LLM Releases

Model family timeline

Last updated Sep 11, 2026

Kimi model releases

A source-backed timeline for the Kimi model family, collecting release dates, labs, access details, context windows, and major lifecycle changes.

4
Models
1
Labs
0
Open
4
Recent

4 models

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Preview
Moonshot AIProprietary

Moonshot AI's mid-tier coding and agentic model, released Sep 11 2026 and positioned between the flagship Kimi K3 and the older Kimi K2.7 Code. Moonshot describes its coding and agent performance as close to K3 with significantly more efficient "thinking," and brings the K3-series thinking controls — adjustable reasoning effort set to low, high, or max, with max as the default. Multimodal input (text, images, and video) with text output, and a 1M-token context window made available across all Kimi membership tiers rather than gated to upper plans as it was when K3 first opened 1M context. Served through Kimi Code under the model id kimi-for-coding, so existing clients pick it up without config changes. Proprietary and preview-status at launch; parameter count and architecture are undisclosed for this specific checkpoint, though it sits within Moonshot's MoE Kimi K2 line. Benchmark and efficiency figures are vendor-reported and unverified by an independent harness at launch.

MoEUndisc.1M ctxSep 11, 2026

Kimi k1.5

Available
Moonshot AIProprietary

Moonshot's multimodal reinforcement-learning reasoning model, reported as matching OpenAI o1 on math, coding, and multimodal reasoning.

Undisc. ctxJan 20, 2025

Kimi 1M

Available
Moonshot AIProprietary

Long-context Kimi upgrade advertised with support for million-character document and conversation contexts.

Undisc. ctxMar 18, 2024

Kimi Chat

Available
Moonshot AIProprietary

Moonshot's first Kimi assistant release, establishing the long-context product line before the open Kimi model cards.

Undisc. ctxOct 9, 2023