Alex Salvatore

Kimi AI vs ChatGPT: GDPR-Compliant Ways to Use Chinese AI Models in Europe

Written by

Alexandre Salvatore

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Written by Alex Salvatore, Mobile Gen AI Expert with 10+ years in
iOS development. Last updated: February 2026

Chinese AI models like Kimi AI aren’t automatically banned under
GDPR—only direct API calls to Chinese servers are problematic. Kimi K2.5
and DeepSeek are open source, which means you can use them legally in
Europe through EU-hosted providers or self-hosting. Here are three
GDPR-compliant options with real pricing.

The Real GDPR Problem
with Chinese AI

The common assumption is wrong. “Chinese model = GDPR violation” is
overly simplistic.

What’s actually prohibited: – Direct API calls to
Moonshot (China-hosted) – Data transfers to Chinese servers without
adequate safeguards – Using services that store data in China

What’s allowed: – Open-source models hosted in the
EU – Self-hosted instances on European infrastructure – Third-party
providers with EU data residency

Recent Regulatory Actions

Country Action Date
Italy Banned DeepSeek (direct API) January 30, 2025
France CNIL investigation ongoing 2025
Belgium Under investigation 2025

The bans target direct Chinese API access, not the open-source models
themselves.

Option 1: Kimi K2
via Nebius (Simplest Solution)

Nebius is a Dutch company hosting Kimi K2 on
European infrastructure. Your data never touches Chinese servers.

Nebius Pricing

Metric Cost
Input (cached) $0.15/M tokens
Input (uncached) $0.60/M tokens
Output $2.50/M tokens
Context window 131K tokens

GDPR Advantages

  • Dutch company – EU jurisdiction
  • European infrastructure – Data stays in EU
  • No CLOUD Act – Unlike US providers
  • Configurable data residency – Choose your
    region

Cost for 1,000 tasks/month: ~$1.85

Option 2: Self-Host
DeepSeek R1 Distill 70B

DeepSeek R1 is open source. The 70B distilled version offers
excellent performance-to-cost ratio for high-volume applications.

Hardware Requirements

Configuration VRAM Notes
2x NVIDIA A100 80GB ~140GB FP16 Full precision
1x A100 80GB ~70GB INT4 Quantized

GCP europe-west9 (Paris)
Pricing

Instance Type Hourly Cost Monthly Cost
On-demand ~$5-6/hour ~$3,600/month
Spot VMs (70% discount) ~$1.50/hour ~$1,100/month

Performance: ~25 tokens/second

Break-even point: Self-hosting becomes
cost-effective at ~50,000 requests/month.

# vLLM deployment on GCP Paris
vLLM + DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B
Instance: a2-ultragpu-2g (2x A100 80GB)
Region: europe-west9 (Paris)
Spot VMs for cost optimization

Option 3: Self-Host
Mistral Small 24B

Lighter and more accessible for smaller operations.

Hardware Requirements

Configuration VRAM
1x NVIDIA A100 80GB ~55GB BF16
2x L40S ~55GB total

GCP Paris Pricing

Instance Type Hourly Cost Monthly Cost
On-demand A100 80GB ~$3/hour ~$2,200/month
Spot VMs ~$1/hour ~$730/month

Performance: ~40-50 tokens/second

Complete Cost Comparison

Solution Input $/M Output $/M Self-host/month GDPR Status
Kimi K2 API (Moonshot) $0.60 $2.50 – Not compliant (China)
Kimi K2 via Nebius $0.15-0.60 $2.50 – Compliant (Netherlands)
DeepSeek R1 70B self-host – – $1,100 (spot) Compliant
Mistral Small 3.1 API $0.10 $0.30 – Compliant (France)
Mistral Small 24B self-host – – $730 (spot) Compliant

Cost Per
1,000 Tasks (1K input, 500 output tokens each)

  • Mistral API: $0.25
  • Kimi via Nebius: $1.85
  • Self-host: $730-1,100 fixed monthly
    (volume-dependent ROI)

Recommendations by Volume

Low Volume (<10K
requests/month)

Use Mistral API. At $0.25 per 1,000 tasks, it’s
unbeatable for cost and simplicity. French company, EU-hosted, fully
compliant.

Medium Volume + Kimi
Requirement

Use Nebius. Same Kimi model, GDPR-compliant Dutch
infrastructure. No changes to your code beyond the API endpoint.

High Volume (>50K
requests/month)

Self-host on GCP Paris. DeepSeek R1 70B or Mistral
Small 24B with Spot VMs. Fixed monthly cost becomes more economical than
per-token pricing.

Key Takeaways

  • Chinese models aren’t banned – Only direct API
    calls to China are problematic
  • Open source = options – Kimi K2.5 and DeepSeek can
    be legally hosted in Europe
  • Nebius is the easy path – Same Kimi model, Dutch
    infrastructure, API-compatible
  • Self-hosting at scale – Becomes cost-effective
    above 50K requests/month
  • Mistral for simplicity – French, cheap, and fully
    compliant

Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on how you use it. Direct API calls to Moonshot (the
Chinese company behind Kimi) violate GDPR because data is processed in
China. However, using Kimi K2.5 through EU-hosted providers like Nebius
or self-hosting is fully compliant.

What’s the
difference between Kimi and DeepSeek?

Both are Chinese open-source LLMs with strong performance. Kimi K2.5
(by Moonshot AI) has a 131K context window and excels at multilingual
tasks. DeepSeek R1 is known for reasoning capabilities. Both can be
hosted in the EU for GDPR compliance.

Why did Italy ban DeepSeek?

Italy’s data protection authority banned direct access to DeepSeek’s
API because it involves data transfers to China without adequate GDPR
safeguards. The ban doesn’t apply to self-hosted instances or EU-based
hosting providers running the open-source model.

Is self-hosting
worth it for small applications?

Generally no. At less than 50,000 requests per month, API services
like Mistral ($0.25/1K tasks) or Nebius are more cost-effective.
Self-hosting requires infrastructure management, and the fixed monthly
cost only makes sense at scale.

How
does Nebius achieve GDPR compliance with a Chinese model?

Nebius is a Dutch company running Kimi K2.5 on European
infrastructure. The model weights are open source—Nebius simply runs
them on EU servers. Your data never leaves European jurisdiction,
satisfying GDPR requirements.

Sources: – Nebius Token Factory
Pricing – DeepSeek
R1 GPU Requirements – GCP GPU
Pricing – DeepSeek
Italy Ban – Euronews

Questions about integrating GDPR-compliant LLMs into your apps?
I’m a mobile Gen AI expert with multiple apps on the App Store. Try IndieScout
ASO to validate your app idea.

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