Which is better, Kimi or ChatGPT? It depends on the job. This page gives you nine fair, side-by-side tests for research, writing and coding, a scorecard to mark the winner, and the facts on price and features.
Three kinds of work, two assistants, and you as the judge.
We are a Kimi guide site, so we know Kimi best. We have tried to be fair to both. We are not affiliated with Moonshot AI or OpenAI.
Paste exactly the same words into both. Use the Copy buttons.
Start a new chat for every test, so old chats do not help or hurt.
Compare free with free, or paid with paid. Note which model each used.
Judge the first answer. Do not coach one tool more than the other.
A confident answer can still be wrong. Open sources and run the code.
Swap in your own topic or code where you can. That is the test that matters.
Both tools can search the web and both have a deep research mode that writes a long report with sources.
What is the current population of Canada, and what was it ten years ago? Give the source for each number.
What to look for
Research the main trends in the electric bicycle market in Europe from 2023 to now. Use official reports and industry data where possible. Give a structured report with sources.
What to look for
Compare heat pumps and gas boilers for a small home: cost to install, cost to run and typical lifespan. Put the answer in a table and say where each number comes from.
What to look for
Both write good first drafts. The differences show in tone, in how well they follow instructions, and in how much editing you still have to do.
Write a polite email to a client explaining that their project will be one week late because a supplier delivered late. Keep it under 120 words, give the new date as 14 March, and offer a short call.
What to look for
Rewrite this in plain English for a general reader, in two sentences: "The implementation of the aforementioned policy will be contingent upon the availability of budgetary resources and subject to periodic review by the relevant stakeholders."
What to look for
Write a 150-word introduction for a blog post titled "Why I stopped checking my phone before breakfast". Use a warm, slightly humorous first-person voice. Do not use clichés.
What to look for
You can run these in the normal chat. If you code every day, also try each company's coding assistant on a real project: Kimi Code and OpenAI's Codex.
Write a Python function that takes a list of email addresses and returns only the valid ones, with duplicates removed and the original order kept. Include three test cases.
What to look for
This JavaScript function should return the average of an array but returns NaN. Find the bug, explain it in one sentence and fix it: function avg(a){let s=0;for(let i=0;i<=a.length;i++){s+=a[i]}return s/a.length}
What to look for
Build a single HTML file with a tip calculator. It needs a bill amount, a tip percentage slider and the number of people. Show the tip and the amount per person. Make it look clean on a phone.
What to look for
This fills in as you mark each test above. A tie gives a point to both.
Kimi 0 · ChatGPT 0
Kimi 0 · ChatGPT 0
Kimi 0 · ChatGPT 0
Kimi 0 · ChatGPT 0
Your scores stay in this page only. They are not saved or sent anywhere, and they clear when you reload.
| Feature | Kimi | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| The basics | ||
| Made by | Moonshot AI, China | OpenAI, USA |
| Best known for | Long tasks, agents and open models | The all-round assistant most people know |
| Top models | Kimi K3 | GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol |
| Can you download the model? | Yes. Open weights | No |
| Price | ||
| Free plan | Yes. Uses Kimi K2.6 | Yes. Uses GPT-6 Luna |
| Paid plans, per month | $19, $39, $99 or $199 | $8 Go, $20 Plus, $100 or $200 Pro |
| API, top model, per million tokens (in / out) | $3 / $15 for Kimi K3 | $10 / $50 for GPT-6 Astra |
| API, main model (in / out) | $0.95 / $4 for Kimi K2.6 | $2 / $10 for GPT-6.1 Sol |
| Research | ||
| Web search with sources | Yes | Yes |
| Deep research reports | Yes. 10 to 25 minutes each | Yes. Limited on free, more on paid plans |
| Writing | ||
| Documents and slides tools | Yes. Kimi Docs and Slides | Writes and edits documents in chat |
| Remembers you across chats | Not confirmed | Yes. Memory |
| Image creation | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Coding | ||
| Coding assistant | Kimi Code, on paid plans | Codex. Limited on free, more on paid plans |
| Reads very long code or files | About 1 million tokens with Kimi K3 on higher plans | Depends on plan and model |
| Build a website from a prompt | Yes. Kimi Build, with one-click publish | Can write the code. Hosting is up to you |
| Apps | ||
| Where it runs | Web, Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone | Web, desktop, Android, iPhone |
On a small screen, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Checked on 8 October 2026. Kimi details come from Moonshot's own pages. ChatGPT models, features and API prices come from OpenAI's own pricing pages. ChatGPT plan prices in dollars come from an independent tracker, because OpenAI's page did not show amounts when we checked. "Not confirmed" means our sources did not say either way.
Both are free to start, and the main paid plans cost almost the same: $19 a month for Kimi Moderato and $20 for ChatGPT Plus. ChatGPT also has a cheaper $8 Go plan. Both go up to about $200 a month for the heaviest users.
One example job: send a long document (100,000 tokens) and get a detailed answer (20,000 tokens).
Worked out from each company's standard list prices, without cache or long-context pricing. Kimi API pricing
Kimi is run by a company in China and ChatGPT by a company in the USA. Read each privacy policy, and do not paste confidential information into either.
Many employers have rules about AI tools. Check yours before you use either one for work.
Check important facts, open the sources and run the code before you rely on an answer.