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Free AI API credits, verified September 2026
One-time credit grants and permanent free tiers for LLM, speech, and image APIs.
75 offers checked and verified · Browse all 181 free AI offers
The short answer
The genuinely free API options fall into three groups. Permanent free tiers: Google's Gemini API, Groq, Mistral's free plan, OpenRouter's rotating zero-cost models, llm7.io (1M tokens a day), and Z.AI's free GLM models cost nothing ongoing within rate limits. One-time credits: AgentRouter gives $200, Deepgram $200 for speech, Speechmatics $100, AssemblyAI $50, Cerebras $5, YepAPI $5. Big token grants: Voyage AI grants 200M embedding tokens per model, Inception 100M Mercury tokens, Jina AI 10M. The catch: free tiers rate-limit hard, one-time credits expire or stop when spent, and model availability rotates. Everything below was claimed and tested with a real account; the table shows what is free, the limits we hit, and whether a card was required.
How we verify
We claim every credit with a fresh account and run our own test requests against it: the rate limits we actually hit, the models that answered, and whether the card field was skippable at signup. Balances and quotas are re-checked weekly, and the verified date on each row is the day we last confirmed the numbers. Providers that quietly throttle, de-scope, or never deliver the advertised credits are pulled and, where it looks intentional, added to our scam list.
All API credits, best free value first
| Tool | What's free | Key limits | Card required? | Verified | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $200 | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Per-model rate limits, e.g. 30 RPM / 1K-14.4K RPD / 8K-500K TPM | No expiration | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| 1M tokens/day | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Up to $50,000 | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Up to $30,000 | 12 months | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| up to $25,000 | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Up to $20,000 | 6 months | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $5,500+ (stated value) + 33,000,000 characters (over 680 hours of Agents usage) | 12 months | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $1,000-$5,000 | - | - | Sep 11, 2026 | → | |
 Amazon Polly Free Tier | $200 + 5M characters/month | 12 months | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → |
| US$200 | 1 month | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $200 | No expiration | No card | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $100 | - | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| ₹100 | No expiration | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $100 | - | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
 EmberCloud for Startups | $100 | - | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → |
| Up to $90 + 70M+ Model Studio tokens (~1M per model) | Up to 12 months | Card needed | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Up to $90 | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
 Gladia Free Credits | €50 + ~80 hours pre-recorded / ~60 hours real-time transcription | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → |
| $50 | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $20 + 2,000 API credits on first API key; 200 credits/month on Free plan | 2,000 credits one-time; 200 credits renew monthly | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $20 + $10/month | No expiration documented | No card | Sep 11, 2026 | → | |
| $15 | No expiration | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $10 | - | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $10 | 3 months | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $10/month | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
 SambaNova Cloud Free API Tier | $5 + 200,000 tokens/day | 30 days | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → |
| $5 + 100 requests/minute | - | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $5/month + 500 credits/month | No expiration | Card needed | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $5 | One-time credit · Ends Dec 31, 2026 | No card | Sep 11, 2026 | → | |
| $5 | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $5 | - | No card | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $1 + 1,000 RPM / 40,000 TPM (tier L0); free-model rate limits are fixed | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $1/month + 20K credits/month | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $1 | 30 days | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| $0.50/month + 50 credits every 30 days | No expiration | No card | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| $0.10/month | Monthly | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 200 requests/day (new orgs); 1,000 requests/day for paying orgs | No expiration (docs: "free for now", changes announced in changelog) | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Unlimited tokens on the featured free model | GPT-5.6 Luna free through Sep 18, 2026; free model rotates weekly · Ends Sep 18, 2026 | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 500K tokens per LLM model, 2M video tokens, 200 images per image model | No expiration (subject to change) | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 1,000,000,000 tokens | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 200M tokens per model on flagship embeddings and rerankers; 50M on legacy models | No expiration | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 10 text prompts/day, 15 image prompts/day | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 25 credits | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 6-12 months of API credits | 6-12 months | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Free models cost 0 Pollen; anonymous use is rate-limited | No expiration | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 10M tokens | - | No card | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 300,000 tokens/month | No expiration | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 60 requests/minute | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 10 message credits/day | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 1,000,000 tokens per model | 90 days | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 1000 requests/day | No expiration | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Build Credits | 1 year | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 20 RPM (text), 1-20 RPM (image by resolution), 1 RPM (video) | No expiration | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| 1,000 credits/month | No expiration | No card | Sep 11, 2026 | → | |
| 4,000 API credits/month | 4 months | - | Sep 11, 2026 | → | |
| 10,000 credits/month | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| 100M tokens | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| 50 requests/day | No expiration | No card | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| 1M tokens | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | - | - | Sep 12, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | - | Sep 11, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | Limited time | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | Limited time | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | No card | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | No expiration | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → | |
| Free tier | - | - | Sep 10, 2026 | → |
AgentRouter - Up to $200 in Free AI Credits$200--Verified Sep 10, 2026
Google Gemini Developer API Free TierFree tierNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Groq Free TierPer-model rate limits, e.g. 30 RPM / 1K-14.4K RPD / 8K-500K TPMNo expiration-Verified Sep 12, 2026
OpenRouter Free AI ModelsFree tierNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
LLM7.io Free Tier1M tokens/dayNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Together AI Startup AcceleratorUp to $50,000--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Runware Grant ProgramUp to $30,00012 months-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Baseten AI Startup Programup to $25,000--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Anthropic AI for Science ProgramUp to $20,0006 months-Verified Sep 12, 2026
ElevenLabs Startup Grants$5,500+ (stated value) + 33,000,000 characters (over 680 hours of Agents usage)12 months-Verified Sep 12, 2026
fal Startup Program$1,000-$5,000--Verified Sep 11, 2026
OVHcloud AI Endpoints Free TierUS$2001 month-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Deepgram Free $200 Credit$200No expirationNo cardVerified Sep 10, 2026
Speechmatics $100 Free Credit$100-No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
Sarvam AI Free API Credits₹100No expirationNo cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
AkashML $100 Free AI Token Credits$100-No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
- EmberCloud for Startups$100-No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
Alibaba Cloud Free TrialUp to $90 + 70M+ Model Studio tokens (~1M per model)Up to 12 monthsCard neededVerified Sep 12, 2026
Yandex Cloud Free Trial Initial GrantUp to $90--Verified Sep 12, 2026
- Gladia Free Credits€50 + ~80 hours pre-recorded / ~60 hours real-time transcription--Verified Sep 12, 2026
AssemblyAI Free Credits$50No expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Tripo AI Free API Credits$20 + 2,000 API credits on first API key; 200 credits/month on Free plan2,000 credits one-time; 200 credits renew monthly-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Exa Free Credits$20 + $10/monthNo expiration documentedNo cardVerified Sep 11, 2026
Browser Use $15 Signup Credit$15No expirationNo cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
Helyx AI Free Signup Credit$10-No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
AI21 Labs Free Trial$103 months-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Mistral AI Free Plan$10/monthNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
- SambaNova Cloud Free API Tier$5 + 200,000 tokens/day30 daysNo cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
Mixedbread Free Starter Credits$5 + 100 requests/minute-No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
Experiential Labs Free Plan$5/month + 500 credits/monthNo expirationCard neededVerified Sep 10, 2026
SmarToken $5 Signup Credit$5One-time credit · Ends Dec 31, 2026No cardVerified Sep 11, 2026
Cerebras Inference Free Trial$5--Verified Sep 10, 2026
YepAPI Free $5 Credit$5-No cardVerified Sep 10, 2026
SiliconFlow Free Credits and Free Models$1 + 1,000 RPM / 40,000 TPM (tier L0); free-model rate limits are fixed--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Cartesia Free Plan$1/month + 20K credits/monthNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Nebius Token Factory $1 Trial Credit$130 days-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Alysis Code Free Tier$0.50/month + 50 credits every 30 daysNo expirationNo cardVerified Sep 10, 2026
Hugging Face Free Monthly Inference Credits$0.10/monthMonthly-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Requesty Free Models200 requests/day (new orgs); 1,000 requests/day for paying orgsNo expiration (docs: "free for now", changes announced in changelog)No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
Evot Free ModelsUnlimited tokens on the featured free modelGPT-5.6 Luna free through Sep 18, 2026; free model rotates weekly · Ends Sep 18, 2026-Verified Sep 12, 2026
BytePlus Free Trial500K tokens per LLM model, 2M video tokens, 200 images per image modelNo expiration (subject to change)-Verified Sep 12, 2026
DeepInfra DeepStart 1 Billion Free Inference Tokens1,000,000,000 tokens--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Voyage AI Free Embedding and Reranking Tokens200M tokens per model on flagship embeddings and rerankers; 50M on legacy modelsNo expiration-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Venice AI Free Tier10 text prompts/day, 15 image prompts/day--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Stability AI 25 Free API Credits25 credits--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Sarvam AI Startup Program6-12 months of API credits6-12 months-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Pollinations Free APIFree models cost 0 Pollen; anonymous use is rate-limitedNo expiration-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Jina AI 10M Free API Tokens10M tokens-No cardVerified Sep 12, 2026
IBM watsonx.ai Lite Plan300,000 tokens/monthNo expiration-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Hyperbolic Free Inference Tier60 requests/minute--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Coze Free Plan10 message credits/day--Verified Sep 12, 2026
Infron Free AI Models1000 requests/dayNo expiration-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Fireworks for StartupsBuild Credits1 year-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Agnes AI Free API20 RPM (text), 1-20 RPM (image by resolution), 1 RPM (video)No expiration-Verified Sep 12, 2026
Firecrawl Free Plan1,000 credits/monthNo expirationNo cardVerified Sep 11, 2026
Tavily Student Plan4,000 API credits/month4 months-Verified Sep 11, 2026
ElevenLabs Free Plan10,000 credits/monthNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Inception - 100M Free Tokens for Mercury 2100M tokens--Verified Sep 10, 2026
OrcaRouter Free AI Models & API Credits50 requests/dayNo expirationNo cardVerified Sep 10, 2026
Scaleway Generative APIs Free Tier1M tokens--Verified Sep 10, 2026
Claude API New User CreditsFree tier--Verified Sep 12, 2026
APInex Free AI ModelsFree tierNo expiration-Verified Sep 11, 2026
Cline Free ModelsFree tierNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
BAI Limited Free LLM Models & Developer API AccessFree tierLimited time-Verified Sep 10, 2026
AMD Radeon Cloud Free APIsFree tier--Verified Sep 10, 2026
Claude for StartupsFree tier--Verified Sep 10, 2026
Cohere Free Trial APIFree tierNo expiration-Verified Sep 10, 2026
NVIDIA NIM Free Inference EndpointsFree tier--Verified Sep 10, 2026
OpenCode Zen Free ModelsFree tierLimited time-Verified Sep 10, 2026
Replicate Try for FreeFree tier--Verified Sep 10, 2026
Token Harbor Free AllowanceFree tierNo expirationNo cardVerified Sep 10, 2026
Z.AI Free API TierFree tier--Verified Sep 10, 2026
Top picks
For an always-on project, build on the Gemini API free tier or Groq — both permanent, with published, stable limits you can actually plan around. For model variety without commitment, OpenRouter's free models or llm7.io, which serves 1M tokens a day, route many LLMs through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint at $0. Need speech APIs? Deepgram's $200 credit is the most generous grant we have verified and requires no card. Chasing raw token volume? Voyage AI's embedding grant — 200M tokens per model — is the largest no-strings grant, and AgentRouter's $200 remains the biggest one-time all-rounder.
Frequently asked questions
Are these free APIs really $0?
Yes — each was called with a real key. Permanent tiers cost nothing within their rate limits; credit grants cover your usage until the balance runs out. The verified date shows when we last confirmed each row.
Do I need a credit card for free API credits?
Most providers here do not require one, and our card column records what signup actually asked for. A few cloud platforms require a card for identity verification even when the credits are free — those rows are marked.
How long do free API credits last?
Permanent free tiers do not expire but rate-limit daily and monthly. One-time credits typically last until spent, and some trials expire after 30-90 days. The "Key limits" column records the duration each provider states.
Which free LLM API is best for production?
None of the free tiers carry a production SLA. The most dependable starting points are Gemini's free tier and Groq, because their limits are published and stable. Treat one-time credit grants as evaluation budgets rather than infrastructure.
What is the difference between a free tier and free credits?
A free tier is ongoing access within rate limits; free credits are a balance you spend down, after which you pay or stop. The "What's free" column labels every row accordingly.
Related hubs
Last verified Sep 12, 2026 · 75 offers checked · 75 re-checked this month · Providers that fail our checks land on the scam list.