#121 — Kimi K2 Thinking: Model card for founders
October 10, 2025•3 min read
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Why it matters: Kimi K2 Thinking goes beyond the limits of typical LLMs by executing up to 200–300 sequential tool calls in a single task. It lets you tackle multi-step problems—technical, analytic, or creative—by autonomously reasoning, searching, coding, and even engaging in personal or motivational conversations. This agent can reason coherently across hundreds of steps without human intervention, powering new possibilities for complex technical and analytic problems and cut through tasks that once needed hours of manual research, synthesis, and coordination.
Key Evaluations
Humanity's Last Exam (HLE, w/ tools)
Expert-Level Multidomain Solver
K2 Thinking solves expert-level multi-domain questions with integrated text, search, Python, and browsing tools.
- Score: 44.9%
- By comparison:
- GPT-5: 41.7% (7.7% worse ↓)
- Grok-4: 41.0% (9.5% worse ↓)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking: 32.0% (40.3% worse ↓)
Agentic Search/Browsing:
Front-Running Autonomous Info Seeker
K2 Thinking lets you send the agent to autonomously gather, analyze, and integrate live web insights for expert-level decision-making.
- BrowseComp Benchmark: 60.2%
- By comparison:
- GPT-5: 54.9% (9.7% worse ↓)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking: 24.1% (149.8% worse ↓)
- By comparison:
- Seal-0 Benchmark: Real-time, up-to-date info collection and synthesis for market, technical, or competitive analysis
- By comparison:
- GPT-5: 51.4% (17.1% worse ↓)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking: 53.4% (12.7% worse ↓)
- By comparison:
Coding Benchmarks
Highly Competitive Code Producer
K2 Thinking has top-tier agentic coding skills, spanning multiple languages and competitive environments.
- SWE-Bench Verified: 71.3%
- By comparison:
- GPT-5: 74.9% (5.0% better ↑)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking: 77.2% (8.3% better ↑)
- By comparison:
- SWE-Multilingual (Advanced agentic coding): 61.1%
- By comparison:
- GPT-5: 55.3% (10.5% worse ↓)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking: 68.0% (11.3% better ↑)
- By comparison:
- LiveCodeBench V6 (Competitive programming): 83.1%
- By comparison:
- GPT-5: 87.0% (4.7% better ↑)
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking: 64.0% (29.8% worse ↓)
- By comparison:
General Capabilities
- Stepwise Reasoning & Tool Use: Can reason, plan, adapt, and execute across up to 200–300 tool-based steps with no intervention—handles everything from product research to data-heavy tasks
- Creative & Practical Writing: Supports founders in drafting plans, outreach, launch materials, documentation, and more
- Personal & Emotional Intelligence: Offers coaching, motivation, and empathetic conversations—valuable for founders under pressure
- Test-Time Scaling: Adapts solution length and tool depth based on the complexity of your question, not just short answers
Real-World Utility
- PhD-level math - Solving Deep Technical and Analytical Problems: Example: Broke down a difficult PhD-level math problem using 23 interleaved steps of web research, computation, and analysis—showing practical results you can trust for nontrivial challenges
- Available where you work:
- Chat mode: kimi.com for instant dialog/tasking
- Agentic API: Rolling out soon for integration into custom workflows and automations
Bottom line: If you’re a founder building ambitious products or tackling world-class problems, Kimi K2 Thinking sets a new bar for autonomous, multi-tool, multi-domain analytic intelligence. You can use it as a problem-solving engine for demanding operational, technical, or research tasks that require hundreds of reasoning steps and live data access.
Frequently asked questions
What is Kimi K2 Thinking, and how does it benefit startup founders?
Kimi K2 Thinking is an open-source AI agent from Moonshot AI that autonomously completes up to 200–300 sequential reasoning, coding, and research steps. For founders, this means automating technical tasks, deep market analysis, and even competitive research, freeing up hours for higher-impact strategy work.
How does Kimi K2 Thinking compare to GPT-4 and other proprietary models?
Kimi K2 matches or exceeds the performance of models like GPT-4-mini on tasks such as coding, multi-domain problem solving, and agentic search. It's open-source, offering transparency, easy integration, and substantial cost savings for high-usage teams.
Can Kimi K2 automate market research and competitor analysis?
Yes. Using agentic search and browsing (BrowseComp score: 60.2%), Kimi K2 can autonomously scan, collect, analyze, and synthesize up-to-date web information—saving founders manual work on market scans and competitor benchmarking. Case studies show teams automating investor research and technical documentation gathering.
What creative and communication tasks can Kimi K2 Thinking handle?
Kimi K2 excels at practical and creative writing, crafting product plans, documentation, investor communications, and personalized messaging. Founders have used it to quickly draft outreach emails, marketing copy, and even support team morale with motivational prompts.
Does Kimi K2 Thinking offer emotional intelligence and coaching for founders?
Yes. Beyond analytics, it supports founders with empathy, coaching, and motivational feedback—acting as a productivity and wellness partner during intense launches or fundraising periods.
How do I integrate Kimi K2 into my startup’s workflow or tech stack?
Kimi K2 is available via chat at kimi.com and soon as an agentic API for custom workflow integration. Its modular, open-source architecture allows easy embedding for automating research, analytics, content generation, and product development tasks.
What technical benchmarks validate Kimi K2’s performance?
Kimi K2’s scores include: Humanity’s Last Exam (44.9%), BrowseComp (60.2%), Seal-0 (latest info gathering), SWE-bench Verified (71.3% coding), and LiveCodeBench V6 (competitive programming). These benchmarks demonstrate its reliability for research, engineering, and analytics.
Can Kimi K2 scale for complex projects and rapidly changing startup needs?
Yes. With test-time scaling, it adapts its reasoning length and tool use based on problem complexity—automating both quick brainstorms and multi-day technical analyses without manual overrides.
Who should use Kimi K2 Thinking?
Kimi K2 is built for technical founders, growth teams, and product builders seeking autonomous research, scalable analytics, and workflow automation—from MVP prototyping to growth-stage operations.
What are real-world examples of Kimi K2 Thinking in action?
Kimi K2 has solved PhD-level math problems by chaining 23 autonomous steps and automated competitive research for investor presentations. More use cases are published in Moonshot’s launch article and documentation.
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