Models & Providers

The Kilo AI Gateway provides access to hundreds of AI models through a single unified API. You can switch between models by changing the model ID string -- no code changes required.

Specifying a model

Models are identified using the format provider/model-name. Pass this as the model parameter in your request:

const result = streamText({
  model: kilo.chat("anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6"),
  prompt: "Hello!",
})

Or in a raw API request:

{
  "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6",
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello!" }]
}

Available models

You can browse the full list of available models via the models endpoint:

GET https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway/models

This returns model information including pricing, context window, and supported features. No authentication is required.

Popular models

Model ID	Provider	Description
`anthropic/claude-opus-4.7`	Anthropic	Most capable Claude model for complex reasoning
`anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6`	Anthropic	Balanced performance and cost
`anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5`	Anthropic	Fast and cost-effective
`openai/gpt-5.4`	OpenAI	Latest GPT model
`openai/gpt-5.4-mini`	OpenAI	Fast and efficient
`google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview`	Google	Advanced reasoning
`google/gemini-2.5-flash`	Google	Fast and efficient
`x-ai/grok-4`	xAI	Most capable Grok model
`x-ai/grok-code-fast-1`	xAI	Optimized for code tasks
`deepseek/deepseek-v3.2`	DeepSeek	Strong coding and reasoning model
`moonshotai/kimi-k2.5`	Moonshot	Strong coding and multilingual model
`minimax/minimax-m2.7`	MiniMax	High-performance MoE model

Free models

Several models are available at no cost, subject to rate limits:

Model ID	Description
`bytedance-seed/dola-seed-2.0-pro:free`	ByteDance Dola Seed 2.0 Pro
`x-ai/grok-code-fast-1:optimized:free`	xAI Grok Code Fast 1 Optimized
`nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b:free`	NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B
`arcee-ai/trinity-large-thinking:free`	Arcee Trinity Large
`openrouter/free`	Best available free model

Free models are available to both authenticated and anonymous users. Anonymous users are rate-limited to 200 requests per hour per IP address.

⚠️Nemotron 3 Super Free (NVIDIA free endpoints)

Provided under the NVIDIA API Trial Terms of Service. Trial use only — not for production or sensitive data. Prompts and outputs are logged by NVIDIA to improve its models and services. Do not submit personal or confidential data.

Auto models

Kilo Auto virtual models automatically select the best underlying model based on the task type. The selection is controlled by the x-kilocode-mode request header.

ℹ️Underlying models can change

The mappings below reflect the current routing. The underlying models behind each kilo-auto/* tier are updated server-side as better options become available or as providers change pricing and availability — the tier IDs themselves remain stable.

`kilo-auto/frontier`

Highest performance and capability for any task. Frontier requests are sent with medium reasoning effort and medium verbosity.

Mode	Resolved Model
`plan`, `general`, `architect`, `orchestrator`, `ask`, `debug`	`anthropic/claude-opus-4.7`
`build`, `explore`, `code`	`anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6`
Default (no / unknown mode)	`anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6`

`kilo-auto/balanced`

Great balance of price and capability. Balanced routes to the same model regardless of mode, with low reasoning effort.

Mode	Resolved Model
All modes	`openai/gpt-5.3-codex`

`kilo-auto/free`

Free with limited capability. No credits required. Requests are split across the available free models; the mapping updates server-side as free model availability shifts.

Routing	Resolved Model
80%	`minimax/minimax-m2.5:free`
20%	`stepfun/step-3.5-flash:free`

`kilo-auto/small`

Automatically routes to a small, fast model for lightweight background tasks (session titles, commit messages, summaries).

Condition	Resolved Model
Account has paid balance	`google/gemma-4-31b-it`
No balance / free account	`google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it:free`

Example usage

{
  "model": "kilo-auto/frontier",
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Help me design a database schema" }]
}

With the mode header:

curl -X POST "https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KILO_API_KEY" \
  -H "x-kilocode-mode: plan" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "kilo-auto/balanced", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Design a database schema"}]}'