Choosing a Model

Kyma exposes active models through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. The hard part is not integration — it is choosing the right model for the job. What each catalog field means (tools, JSON mode, context, pricing, free_tier): List models. If you just want the short version:

Use qwen-3.6-plus for the best default — free tier
Use deepseek-v4-flash for 1M context — free tier
Use kimi-k2.6 for tool-heavy agents — needs a top-up
Use deepseek-r1 for hard reasoning — needs a top-up
Use gemini-3-flash for a second 1M-context option — needs a top-up

A new account’s signup credit is added once your email is verified and spends on free tier models only. Anything marked “needs a top-up” returns 402 model_requires_paid until you buy credits. The Free tier column below, and free_tier on GET /v1/models, say which is which for every model.

See which model should I use? for the full decision page.

Quick decision guide

If you need…	First pick	Alias	Why	Free tier
Safest default	`qwen-3.6-plus`	`best`	Best overall quality across common tasks	Yes
Tool-heavy agents	`kimi-k2.6`	`agent`	Best first pick for tools, long sessions, screenshots	No, needs a top-up
Deep reasoning	`deepseek-r1`	`reasoning`	Best for logic, math, and difficult analysis	No, needs a top-up
Fast coding loops	`qwen-3-32b`	—	Small model for quick code/debug loops (32K context)	Yes
Code-specialized output	`qwen-3-coder`	`code`	Code-focused model with longer context	Yes
Long documents	`gemini-3-flash`	`long-context`	1M context window	No, needs a top-up
Long documents, low cost	`deepseek-v4-flash`	`cheap`	1M context window	Yes
Vision	`gemma-4-31b`	`vision`	Cheapest strong multimodal option	Yes
Balanced open model	`llama-3.3-70b`	`balanced`	Good compromise between quality and cost	Yes
Live web search	`sonar`	`search`	Real-time web search with citations for current info	No, needs a top-up
Cheap automation	`glm-4.5-air`	—	Cost-sensitive agentic workloads	Yes

Use cases that matter

1. I just need one model

Start with qwen-3.6-plus. That is the right answer most of the time if you are building:

a chatbot
a coding assistant
an internal copilot
a general-purpose product feature

2. I am building an agent

Start with kimi-k2.6. If your agent:

calls tools
works across multiple steps
reads screenshots or other visual context
needs long sessions

then kimi-k2.6 is the best first pick. It needs a funded balance; on the free tier, start with qwen-3-coder or qwen-3.6-plus, both of which support tool calling. If you want a text-only engineering alternative, try glm-5.1 (also needs a top-up).

3. I care about cost

Start with deepseek-v4-flash (alias cheap) for strong value. If the workload is more repetitive and automation-heavy than quality-sensitive, consider:

glm-4.5-air
gpt-oss-120b

4. I need deep reasoning

Use deepseek-r1. This is the right pick for:

hard analysis
logic-heavy tasks
math
planning where quality matters more than speed

5. I need long context

Use gemini-3-flash. If you want cheaper long-context throughput and do not need multimodal input, look at deepseek-v4-flash (1M context, alias cheap, free tier).

6. I need live web data

Use sonar (alias search). It runs a real-time web search on every request and returns a current, cited answer — for news, prices, releases, and anything that changes after a model’s training cutoff. For deeper multi-step research and longer reports, use sonar-pro. Both are outside the free tier and need a top-up first. Both bill a small flat web-search fee on top of tokens (see pricing), and neither supports tool calling — the search happens internally, so you just ask a question.

Multimodal

Image models bill per call instead of per token, and run through a separate async endpoint - see /v1/images/generations and /v1/videos/generations.

Image (per-image pricing)

Model	Best for	Price
`flux-2-pro`	Cinematic photo, hero shots, editorial	$0.041–$ 0.101 / image
`flux-kontext-pro`	Image-to-image edit, inpaint, refinement	$0.054 / image
`ideogram-v3`	Typography, packaging, posters, logos	$0.081 / image
`recraft-v4`	Illustration and brand assets	$0.054 / image
`recraft-v4-vector`	Vector / SVG output	$0.108 / image

Of the image models, only minimax-image-01 is in the free tier; the rest return 402 model_requires_paid until your first top-up.

Video

One video model on /v1/videos/generations: veo-3.1-fast (720p with native speech and sound, 4/6/8s). The other video ids are still paused and return 404 model_not_found. See Video Generation.

Canonical sources

For the current live catalog, use:

Switching models

You do not need to change your integration. Just change the model parameter:

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="kimi-k2.6",  # was: "qwen-3.6-plus"
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a Python function"}]
)

Or use an alias:

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="agent",  # resolves to kimi-k2.6
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Plan the refactor and call tools as needed"}]
)

Discover models programmatically

curl https://kymaapi.com/v1/models

Examples:

# Agent-friendly models
curl "https://kymaapi.com/v1/models?recommended_for=agent&tools=true"

# Long-context models
curl "https://kymaapi.com/v1/models?min_context_window=128000"

# Vision-capable models
curl "https://kymaapi.com/v1/models?vision=true"

Guides

Use Cases

Integrations

Quick decision guide

Use cases that matter

1. I just need one model

2. I am building an agent

3. I care about cost

4. I need deep reasoning

5. I need long context

6. I need live web data

Multimodal

Image (per-image pricing)

Video

Canonical sources

Switching models

Discover models programmatically

​Quick decision guide

​Use cases that matter

​1. I just need one model

​2. I am building an agent

​3. I care about cost

​4. I need deep reasoning

​5. I need long context

​6. I need live web data

​Multimodal

​Image (per-image pricing)

​Video

​Canonical sources

​Switching models

​Discover models programmatically

Quick decision guide

Use cases that matter

1. I just need one model

2. I am building an agent

3. I care about cost

4. I need deep reasoning

5. I need long context

6. I need live web data

Multimodal

Image (per-image pricing)

Video

Canonical sources

Switching models

Discover models programmatically