Moonshot AI retires Kimi K2.5 API ahead of August 31 deadline

Moonshot AI has announced the full discontinuation of its Kimi K2.5 and moonshot-v1 API series by August 31, 2026, after blocking new user registrations since the launch of Kimi K3 on July 16. Users relying on these legacy endpoints must migrate to Kimi K3 for general tasks or Kimi for Coding for code-specific workloads before the deadline. Notably, the open-weight version of Kimi K2.5 available on Hugging Face remains unaffected, offering developers an alternative path.

This move comes amid broader industry discussions on open-weight model policies, with Anthropic publishing a detailed position paper on July 27 outlining its conditional framework for open-weight releases. Anthropic argues that open weights are beneficial at current capability levels but acknowledges shifting risk/benefit ratios near WMD-uplift thresholds. The company commits to a conditional release framework rather than an unconditional stance, positioning itself between Meta’s unrestricted approach and OpenAI’s closed API model. The practical impact for developers is clear: Anthropic frontier models will not release open weights, while Moonshot’s API shutdown forces urgent migration for affected teams.