> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# API Overview

## Service Address

```
https://api.moonshot.ai
```

Kimi Open Platform provides OpenAI-compatible HTTP APIs. You can use the OpenAI SDK directly.

When using SDKs, set `base_url` to `https://api.moonshot.ai/v1`. When calling HTTP endpoints directly, use the full path such as `https://api.moonshot.ai/v1/chat/completions`.

## OpenAI Compatibility

Our API is compatible with the OpenAI Chat Completions API in request/response format. This means:

* You can use the official OpenAI SDKs (Python / Node.js) directly
* Most OpenAI-compatible third-party tools and frameworks (LangChain, Dify, Coze, etc.) are supported
* Simply point `base_url` to `https://api.moonshot.ai/v1` to switch

<Note>
  Some parameters are Kimi-specific extensions: the `thinking` parameter needs to be passed via the SDK's `extra_body`; `partial` is a field on assistant messages within the messages array (`"partial": true`), not a top-level request parameter. See [Tool Use](/api/tool-use) and [Partial Mode](/api/partial) for details.
</Note>

## Authentication

All API requests require an API Key in the HTTP header:

```
Authorization: Bearer $MOONSHOT_API_KEY
```

API Keys can be created and managed in the [Kimi Open Platform Console](https://platform.kimi.ai/console/api-keys).

<Warning>
  Your API Key is sensitive. Do not expose it in client-side code, public repositories, or logs. Use environment variables to manage it.
</Warning>

## SDK Installation

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash Python theme={null}
  pip install --upgrade 'openai>=1.0'
  ```

  ```bash Node.js theme={null}
  npm install openai
  ```
</CodeGroup>

Initialize the client:

<CodeGroup>
  ```python Python theme={null}
  from openai import OpenAI

  client = OpenAI(
      api_key="$MOONSHOT_API_KEY",
      base_url="https://api.moonshot.ai/v1",
  )
  ```

  ```javascript Node.js theme={null}
  const OpenAI = require("openai");

  const client = new OpenAI({
      apiKey: "$MOONSHOT_API_KEY",
      baseURL: "https://api.moonshot.ai/v1",
  });
  ```
</CodeGroup>

<Note>
  Python version ≥ 3.7.1, Node.js version ≥ 18, OpenAI SDK version ≥ 1.0.0.

  ```bash theme={null}
  python -c 'import openai; print("version =", openai.__version__)'
  ```
</Note>

## Common Request Headers

| Header          | Value                      | Description          |
| --------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------- |
| `Content-Type`  | `application/json`         | Request body format  |
| `Authorization` | `Bearer $MOONSHOT_API_KEY` | Authentication token |

## Error Handling

When a request fails, the API returns a JSON error response containing `error.type` and `error.message` fields. Common HTTP status codes include 400 (bad request), 401 (authentication failure), 429 (rate limit), 500 (server error), etc.

For the full list of error types, messages, and troubleshooting tips, see [Errors](/api/errors).

## API Endpoints

| Endpoint                              | Method | Description                            |
| ------------------------------------- | ------ | -------------------------------------- |
| `/v1/chat/completions`                | POST   | [Create Chat Completion](/api/chat)    |
| `/v1/models`                          | GET    | [List Models](/api/list-models)        |
| `/v1/tokenizers/estimate-token-count` | POST   | [Estimate Tokens](/api/estimate)       |
| `/v1/users/me/balance`                | GET    | [Check Balance](/api/balance)          |
| `/v1/files`                           | POST   | [Upload File](/api/files-upload)       |
| `/v1/files`                           | GET    | [List Files](/api/files-list)          |
| `/v1/files/{file_id}`                 | GET    | [Get File Info](/api/files-retrieve)   |
| `/v1/files/{file_id}`                 | DELETE | [Delete File](/api/files-delete)       |
| `/v1/files/{file_id}/content`         | GET    | [Get File Content](/api/files-content) |

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/api/quickstart">
    Send your first API request
  </Card>

  <Card title="Models Overview" icon="cubes" href="/api/models-overview">
    Compare model capabilities and parameters
  </Card>

  <Card title="Tool Use" icon="wrench" href="/api/tool-use">
    Enable function calling
  </Card>

  <Card title="Create Chat Completion" icon="code" href="/api/chat">
    Full endpoint parameter reference
  </Card>
</CardGroup>