Family Kimi · 1000B parameters

Kimi K2.6

K2.5 successor (April 2026). ~1T/32B active, multimodal, “agent swarm” mode with 300 subagents.

🇨🇳 Moonshot AI·License Modified MIT·Context 250k tokens·Output May 2025← Catalog

01What it can do

Strengths
  • 256k native context
  • 1 trillion parameters in MoE
  • Frontier-level performance
Limitations to know
  • —600 GB VRAM Q4 — data-center infrastructure only
  • —API-first (difficult locally)
Architecture
MoE · 1T total / ~32B active · Moonshot AI · 256k context
Training
Moonshot AI Kimi K2.6 — massive web corpus with a long-context focus.
Ideal for
Home-lab frontierComplex agentsMultimodal

04Install

Install Ollama for your OS. Check the model and its quantization before downloading. Start with 4096 tokens of context, then check placement with ollama ps. A command below is not proof that a test was run on your machine.

$# Multi-GPU data-center requis — API Moonshot recommandée
⚠
First download: between 2 and 40 GB depending on the selected quantization. Plan for sufficient disk space; a stable connection is recommended. Subsequent launches are instant.

02Required memory

Approximate GPU VRAM required to run this model, including 4k tokens of context overhead. For a longer context, add ~1 GB per 8k-token increment.

Q4_K_M
The lightest, ~5% loss
600 GB
Q5_K_M
Good quality/size compromise
720 GB
Q8_0
Nearly indistinguishable from FP16
1080 GB
FP16
Full precision — server use
2000 GB
Fallback CPU · If you don't have a GPU, allow 700 GB of RAM minimum to run this model at reduced speed.

What hardware do you need for Kimi K2.6?

To run Kimi K2.6 locally with Q4 quantization, you need about 600 GB of VRAM. An option to compare: BOSGAME M5 128GB / 2TB (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) — this model exceeds this mini-PC's GPU capacity: choose a smaller model or suitable infrastructure.

Current offer: BOSGAME M5 128GB / 2TB (Ryzen AI Max+ 395)
AmazonSee price →

Why this choice? Our complete guide on BOSGAME M5 128GB / 2TB (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) →

Affiliate links — commission possible at no extra cost to you; independent recommendations. As an Amazon Associate, BestLLMfor earns from qualifying purchases.

This model in your private ChatGPT, without the cloud

Too large for your machine? The kit gives you the model that fits in your VRAM

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03Expected speed

Tokens generated per second in Q4_K_M, 4k context. Beyond 20 t/s, reading is comfortable. Below 10 t/s, that's just for testing.

Entry-level
~1t/s
GTX 1650, RX 6600, MBA M2 8GB
Mid-range
~4t/s
RTX 4060, 4070, MBP M3 Pro
High-end
~12t/s
RTX 4090, M4 Max, Radeon 7900