ago
    To save everyone a click > The 1.8-bit (UD-TQ1_0) quant will run on a single 24GB GPU if you offload all MoE layers to system RAM (or a fast SSD). With ~256GB RAM, expect ~10 tokens/s. The full Kimi K2.5 model is 630GB and typically requires at least 4× H200 GPUs. If the model fits, you will get >40 tokens/s when using a B200. To run the model in near full precision, you can use the 4-bit or 5-bit quants. You can use any higher just to be safe. For strong performance, aim for >240GB of unified memory (or combined RAM+VRAM) to reach 10+ tokens/s. If you’re below that, it'll work but speed will drop (llama.cpp can still run via mmap/disk offload) and may fall from ~10 tokens/s to <2 token/s. We recommend UD-Q2_K_XL (375GB) as a good size/quality balance. Best rule of thumb: RAM+VRAM ≈ the quant size; otherwise it’ll still work, just slower due to offloading.
    - Gracana 8mo ago
      I'm running the Q4_K_M quant on a xeon with 7x A4000s and I'm getting about 8 tok/s with small context (16k). I need to do more tuning, I think I can get more out of it, but it's never gonna be fast on this suboptimal machine.
      - esafak 8mo ago
        The pitiful state of GPUs. $10K for a sloth with no memory.
      - segmondy 8mo ago
        you can add 1 more GPU so you can take advantage of tensor parallel. I get the same speed with 5 3090's with most of the model on 2400mhz ddr4 ram, 8.5tk almost constant. I don't really do agents but chat, and it holds up to 64k.
        8mo ago
- eknkc 8mo ago
  I've been using it with opencode. You can either use your kimi code subscription (flat fee), moonshot.ai api key (per token) or openrouter to access it. OpenCode works beautifully with the model. Edit: as a side note, I only installed opencode to try this model and I gotta say it is pretty good. Did not think it'd be as good as claude code but its just fine. Been using it with codex too.
  - Imustaskforhelp 8mo ago
    I tried to use opencode for kimi k2.5 too but recently they changed their pricing from 200 tool requests/5 hour to token based pricing. I can only speak from the tool request based but for some reason anecdotally opencode took like 10 requests in like 3-4 minutes where Kimi cli took 2-3 So I personally like/stick with the kimi cli for kimi coding. I haven't tested it out again with OpenAI with teh new token based pricing but I do think that opencode might add more token issue. Kimi Cli's pretty good too imo. You should check it out! https://github.com/MoonshotAI/kimi-cli https://github.com/MoonshotAI/kimi-cli
    - nl 8mo ago
      I like Kimi-cli but it does leak memory. I was using it for multi-hour tasks scripted via an self-written orchestrator on a small VM and ended up switching away from it because it would run slower and slower over time.
- zeroxfe 8mo ago
  Running it via https://platform.moonshot.ai https://platform.moonshot.ai -- using OpenCode. They have super cheap monthly plans at kimi.com too, but I'm not using it because I already have codex and claude monthly plans.
  - UncleOxidant 8mo ago
    so there's a free plan at moonshot.ai that gives you some number of tokens without paying?
  - esafak 8mo ago
    Where? https://www.kimi.com/code https://www.kimi.com/code starts at $19/month, which is same as the big boys.
- JumpCrisscross 8mo ago
  > Can you share how you're running it? Not OP, but I've been running it through Kagi [1]. Their AI offering is probably the best-kept secret in the market. [1] https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistant.html https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistant.html
  - deaux 8mo ago
    Doesn't list Kimi 2.5 and seems to be chat-only, not API, correct?
    - lejalv 8mo ago
      > Doesn't list Kimi 2.5 and seems to be chat-only, not API, correct? Yes, it is chat only, but that list is out of date - Kimi 2.5 (with or without reasoning) is available, as are ChatGPT 5.2, Gemini 3 Pro (Preview), etc
- indigodaddy 8mo ago
  Been using K2.5 Thinking via Nano-GPT subscription and `nanocode run` and it's working quite nicely. No issues with Tool Calling so far.
armcat 8mo ago
Out of curiosity, what kind of specs do you have (GPU / RAM)? I saw the requirements and it's a beyond my budget so I am "stuck" with smaller Qwen coders.
- Carrok 8mo ago
  Not OP but OpenCode and DeepInfra seems like an easy way.
- zeroxfe 8mo ago
  I'm not running it locally (it's gigantic!) I'm using the API at https://platform.moonshot.ai https://platform.moonshot.ai
  - BeetleB 8mo ago
    Just curious - how does it compare to GLM 4.7? Ever since they gave the $28/year deal, I've been using it for personal projects and am very happy with it (via opencode). https://z.ai/subscribe https://z.ai/subscribe
    - zeroxfe 8mo ago
      It's waaay better than GLM 4.7 (which was the open model I was using earlier)! Kimi was able to quickly and smoothly finish some very complex tasks that GLM completely choked at.
    - InsideOutSanta 8mo ago
      There's no comparison. GLM 4.7 is fine and reasonably competent at writing code, but K2.5 is right up there with something like Sonnet 4.5. it's the first time I can use an open-source model and not immediately tell the difference between it and top-end models from Anthropic and OpenAI.
      - deleted 8mo ago
        [deleted]
    - 8mo ago
rubslopes 8mo ago
Also my experience. I've been going back and forth between Opus and Kimi for the last few days, and, at least for my CRUD webapps, I would say they are both on the same level.
timwheeler 8mo ago
Did you use Kimi Code or some other harness? I used it with OpenCode and it was bumbling around through some tasks that Claude handles with ease.
- zedutchgandalf 8mo ago
  Are you on the latest version? They pushed an update yesterday that greatly improved Kimi K2.5’s performance. It’s also free for a week in OpenCode, sponsored by their inference provider
  - ekabod 8mo ago
    But it may be a quantized model for the free version.

by zeroxfe 8mo ago

thesurlydev 8mo ago

Can you share how you're running it?

gigatexal 8mo ago
Yeah I too am curious. Because Claude code is so good and the ecosystem so just it works that I’m Willing to pay them.
- epolanski 8mo ago
  You can plug another model in place of Anthropic ones in Claude Code.
  - zeroxfe 8mo ago
    That tends to work quite poorly because Claude Code does not use standard completions APIs. I tried it with Kimi, using litellm[proxy], and it failed in too many places.
    - AnonymousPlanet 8mo ago
      It worked very well for me using qwen3 coder behind a litellm. Most other models just fail in weird ways though.
    - samtheprogram 8mo ago
      opencode is a good alternative that doesnt flake out in this way.
    - xxr3376 8mo ago
      You can try Kimi's Anthropic-compatible API. Just connect Claude Code to Kimi's API endpoint and everything works well https://www.kimi.com/code/docs/en/more/third-party-agents.html https://www.kimi.com/code/docs/en/more/third-party-agents.ht...
  - miroljub 8mo ago
    If you don't use Antrophic models there's no reason to use Claude Code at all. Opencode gives so much more choice.
- Imustaskforhelp 8mo ago
  I tried kimi k2.5 and first I didn't really like it. I was critical of it but then I started liking it. Also, the model has kind of replaced how I use chatgpt too & I really love kimi 2.5 the most right now (although gemini models come close too) To be honest, I do feel like kimi k2.5 is the best open source model. It's not the best model itself right now tho but its really price performant and for many use cases might be nice depending on it. It might not be the completely SOTA that people say but it comes pretty close and its open source and I trust the open source part because I feel like other providers can also run it and just about a lot of other things too (also considering that iirc chatgpt recently slashed some old models) I really appreciate kimi for still open sourcing their complete SOTA and then releasing some research papers on top of them unlike Qwen which has closed source its complete SOTA. Thank you Kimi!
explorigin 8mo ago
https://unsloth.ai/docs/models/kimi-k2.5 https://unsloth.ai/docs/models/kimi-k2.5 Requirements are listed.
- KolmogorovComp 8mo ago
  To save everyone a click > The 1.8-bit (UD-TQ1_0) quant will run on a single 24GB GPU if you offload all MoE layers to system RAM (or a fast SSD). With ~256GB RAM, expect ~10 tokens/s. The full Kimi K2.5 model is 630GB and typically requires at least 4× H200 GPUs. If the model fits, you will get >40 tokens/s when using a B200. To run the model in near full precision, you can use the 4-bit or 5-bit quants. You can use any higher just to be safe. For strong performance, aim for >240GB of unified memory (or combined RAM+VRAM) to reach 10+ tokens/s. If you’re below that, it'll work but speed will drop (llama.cpp can still run via mmap/disk offload) and may fall from ~10 tokens/s to <2 token/s. We recommend UD-Q2_K_XL (375GB) as a good size/quality balance. Best rule of thumb: RAM+VRAM ≈ the quant size; otherwise it’ll still work, just slower due to offloading.
  - Gracana 8mo ago
    I'm running the Q4_K_M quant on a xeon with 7x A4000s and I'm getting about 8 tok/s with small context (16k). I need to do more tuning, I think I can get more out of it, but it's never gonna be fast on this suboptimal machine.
    - esafak 8mo ago
      The pitiful state of GPUs. $10K for a sloth with no memory.
    - segmondy 8mo ago
      you can add 1 more GPU so you can take advantage of tensor parallel. I get the same speed with 5 3090's with most of the model on 2400mhz ddr4 ram, 8.5tk almost constant. I don't really do agents but chat, and it holds up to 64k.
      - 8mo ago
eknkc 8mo ago
I've been using it with opencode. You can either use your kimi code subscription (flat fee), moonshot.ai api key (per token) or openrouter to access it. OpenCode works beautifully with the model. Edit: as a side note, I only installed opencode to try this model and I gotta say it is pretty good. Did not think it'd be as good as claude code but its just fine. Been using it with codex too.
- Imustaskforhelp 8mo ago
  I tried to use opencode for kimi k2.5 too but recently they changed their pricing from 200 tool requests/5 hour to token based pricing. I can only speak from the tool request based but for some reason anecdotally opencode took like 10 requests in like 3-4 minutes where Kimi cli took 2-3 So I personally like/stick with the kimi cli for kimi coding. I haven't tested it out again with OpenAI with teh new token based pricing but I do think that opencode might add more token issue. Kimi Cli's pretty good too imo. You should check it out! https://github.com/MoonshotAI/kimi-cli https://github.com/MoonshotAI/kimi-cli
  - nl 8mo ago
    I like Kimi-cli but it does leak memory. I was using it for multi-hour tasks scripted via an self-written orchestrator on a small VM and ended up switching away from it because it would run slower and slower over time.
zeroxfe 8mo ago
Running it via https://platform.moonshot.ai https://platform.moonshot.ai -- using OpenCode. They have super cheap monthly plans at kimi.com too, but I'm not using it because I already have codex and claude monthly plans.
- UncleOxidant 8mo ago
  so there's a free plan at moonshot.ai that gives you some number of tokens without paying?
- esafak 8mo ago
  Where? https://www.kimi.com/code https://www.kimi.com/code starts at $19/month, which is same as the big boys.
JumpCrisscross 8mo ago
> Can you share how you're running it? Not OP, but I've been running it through Kagi [1]. Their AI offering is probably the best-kept secret in the market. [1] https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistant.html https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistant.html
- deaux 8mo ago
  Doesn't list Kimi 2.5 and seems to be chat-only, not API, correct?
  - lejalv 8mo ago
    > Doesn't list Kimi 2.5 and seems to be chat-only, not API, correct? Yes, it is chat only, but that list is out of date - Kimi 2.5 (with or without reasoning) is available, as are ChatGPT 5.2, Gemini 3 Pro (Preview), etc
indigodaddy 8mo ago
Been using K2.5 Thinking via Nano-GPT subscription and `nanocode run` and it's working quite nicely. No issues with Tool Calling so far.

armcat 8mo ago

Out of curiosity, what kind of specs do you have (GPU / RAM)? I saw the requirements and it's a beyond my budget so I am "stuck" with smaller Qwen coders.

Carrok 8mo ago
Not OP but OpenCode and DeepInfra seems like an easy way.
zeroxfe 8mo ago
I'm not running it locally (it's gigantic!) I'm using the API at https://platform.moonshot.ai https://platform.moonshot.ai
- BeetleB 8mo ago
  Just curious - how does it compare to GLM 4.7? Ever since they gave the $28/year deal, I've been using it for personal projects and am very happy with it (via opencode). https://z.ai/subscribe https://z.ai/subscribe
  - zeroxfe 8mo ago
    It's waaay better than GLM 4.7 (which was the open model I was using earlier)! Kimi was able to quickly and smoothly finish some very complex tasks that GLM completely choked at.
  - InsideOutSanta 8mo ago
    There's no comparison. GLM 4.7 is fine and reasonably competent at writing code, but K2.5 is right up there with something like Sonnet 4.5. it's the first time I can use an open-source model and not immediately tell the difference between it and top-end models from Anthropic and OpenAI.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - 8mo ago

rubslopes 8mo ago

Also my experience. I've been going back and forth between Opus and Kimi for the last few days, and, at least for my CRUD webapps, I would say they are both on the same level.

timwheeler 8mo ago

Did you use Kimi Code or some other harness? I used it with OpenCode and it was bumbling around through some tasks that Claude handles with ease.

zedutchgandalf 8mo ago
Are you on the latest version? They pushed an update yesterday that greatly improved Kimi K2.5’s performance. It’s also free for a week in OpenCode, sponsored by their inference provider
- ekabod 8mo ago
  But it may be a quantized model for the free version.