Kimi vs Z.ai Chat

Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, side by side.

Kimi

Chat, research and agent assistant from Moonshot AI, built on its Kimi K3 model

Freemium

Visit website View details

Z.ai Chat

Free GLM-powered AI chatbot and agent from Zhipu AI for writing, coding and research

Freemium

Visit website View details

Verdict

Kimi and Z.ai Chat are both AI Assistants tools. Both have a free plan or trial. Only Kimi is available on macOS and iOS.

Best overall

Z.ai Chat

Students
Developers
Researchers
Content Creators

Choose Kimi if

You want a tool built for Long-form research, generating slide decks and documents, parallel agent tasks, coding assistance with Kimi Code.
International USD plans start at $19/month and include Kimi Code and Agent Swarm.
Broad agent toolset: deep research, slides, documents, spreadsheets, website building and scheduled tasks.

Choose Z.ai Chat if

You want a tool built for trying GLM models at no cost, drafting and summarizing text, coding questions, low-cost API experimentation.
Free web chat with recent GLM models and no subscription needed.
Low per-token API prices, such as $0.15 input and $0.50 output per 1M tokens for GLM-5.3-Flash.

Best for beginners: Z.ai Chat
Best for business: Z.ai Chat

Features

17 features compared.

Kimi K3 Assistant
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Agent Swarm
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Deep Research
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Presentations and Documents
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
App and Website Builder
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Scheduled Tasks and Projects
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Kimi Code
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Plugins
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
Goal Mode
Kimi
Available
Z.ai Chat
Not available
GLM Chat
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
Agent Capabilities
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
Vision Understanding
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
Coding Assistance
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
GLM Coding Plan
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
Web Search and Web Reader MCP
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
Z.ai API Platform
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available
Open-Weights Models
Kimi
Not available
Z.ai Chat
Available

Pricing

Plans as listed by each vendor. Check their sites for current prices.

Pricing model
Kimi
Freemium
Z.ai Chat
Freemium
Free plan
Kimi
Yes
Z.ai Chat
Yes
Starting price
Kimi
$0
Z.ai Chat
$0
Plans
Kimi
5 plans
Z.ai Chat
4 plans

Kimi plans

Free
$0
Entry tier of the consumer assistant
- Chat
- limited agent usage
Plus
Most popular
$19/month
Entry paid plan for coding and research
- Kimi Code
- research
- office tasks
- Agent Swarm
- rolling 5-hour Kimi Code limit with no weekly limit
Pro
$39/month
More credits and advanced agent features
- Everything in Plus
- more credits
- Goal Mode
- dedicated Kimi Claw
Max
$99/month
Heavy agent users
- More credits
- up to 4 parallel Agent tasks
- 100 projects
- 50GB storage
- 20 scheduled tasks
- 20 widget tasks
Ultra
$199/month
Highest-volume users
- 10x Agent credits
- up to 4 parallel Agent tasks
- 100 projects
- 50GB storage
- 25 scheduled tasks
- 25 widget tasks

Z.ai Chat plans

Chat (Free)
$0
Web chat with GLM models at chat.z.ai
- Web chat
- GLM-5.3-Flash
- agent features
GLM Coding Lite
$18/month
Lightweight coding workloads
- 2,000 credits per 5 hours
- 10,000 credits per week
- GLM-5.3 and GLM-5.3-Flash
GLM Coding Pro
$80/month
Professional coding workloads
- 12,000 credits per 5 hours
- 60,000 credits per week
- Vision
- Web Search and Web Reader MCP
GLM Coding Max
$168/month
High-volume coding workloads
- 28,000 credits per 5 hours
- 140,000 credits per week
- Vision
- Web Search and Web Reader MCP

Our ratings

Scored out of 10 by the Finder Atlas editorial team. Last reviewed October 2026.

Kimi: 7.9overall
Z.ai Chat: 8.0overall

Kimi leads in 1 category and Z.ai Chat in 2, with 2 tied.

Ease of Use
Tied
Kimi
8.0
Z.ai Chat
8.0
Feature Depth
Kimi leads by 0.7
Kimi
8.5
Z.ai Chat
7.8
Value for Money
Z.ai Chat leads by 0.8
Kimi
8.0
Z.ai Chat
8.8
Performance & Speed
Tied
Kimi
8.0
Z.ai Chat
8.0
Documentation & Support
Z.ai Chat leads by 0.5
Kimi
7.0
Z.ai Chat
7.5

Scores weigh documented features, plan value, platform coverage, integrations and user feedback. A missing score means we have not rated that area yet.

Pros and cons

Kimi

Pros

International USD plans start at $19/month and include Kimi Code and Agent Swarm.
Broad agent toolset: deep research, slides, documents, spreadsheets, website building and scheduled tasks.
A separate pay-per-token API with a 1M-token context window on K3.
Rated 4.7 out of 5 from 5.3K ratings on the US App Store.
Earlier K2-family models were reported to have downloadable weights, which suits self-hosting teams.

Cons

Free-tier limits are not clearly published on the help pages.
Plan structure is changing: legacy plan names (Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, Vivace) coexist with Plus, Pro, Max and Ultra, which can confuse buyers.
Credits do not roll over, and one shared pool covers chat, agents and Kimi Code.
The site interface and several help pages default to Chinese; I found no confirmed Android or Windows client.

Z.ai Chat

Pros

Free web chat with recent GLM models and no subscription needed.
Low per-token API prices, such as $0.15 input and $0.50 output per 1M tokens for GLM-5.3-Flash.
Many GLM models are open-weights, so they can be self-hosted.
The Coding Plan works with 20+ existing coding agent tools rather than locking users into one editor.
Vision, search and reader tools are included in Coding Plan tiers.

Cons

No confirmed official native iOS or Android app for the chat.
Coding Plan terms have changed several times (legacy plans replaced by credits on July 30, 2026), which makes usage harder to predict.
Service is operated by a China-based company, which may be a concern for data-residency-sensitive users.
Free chat usage limits are not publicly documented.

Platforms

Web
Kimi
Supported
Z.ai Chat
Supported
Windows
Kimi
Not supported
Z.ai Chat
Not supported
macOS
Kimi
Supported
Z.ai Chat
Not supported
iOS
Kimi
Supported
Z.ai Chat
Not supported
Android
Kimi
Not supported
Z.ai Chat
Not supported
API
Kimi
Supported
Z.ai Chat
Supported
Browser Extension
Kimi
Not supported
Z.ai Chat
Not supported

Integrations

Kimi

4 integrations

Plugins marketplace
Kimi Browser Extension
Kimi Office Extension
Kimi Open Platform API

Z.ai Chat

7 integrations

Claude Code
Codex
Cline
Kilo Code
OpenCode
ZCode
OpenClaw

Company

Company
Kimi
Moonshot AI
Z.ai Chat
Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
Founded
Kimi
2023
Z.ai Chat
2019
Headquarters
Kimi
Beijing, China
Z.ai Chat
Beijing, China
Listing
Kimi
Claimed
Z.ai Chat
Claimed

Featured AI Assistants

Picked by our editors. Not paid placement.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi better than Z.ai Chat?

It depends on your workflow. Kimi is built for Long-form research, generating slide decks and documents, parallel agent tasks, coding assistance with Kimi Code. Z.ai Chat is built for trying GLM models at no cost, drafting and summarizing text, coding questions, low-cost API experimentation.

What are the key feature differences between Kimi and Z.ai Chat?

Kimi: Chat, research and agent assistant from Moonshot AI, built on its Kimi K3 model. Z.ai Chat: Free GLM-powered AI chatbot and agent from Zhipu AI for writing, coding and research.

Does Kimi or Z.ai Chat have a free plan?

Yes, both do. Kimi is freemium and Z.ai Chat is freemium, and each has a free plan or trial.

Which is cheaper, Kimi or Z.ai Chat?

Both can be used for free. Paid plans differ in limits and features, so compare the tiers in the pricing table above.

Verdict

Best overall

Choose Kimi if

Choose Z.ai Chat if

Features

Pricing

Kimi plans

Free

Plus

Pro

Max

Ultra

Z.ai Chat plans

Chat (Free)

GLM Coding Lite

GLM Coding Pro

GLM Coding Max

Our ratings

Ease of Use

Feature Depth

Value for Money

Performance & Speed

Documentation & Support

Pros and cons

Kimi

Pros

Cons

Z.ai Chat

Pros

Cons

Platforms

Integrations

Kimi

Z.ai Chat

Company

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Claude

DeepSeek

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Frequently asked questions