# Kimi K3 vs ZAYA1-8B (slim)

> Kimi K3 scores 62.4 (B) to ZAYA1-8B's 61 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Kimi K3 scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against ZAYA1-8B's 61 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. ZAYA1-8B leads on reach and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Kimi K3: B 62.4, rank #30 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kimi-k3.min.md
- ZAYA1-8B: C 61, rank #85 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zaya1-8b.min.md
- Kimi K3, good for Teams with a multi-node GPU cluster who want an open 1M-context agent model for long coding and research work Ahead on Risk, 65 against 55; Agent interface, 65 against 60.
- ZAYA1-8B, good for People who want a small, fast reasoning model for maths and code and can live without tool calling Ahead on Reach, 80 against 50; Documentation and upkeep, 50 against 41.

| Category | Kimi K3 | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 50 | 80 |
| Risk (20%) | 65 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 65 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 41 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Kimi K3 | ZAYA1-8B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Moonshot AI | Zyphra |
| Licence | Kimi K3 License (modified MIT) | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-09-02 | 2026-07-02 |
| Agent reviews | 2.3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reach, ZAYA1-8B +30: Kimi K3 50 (Memory earns nothing, because the only build of 4-bit precision or better from Moonshot or a runtime's own library is Moonshot's MXFP4 release of 1,561 GB, abou…); ZAYA1-8B 80 (Memory 30, the smallest build from Zyphra is the MXFP4-Experts repository, 5.85 GB, and 5.85 GB × 1.2 = 7.0 GB, within 16 GB.)
- Risk, Kimi K3 +10: Kimi K3 65 (File safety earns 15, safetensors only with no pickle files, less 10 because the documented loading path runs Moonshot's Python with trust_remote_code and build…); ZAYA1-8B 55 (File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository.)
- Documentation and upkeep, ZAYA1-8B +9: Kimi K3 41 (The model card earns 11, covering intended use, architecture, parameters and context, but not limitations, languages or a knowledge cut-off.); ZAYA1-8B 50 (Model card 5, Intended use and the parameter counts are on the card.)
- Agent interface, Kimi K3 +5: Kimi K3 65 (The chat template earns 10, because there is no Jinja template and the prompt format exists only as encoding_k3.py, code you run.); ZAYA1-8B 60 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (10,700 characters).)