DeepSeek vs Kimi
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
DeepSeek
Free AI chat assistant built on DeepSeek's openly released models
Kimi
AI assistant and agent for research, slides, documents and code
Where they differ
- DeepSeek is free. Kimi starts at $15 per month, billed annually ($180), or $19 billed monthly.
- Only Kimi lists a browser extension.
- DeepSeek is open source, according to its own site.
- DeepSeek also covers AI search.
- Kimi also covers app builder, research and presentations.
At a glance
| DeepSeek | Kimi | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $15 per month, billed annually ($180), or $19 billed monthly |
| Free plan | The web chat and the iOS and Android apps are free, and the US App Store listing shows no in-app purchases. API usage is billed separately per token. | Adagio plan: 1 concurrent agent task, 2 scheduled tasks, 2 widget tasks, 2 projects and 500MB of project storage. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | DeepSeek | Moonshot AI |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | kimi.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
DeepSeek
- Free chat with no subscription tier to outgrow
- Developers who want low per-token API prices
- People who want models whose weights are openly released
Kimi
- Turning research into slide decks, reports and spreadsheets
- Agent work that runs many subtasks in parallel
- Developers who want a coding agent in the terminal or IDE
Worth knowing
DeepSeek
- There is no paid consumer plan. API access is billed separately, from $0.15 per 1M input tokens off-peak for the deepseek-flash model.
- The desktop download is DeepSeek Harness, a preview agent app for Apple-silicon Macs on macOS 13 or later and 64-bit Windows, not the chat app.
- According to Wikipedia, DeepSeek's compliance with Chinese government censorship policies and its data collection have drawn regulatory scrutiny in several countries.
Kimi
- The free Adagio plan is limited to 1 concurrent agent task, 2 scheduled tasks, 2 projects and 500MB of project storage.
- Goal mode and Kimi Claw deployment start at Pro, and the 1M-token context is listed only on Max and Ultra.
- Kimi Work runs on Windows and Apple-silicon Macs; on Intel-based Macs the desktop app supports Kimi Chat only.
- Work mode conversations stay on the desktop where they were created; only Chat mode conversations sync to web and mobile.
Key features
DeepSeek
- DeepThink and Search modes
- Two modes sit beside the chat box on DeepSeek's site: DeepThink, for reasoning through a question, and Search, for answers that draw on the web.
- Visual understanding
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, released in September 2026, adds native visual understanding alongside text.
- Free mobile apps
- Official iOS and Android apps give free access to the assistant. The App Store listing covers iPhone and iPad.
- DeepSeek Harness
- A desktop agent app in public preview for organizing files, analyzing data, coding and research. It is MIT-licensed and extended through plugins such as scheduled tasks.
- Openly released models
- Wikipedia describes DeepSeek's models as open-weight and, since January 2025, released under free and open-source licenses. The web and mobile apps are proprietary.
- API platform
- The same models are available to developers through an API billed per token, with off-peak rates set at half the peak rates.
Kimi
- Deep Research and Agent Swarm
- Runs research as an agent task. Agent Swarm splits large jobs such as literature reviews or long industry reports across parallel sub-agents.
- Slides, documents and spreadsheets
- Generates formatted presentations in the visual style of references you upload, and its Office agent works across PPT, Word, Excel and PDF files.
- Kimi Work on the desktop
- The desktop app reads and creates files in local folders, automates web tasks with a browser agent and adds dashboards, plugins and scheduled tasks.
- Website building
- Builds a website from a prompt. Paid plans include website deployment, and the plan cards list publishing sites with database support.
- Kimi Code
- A coding agent for the terminal and for IDEs including VS Code, Cursor, Zed and JetBrains. The pricing table marks it as available on the paid plans.
- Scheduled tasks and plugins
- Scheduled tasks run automatically and push results: 2 on Adagio, rising to 25 on Ultra. Plugins connect professional financial and economic databases.
Plans
DeepSeek
Free$0
The chat assistant on the web, iOS and Android, running DeepSeek's latest flagship model.
Kimi
Adagio$0
1 concurrent agent task, 2 scheduled tasks, 2 projects and 500MB of project storage.
Plus$15
per month, billed annually ($180); $19 billed monthly
More agent credits, 2 concurrent agent tasks, Deep Research, website deployment, Kimi Code, Swarm, 10 scheduled tasks and 20GB of project storage.
Pro$31
per month, billed annually ($372); $39 billed monthly
2x agent credits, Goal mode, one-click Kimi Claw deployment, 15 scheduled tasks and 20 projects.
Max$79
per month, billed annually ($948); $99 billed monthly
5x agent credits, up to 1M tokens of context, 20 scheduled tasks, 100 projects and 50GB of project storage.
Ultra$159
per month, billed annually ($1,908); $199 billed monthly
10x agent credits, 4 concurrent agent tasks, 25 scheduled tasks, 100 projects and 50GB of project storage.
Ways to pay less
DeepSeek
No public discounts listed.
Kimi
- Annual discount
Up to $480 a year off with annual billing
Kimi's pricing page prices annual billing at $15, $31, $79 and $159 a month against $19, $39, $99 and $199 billed monthly, and states a saving of up to $480.
