Kimi's Web Search API lets developers search the web and read pages from their own apps. You pay a small fee per call: $0.002 for a basic search, $0.003 for the more detailed Pro search, and $0.002 to fetch a page. Calls that fail or find nothing are free. This page explains every price, the limits, and how to keep the bill down.
You pay per call, and only when the call returns something.
$web_search tool retires soon. Moonshot expects to deprecate it on 20 October 2026. If you use it, see moving off $web_search. We are an independent guide, not Moonshot AI. Prices are from Moonshot's pricing page and exclude tax./v1/tools/search/v1/tools/search_pro/v1/tools/fetchFrom Moonshot's web search pricing page, rate limit page and API reference, read on 8 October 2026.
| Tool | Per call | Per 1,000 calls | What you get back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web Search Basic | $0.002 | $2 | Titles, links and short snippets |
| Web Search Pro | $0.003 | $3 | The most relevant passages from each page, ranked |
| URL Fetch | $0.002 | $2 | One page's title and text as Markdown |
| $web_search (legacy) | $0.005 | $5 | Built-in search inside a chat. Search results also billed as tokens |
On a small screen, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
US dollars, before tax. Each tool is billed separately. Moonshot does not list a free monthly allowance.
Enter your expected daily calls to estimate the monthly search bill.
Search fees only, before tax. Calls that return nothing are free, so they are taken off. Model tokens for reading the results are extra; see Kimi API pricing.
Show search results to users, collect links, or process pages yourself. Can return full page text if you ask, which makes results much bigger.
For answers grounded in the web, research agents and reports. Returns ranked passages, a source authority score, and can filter by up to 5 sites and a date range.
When you already know the page. Returns the title and the page text as Markdown.
From Moonshot's "Best Practices for Web Search" guide.
curl https://api.moonshot.ai/v1/tools/search \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \
-d '{"text_query": "Kimi K3 release date", "limit": 5, "timeout_seconds": 10}'curl https://api.moonshot.ai/v1/tools/search_pro \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \
-d '{
"text_query": "Kimi K3 API pricing",
"limit": 5,
"sites": ["platform.kimi.ai"],
"time_window": {"start": "2026-07", "end": "2026-10"}
}'curl https://api.moonshot.ai/v1/tools/fetch \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \
-d '{"url": "https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/pricing/websearch"}'limit sets the number of results, 1 to 20 (default 5).timeout_seconds can be 1 to 60. Allow more for Pro or full content.include_content: true adds the full page text to each result.sites takes up to 5 domains; time_window takes dates like 2026, 2026-07 or 2026-07-15.The Basic request mirrors Moonshot's API reference; the Pro and Fetch requests are written for this guide from the documented fields. We could not run them against the live API. Keys and setup: Kimi API setup.
| Tier | Total top-ups | Searches a second |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 0 | $1 | 1 |
| Tier 1 | $10 | 3 |
| Tier 2 | $20 | 5 |
| Tier 3 | $100 | 10 |
| Tier 4 | $1,000 | 20 |
| Tier 5 | $3,000 | 50 |
On a small screen, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Need more? See enterprise Kimi API pricing.
The built-in $web_search tool let a Kimi model search during a chat. Moonshot's pricing page says it is expected to be deprecated on 20 October 2026.
/v1/tools/search endpoint, or the official web-search toolTwo other notes from Moonshot's docs: $web_search does not work with Kimi K2.6's thinking mode, and the Kimi K3 quickstart says its official web search tool is being updated and is not recommended for production yet. More: Kimi K3 API · Kimi K2.6 API
Leave Basic's full content off unless you really need whole pages.
When a model must read the content, Pro's passages can cut token costs.
Merge related questions. Similar searches pay for the same pages twice.
Name the company, product or year. Do not retry with synonyms.
Store answers to common searches in your own app for a while.
If you already have the link, URL Fetch skips the search entirely.
Tips 1 to 4 are from Moonshot's best practices guide. Tips 5 and 6 are ours.
| Code | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | The request is malformed | Check the JSON. text_query must not be empty; limit is 1 to 20; timeout_seconds is 1 to 60 |
| 401 | The key is missing or wrong | Check the Authorization: Bearer header |
| 403 | Account inactive, or URL blocked | Check your account. URL Fetch can block some addresses for security reasons |
| 404 | No readable content (URL Fetch) | The page had nothing to extract. Not charged |
| 429 | Too many calls per second | Slow down. Check the X-RateLimit headers, or top up to raise your tier |
| 502 / 500 | Service problem | Retry later. Contact support with the X-Msh-Track-Id header if it continues |
| 504 | Timed out | Raise timeout_seconds, or simplify the query |
On a small screen, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
From Moonshot's API reference for the three tools. Failed calls are not charged.