Effortless Coding with Claude Code and Kimi K2: Features, Pricing, and Setup Guide

Recently Kimi K2 became one of the most popular model in HuggingFace, claimed its compatible with Claude Code API. With my new sign up and got a $15 free credit, Let's see how it can intergrate with Claud Code and validate its coding performance!

🧠 Claude Code + Kimi K2?

Claude Code is command-line tool from Anthropic Claude, powered by its latest models (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku). It is highly effective but can be expensive.

Kimi K2 is a recently released model from Moonshot AI. It offers similar AI coding capabilities at a much lower price.

Key Features:
- Claude-compatible prompt API
- Low latency and stable access in China
- Affordable pricing

📈 Pricing Comparison (Per 1 Million Tokens)

Kimi K2 is over 90% cheaper than Claude Opus and significantly less expensive than Sonnet or Haiku, making it ideal for budget-conscious developers (like me).

✨ Installation Guide (Node.js Setup)

Step 1: Environment Preparation
Ensure you have Node.js 18+ installed:

# Check versions
root@zack:~# node -v
v20.19.3
root@zack:~# npm -v
11.4.2

  

Step 2: Install Claude Code CLI

# Global install
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

# Launch the interface
claude

  

🚀 Kimi K2 API Integration

1. Get the Kimi API Key
Register at the Moonshot Console and generate an API Key.

2. Configure Environment Variables
For Bash (Linux/WSL):

# Add variables to your shell profile
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.moonshot.cn/anthropic/"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your_Kimi_API_Key"' >> ~/.bashrc

# Reload the profile to apply changes
source ~/.bashrc

  

Final Step: Verify the Launch
Run the tool again:

claude
  

BINGO! We see the API source listed as API Base URL: https://api.moonshot.cn/anthropic/ . This confirms that Claude Code is now using the Kimi K2 API via the overridden environment variables.

Fixing My Blog's CSS Overflow Issue

For a long time, I had been bothered by a persistent content and code snippet overflow issue on my blog. Due to my limited frontend expertise, I couldn't fix the CSS, even after trying several other AI tools (like GPT-3o, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and DeepSeek R1). I decided to see if the Claude Code + Kimi K2 combo could solve the problem.

Once I explained the issue, you see it correctly started to analyze project's folder structure, identifying the key CSS files which handle the media and view, and suggesting what needed to be adjusted.

Then requested it to update the code file on my behalf.

Seems the initial fix only worked for the vertical orientation but not horizontal, so a little more iteration was needed.

Well done, the issue was completely resolved! All together toke less than 5 minutes via API with less the $0.77 spending!!

✨ Conclusion

The combination of the Claude Code CLI with the Kimi K2 API is a powerful and cost-effective setup for AI-assisted coding. If you're after the absolute best performance and don't mind the cost, Claude Code is your go-to. But for excellent value with similar features, Kimi K2 is a clear winner.