Which AI model APIs can you use for free?

6 of 9 AI model providers checked have a free API tier in their own docs (Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, Cloudflare Workers AI, Mistral, Cohere); Hugging Face, Cerebras and the retired GitHub Models do not, and no keys were created.

Partly reproducedPart of the claim worked; the rest was not tested or did not work. The case says which.

Access it needs: L0 Public web only
The original post's setup: L0 research + L3 (creates accounts and API keys as you)
Run on: 20 Oct 2026, 09:15 to 09:17 (UTC+8)
Run by: Grok Bot
Check again by: 19 Nov 2026

What was claimed

'I just had it search for all the model providers that offer free API use, now I have 10 free API keys I can shuffle and get some decent use'

@aivrar on X. Original post

What we found

6 of 9 providers checked have a free API tier in their own docs: Google Gemini (New accounts begin on the Free Tier), Groq (Free Plan table: gpt-oss-120b at 30 requests/min, 1K/day), OpenRouter (17 :free models in its live model list), Cloudflare Workers AI (10,000 Neurons per day at no charge), Mistral (Free mode: API access is enabled by default with no credit card required) and Cohere (trial keys limited to 1,000 API calls a month). Not free: Hugging Face lists Free Users: None for monthly credits, Cerebras gives $5 only after adding a verified payment method, and GitHub Models was fully retired on July 30, 2026. The research half works; we did not get to 10 and did not create any keys.

Highlighted words are quoted exactly from a source page or the original post.

How we checked it

Each provider's own pricing or rate-limits page, fetched 2026-10-20 (UTC+8), plus OpenRouter's public models API (programmatic count). OpenRouter's per-day limit numbers did not appear in the page HTML (filled in by JavaScript), so they are not confirmed.

What the agent did

Web search: the engine's summary listed 7 'no-card' free APIs, including Hugging Face
Google AI (Gemini) docs: 302 redirect loop to a Google sign-in check; worked on retry with a cookie jar
Groq, OpenRouter, Cloudflare, Cohere, Hugging Face, Cerebras, GitHub docs: 200
Mistral tier URL from memory: 404; found the current page by search
OpenRouter public /api/v1/models: 470 models, 17 ids ending ':free'
Compared each provider's wording

The run, line by line

Every request the agent made, in order, with the server's answer. Addresses show only the site and page; query strings and tokens are removed.

Time (UTC+8)	Answer	Address
09:15:41	302	accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/auth
09:15:49	302	accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/auth
09:15:57	302	accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/auth
09:15:57	200	console.groq.com/docs/rate-limits
09:15:57	200	openrouter.ai/docs/api_reference/limits
09:15:57	200	developers.cloudflare.com/workers-ai/platform/pricing/
09:15:58	404	docs.mistral.ai/deployment/laplateforme/tier
09:15:58	200	docs.cohere.com/docs/rate-limits
09:15:58	200	huggingface.co/docs/inference-providers/pricing
09:15:58	200	inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits
09:15:59	200	docs.github.com/en/github-models
09:16:09	200	gemini pricing (retry with cookies)
09:16:10	200	gemini billing (retry with cookies)
09:16:38	200	openrouter models
09:17:00	200	mistral apikey

Sites and APIs touched: ai.google.dev, console.groq.com, openrouter.ai, developers.cloudflare.com, docs.mistral.ai, docs.cohere.com, huggingface.co, inference-docs.cerebras.ai, docs.github.com.

Where it went wrong

The search engine's summary and a top-ranked third-party list both said Hugging Face has a free monthly credit; Hugging Face's own pricing page says free users get none.
Google's docs answered a plain fetch with a sign-in redirect loop; an agent that gives up there would miss the biggest free tier.
Free tiers change fast (GitHub Models retired, Cerebras now needs a card), so any list older than a few weeks is suspect.

Try it yourself

Exact prompt we used

Which AI model providers offer a free API tier right now? For each, link the provider's own pricing or limits page and quote the line that says it is free.

Lowest-access way to try it

L0 for the list. Ask for the provider's own page and the exact line for each entry. Signing up for keys creates accounts in your name (L3): do that part yourself.

Run details

Status: Partly reproduced (V1)
Access level used: L0: No account access
Original post's setup: L0 research + L3 (creates accounts and API keys as you)
Method: Web search for free LLM API tiers, then fetched 11 official pricing/rate-limit pages for 9 providers plus OpenRouter's public model list, and checked each free-tier claim against the provider's own wording. Did not sign up for anything or create any keys.
Run by: Grok Bot (this assistant) on its own Linux computer with web search/fetch/shell/browser tools; this run: web search, then curl from the shell to each provider's official pricing/limits page and OpenRouter's public models API (no browser, no sign-ups)
Agent in the original post: Grok Bot (per post)
Run date: 2026-10-20 (UTC+8)
Time: About 2 minutes (09:15:18-09:17:00 UTC+8)
Cost: Not metered (subscription agent); no paid APIs, no purchases
Re-verify by: 2026-11-19

How to cite

TriedAgents, "Which AI model APIs can you use for free?", partly reproduced, checked 2026-10-20, https://triedagents.com/cases/free-llm-api-tiers/

Get one re-run case every weekday

One agent use case we actually re-ran, every weekday. Free.

We only store your email address. Every issue has a one-click unsubscribe link. Privacy