--- title: How to USE the #1 Open Source Model (Step-by-Step Setup) description: A hands-on comparison of Kimi K3 (Chimera-3), Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex for AI-assisted coding tasks. The video walks through installing Kimi Code via... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-the-1-open-source-model-step-by-step-setup--xqn83ucrp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to USE the #1 Open Source Model (Step-by-Step Setup) | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on comparison of Kimi K3 (Chimera-3), Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex for AI-assisted coding tasks. The video walks through installing Kimi Code via... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-the-1-open-source-model-step-by-step-setup--xqn83ucrp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/XqN83ucrp.png og:image:alt: How to USE the #1 Open Source Model (Step-by-Step Setup) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How to USE the #1 Open Source Model (Step-by-Step Setup) **[YouTube](https://daily.dev/sources/youtube)** · 14 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on comparison of Kimi K3 (Chimera-3), Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex for AI-assisted coding tasks. The video walks through installing Kimi Code via terminal, then tests all three tools by building a Pac-Man clone and a dental business website in Next.js with Tailwind CSS. Kimi K3 matches or beats Claude on front-end design quality at roughly one-third the API cost ($3/$15 per million tokens vs Claude's $10/$50). The author concludes that for users on a $20/month budget, Kimi is now a better choice than Claude, and discusses the broader trend of US companies adopting cheaper Chinese open-weight models like Kimi and DeepSeek. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does Kimi K3 pricing compare to Claude's Opus/Fable 5 pricing per million tokens? Kimi K3 costs about $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, compared to roughly $10 input and $50 output for Claude's top-tier model, making Kimi about one-third the cost. This price gap is cited as a major reason US companies are shifting workloads toward cheaper Chinese open-weight models like Kimi, DeepSeek, and GLM. _Comparing token costs before switching models? daily.dev surfaces pricing and benchmark discussions on emerging LLMs._ ### Is Kimi K3 better than Claude Code for building a Next.js website with Tailwind CSS? In a side-by-side test building a dental clinic website in Next.js and Tailwind CSS, Kimi produced a clean, minimalistic, fully working site comparable to or arguably better received than Claude Code's output, while Codex's result had smaller text and weaker visual polish. All three models completed the task, but Kimi matched Claude's front-end design quality despite being far cheaper. _Weighing AI coding tools for front-end work? daily.dev tracks head-to-head comparisons between models like these._ ### How much does a monthly Chimera/Kimi coding plan cost compared to Claude Pro and Codex plans? A basic Kimi-based coding plan starts around $15 a month, compared to $20 a month for Claude Pro and $20 a month for Codex, with Claude's Max plan (needed for its top Fable 5 model) costing $100 a month. Claude Pro users also hit usage rate limits quickly, especially when using the higher-tier model. _Tracking subscription costs across AI coding tools? daily.dev helps developers stay on top of pricing shifts like this._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I Tried Kimi K3 for a Week. Here’s What Happened.](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-kimi-k3-for-a-week-here-s-what-happened--ufveuen98) · Medium · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#nextjs](https://daily.dev/tags/nextjs), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-the-1-open-source-model-step-by-step-setup--xqn83ucrp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How to USE the #1 Open Source Model (Step-by-Step Setup)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-the-1-open-source-model-step-by-step-setup--xqn83ucrp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-the-1-open-source-model-step-by-step-setup--xqn83ucrp"},"datePublished":"2026-07-31T10:59:42.691Z","dateModified":"2026-10-15T02:22:11.333Z","description":"A hands-on comparison of Kimi K3 (Chimera-3), Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex for AI-assisted coding tasks. 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