Kimi-VL
An efficient MoE vision model (16B, 3B active) with a long context and a reasoning version. Handles long documents and video well.
- Developer
- Moonshot AI, China
- First release
- Apr 2025
- Latest release
- Jun 2025
- Sizes
- 16B-A3B
- License
- Commercial use allowedMIT
- Russian
- Not stated
- Ready-made builds
- GGUF, MLX (Apple)
- Running
- On your own serverNeeds a GPU
- Industries
- Documents and accounting, Science and research
What it does
- Analysing long PDFs and presentations
- Answering questions about video
- Operating interfaces from screenshots
Where it is used
Hardware requirements
Versions
- Kimi-VL-A3B-Thinking-2506
- Kimi-VL-A3B Instruct и Thinking
How to run it
I can set this up end to end: pick the model size, deploy it on your server and connect it to your systems. Quantization compresses a model so it takes less video memory and runs on more modest hardware. Answers change slightly, so quality is checked on your own examples.
Frequently asked questions
Can Kimi-VL be used in a commercial project?
Yes. License: MIT. It allows commercial use, but it is still worth having a lawyer review the license before launch.
What hardware does Kimi-VL need?
At minimum: One GPU with 16–80 GB — mid-size versions. Without a GPU the model is not practical. You can calculate the exact VRAM for your model size and context in the hardware calculator.
Does Kimi-VL support Russian?
The model card does not list languages, so Russian support cannot be promised — it has to be tested on your own examples.
Where can I download Kimi-VL and what does it cost?
The Kimi-VL weights are open and free to download. You only pay for the hardware it runs on and for the setup. Source links are at the bottom of this page.
How I deploy it for clients
- SelectionI pick the model size for your task and hardware and test it on your examples.
- DeploymentI deploy it on your server or in a closed network and provide an API.
- Fine-tuningI fine-tune it on your data (LoRA) or connect a knowledge base — whichever is cheaper for the task.
- IntegrationI connect it to your CRM, ERP, bot, website or team chat and set up monitoring.
Similar models
Very large Moonshot MoE models for agentic work. K3 (2.8 trillion parameters) was the largest open model at release, with up to 1M tokens of context and image understanding; K2.7-Code is built for programming.
DetailsImage + textQwen-VLAlibaba (Qwen team) · ChinaCommercial use allowedOne of the strongest open vision models: reads documents, tables, charts and video, and works with user interfaces. Since Qwen3.5, vision is built directly into the main Qwen model.
DetailsImage + textKeye-VLKuaishou · ChinaCommercial use allowedVision models from Kuaishou focused on short videos. Keye-VL-2.0 (30B, 3B active) understands well what happens in a clip and when.
DetailsSource: huggingface.co/moonshotai/Kimi-VL-A3B-Thinking-2506. Data checked against the model card on 22 Sep 2026. Have a lawyer review the license before commercial launch.


