Best for
Best for reasoning, math and coding on a free app, or very low-cost API access.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
AI Chatbots & Assistants Comparison
DeepSeek vs. Kimi
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for working through very long documents and research in one pass.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | DeepSeek | Kimi |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free web and app; API from $0.30 per million input tokens Peak rates: deepseek-flash costs $0.30 per million input tokens on a cache miss and $1.20 per million output tokens, deepseek-v4-pro $1.32 and $3.96. Every rate halves outside peak hours, and a cache hit costs $0.006 per million tokens on deepseek-flash. | Free API billed per token through Moonshot's platform. |
| Free trial | Free tier: the full web and mobile app | Free to use |
| Commercial use | Yes | Not stated |
| Output | Chat, reasoning, math and code | Long-context chat with web search, files and tool use |
| API | Yes, OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible, billed per token | Yes |
| Ecosystem | Open-weight models, free web and mobile apps, and a very low-cost API; few office integrations, but agent tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode can use DeepSeek as their backend model | Kimi model family and Kimi Code CLI; flagship model as open weights |
| Live web search and sources | Yes, web search with cited sources | Yes, built-in web search |
| Files and long documents | Yes, document uploads (PDF, DOCX, TXT and code) and image reading | Yes, file parsing with an ultra-long context window |
| Images, voice and video | Reads images; no image, audio or video generation | Yes, image and document input |
| Coding help | Yes, strong at coding and math | Yes, plus a Kimi Code command-line agent |
| Model choice | Yes, DeepSeek-V4 models (Flash and Pro) with a DeepThink thinking toggle; the API sells them as deepseek-flash and deepseek-v4-pro | Yes on the platform: Kimi K3, Kimi K2.7 Code and Kimi K2.6, with thinking and non-thinking modes on K2.6 and a low, high or max reasoning effort on K3 |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Email helpdesk, Community forum | Not stated |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode | Not stated |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price DeepSeek Free web and app; API from $0.30 per million input tokens Kimi Free
- Free trial DeepSeek Free tier: the full web and mobile app Kimi Free to use
- Company size DeepSeek Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Kimi Freelancers, Small and mid-sized
- Output DeepSeek Chat, reasoning, math and code Kimi Long-context chat with web search, files and tool use
- API DeepSeek Yes, OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible, billed per token Kimi Yes
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
DeepSeek
Strengths
- Free to use in the web and mobile app
- Strong at reasoning, math and code
- Open-weight models and very low API pricing
Limitations
- Fewer office and ecosystem integrations than the big incumbents
- No native image generation
Kimi
Strengths
- Very long context for large documents
- Free to use, flagship model open-weight
- Kimi Code agent for terminal-based coding
Limitations
- Smaller ecosystem outside its home market
- Fewer third-party integrations than major assistants
Plans
Pricing
DeepSeek
- Free $0 Web and mobile app.
- API From $0.30 Per million input tokens on a cache miss (deepseek-flash, peak rate); output $1.20. deepseek-v4-pro costs $1.32 and $3.96. Cache hits cost $0.006 and $0.022 per million tokens, and all rates halve outside peak hours (01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC, Monday to Friday).
Kimi
- Free $0 Web and mobile.
- API (pay-as-you-go) Not stated Billed per token through Moonshot's platform.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
DeepSeek
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Kimi
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
DeepSeek https://www.deepseek.com · no check date recorded yet
Kimi https://www.kimi.com · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.