---
title: "Free AI API credits, verified October 2026"
slug: "free-api-credits"
description: "One-time credit grants and permanent free tiers for LLM, speech, and image APIs."
verifiedAt: "2026-10-19"
offers: 89
verifiedOffers: 74
canonical: "https://aifree.dev/free-api-credits"
---

# Free AI API credits, verified October 2026

> One-time credit grants and permanent free tiers for LLM, speech, and image APIs.

The free AI API credits list holds 89 API credits today, best free value first. By type, the API credits split into 37 credit grants, 36 free tiers, 11 startup programs, 3 student programs, 1 free trial and 1 fully free tool. 74 of the 89 API credits were verified by a person, most recently on Oct 19, 2026; 15 are listed and waiting for a first check. 79 of the API credits need no credit card (AgentRouter Free AI Credits, Google Gemini Developer API Free Tier and Groq Free Tier among them); 10 ask for one. In the 7 days to Oct 29, 2026, the API credits had 20 with changed terms (Token Harbor Free Allowance, Scaleway Generative APIs Free Tier and 18 more). At the top of the API credits table: AgentRouter Free AI Credits ($25), Google Gemini Developer API Free Tier and Groq Free Tier. Coming end dates among the API credits: SmarToken $5 Signup Credit on Dec 31, 2026.

## The short answer

Free API access falls 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), Z.AI's free GLM models.
- **One-time credits:** AgentRouter $200, Deepgram $200 (speech), Speechmatics $100, AssemblyAI $50, Cerebras $5, YepAPI $5.
- **Big token grants:** Voyage AI 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.

## All API credits, best free value first

89 offers, 74 verified. Each offer has a Markdown page at `https://aifree.dev/offer/<slug>.md`.

| Offer | What is free | Card | Status | The catch |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [AgentRouter Free AI Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/agentrouter-free-credits) | $25 | no card | listed | Claude and GPT models come in limited daily batches that run out; only supported coding clients are allowed, and misuse moves accounts to a probation group with doubled rates. |
| [Google Gemini Developer API Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/google-gemini-developer-api-free-tier) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Pro previews, image generation (Nano Banana), Veo video, and Imagen are not available on the free tier; per-model rate limits apply. |
| [Groq Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/groq-free-tier) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Rate limits apply at the organization level and are tight (e.g. 30 RPM and 1K RPD on many models); the docs caution limits may change and exceptions exist. |
| [OpenRouter Free AI Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/openrouter-free-models) | 50 requests/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free models allow 20 requests/minute and 50/day until you have bought 10 credits (then 1,000/day). A negative balance blocks them, and the lineup rotates (24 variants listed, 17 of them chat models). |
| [LLM7.io Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/llm7-io-free-tier) | 100,000 tokens/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Token usage counts input plus output combined against the daily cap, and per-second/minute/hour request limits apply; a free token is required for the 100,000 tokens/day allowance. |
| [Together AI Startup Accelerator](https://aifree.dev/offer/together-ai-startup-accelerator) | $50,000 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Selection-based program; credit amounts are 'up to' tier maximums, require an application, and credits do not apply to Reserved GPU Clusters. |
| [Baseten AI Startup Program](https://aifree.dev/offer/baseten-ai-startup-program) | $25,000 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Acceptance is not automatic; credit amounts are 'up to' maximums and subject to Baseten's legal disclaimers. |
| [Anthropic AI for Science Program](https://aifree.dev/offer/anthropic-ai-for-science-program) | $20,000 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Credits apply only to API use (not the Claude web app), exclude non-standard/experimental models and fine-tuning, and go to a single organization ID for a 6-month period. |
| [ElevenLabs Startup Grants](https://aifree.dev/offer/elevenlabs-startup-program) | $5,500 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Account auto-converts to the Free plan when the 33M characters run out or the 12-month grant ends. |
| [fal Startup Program](https://aifree.dev/offer/fal-startup-program) | $1,000 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Credit upgrades unlock only as your own monthly spend on fal grows, and the program is limited to Europe- and Asia-based teams. |
| [Runware Startup Program](https://aifree.dev/offer/runware-grant-program) | $1,000 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Only the Starter award (up to $1,000, scored on traction) is free; the $10K and $30K bonuses need a non-refundable $25K or $50K deposit. Up to Series A only. |
| [IBM Cloud free tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/ibm-cloud-free-tier) | $200 | card | verified 2026-10-13 | The $200 credit expires after 30 days and the account is Pay-As-You-Go - usage beyond free tiers bills automatically if no card limit is set. |
| [Amazon Polly Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/amazon-polly-free-tier) | $200 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Neural, Long-Form and Generative allowances last only 12 months; since July 2025 new AWS accounts pick a free plan (6 months) or paid plan, with up to $200 in Free Tier credits. |
| [Deepgram Free $200 Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/deepgram-free-credit) | $200 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Credit is tied to the Pay As You Go plan; billing switches to pay-as-you-go once the $200 credit is spent. |
| [OVHcloud AI Endpoints Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/ovhcloud-ai-endpoints-free-tier) | $200 | card | verified 2026-10-12 | Needs a saved payment method (the US site also requires a $0.99 purchase); billing starts automatically once the credit is used up; anonymous API use is capped at 2 requests per minute. |
| [AkashML $100 Free AI Token Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/akashml-free-token-credits) | $100 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | One-time grant for new accounts only, with no renewal; credits are usable only on AkashML's supported open-source models and no expiry is published. |
| [EmberCloud for Startups](https://aifree.dev/offer/embercloud-for-startups) | $100 | card | verified 2026-10-12 | Despite no card required to apply, approved applicants must add $5 to verify their company before they can start building. |
| [Speechmatics $100 Free Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/speechmatics-free-credit) | $100 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The $100 sign-up credit lasts 12 months and service pauses once it reaches zero; adding a card switches the account to pay-as-you-go. |
| [Alibaba Cloud Free Trial](https://aifree.dev/offer/alibaba-cloud-free-trial) | $90 | card | verified 2026-10-12 | The $90 ECS credit is valid only 3 months and many other product trials last just 1 month; you must add a payment method before claiming the free tier. |
| [AssemblyAI Free Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/assemblyai-free-credits) | $50 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free tier caps streaming at 5 new streams per minute (vs 100/min paid), and LLM Gateway usage is not covered by the credits; the credits do not expire. |
| [Exa Free Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/exa-free-credits) | $20 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free use is capped at 10 search queries per second and 50 agent concurrency; credit expiration is not documented. |
| [Hume AI Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/hume-ai-free-tier) | $20 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Monthly free usage is modest: 10,000 characters (~10 minutes of TTS) and 5 minutes of EVI, capped at 15 RPM with 1 concurrent connection; paid overage applies beyond that. |
| [Tripo AI Free API Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/tripo-ai-free-api-credits) | $20 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Game Hub credits are strictly for developing games on Tripo Game Hub; fraud or commercial misuse leads to permanent disqualification and credit removal. |
| [AI21 Labs Free Trial](https://aifree.dev/offer/ai21-labs-free-trial) | $10 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Credit expires after three months or once exhausted; valid billing information is then required to continue using the AI21 platform. |
| [Helyx AI Free Signup Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/helyx-ai-free-signup-credit) | $10 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The $8 portion is held until you contact support (an anti-abuse measure); top-ups are via crypto. |
| [Cerebras Inference Free Trial](https://aifree.dev/offer/cerebras-inference-free-trial) | $5 | card | verified 2026-10-12 | A verified payment method is required to activate access, and the $5 credits expire 30 days after activation. |
| [Mixedbread Free Starter Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/mixedbread-free-starter-credits) | $5 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The $5 credits are one-time only with no monthly renewal; once spent you must add credits from billing settings or upgrade to Scale. |
| [SmarToken $5 Signup Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/smartoken-5-signup-credit) | $5 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The $5 is promotional balance that cannot be withdrawn as cash, granted once per eligible account, and new Google signups must pass risk checks before 31 Dec 2026 (UTC+8). |
| [Vercel AI Gateway Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/vercel-ai-gateway-free-tier) | $5 | card | verified 2026-10-12 | The team needs a valid payment method before using free credits; the free tier covers only a subset of models with lower rate limits, and buying credits ends the monthly free credit. |
| [YepAPI Free $5 Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/yepapi-free-credit) | $5 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The $5 credit is one-time; the FAQ states there is no free tier with hard limits, so usage is pay-per-token once the credit runs out. |
| [Browser Use $1 Signup Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/browser-use-free-credit) | $1 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Agents bill model tokens plus a 20% service fee plus browser time and traffic; the credit is once per person for eligible signups only. |
| [Nebius Token Factory $1 Trial Credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/nebius-token-factory-trial-credit) | $1 | card | verified 2026-10-12 | A bank card is required to set up billing, and the card is charged automatically when the balance goes negative or a billing threshold is reached; the $1 credit expires after 30 days. |
| [SiliconFlow Free Credits and Free Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/siliconflow-free-inference-credits) | $1 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free-model rate limits are fixed and DeepSeek-R1/V3 calls are capped at 30 requests/hour; the $1 credit is a one-time starter grant. |
| [DeepInfra DeepStart 50 Billion Free Inference Tokens](https://aifree.dev/offer/deepinfra-deepstart-free-tokens) | 50,000,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Token grant is valued at DeepSeek V4 Flash prices and expires one year after approval; startups must have raised $250K-$10M and be founded within the last 2 years. |
| [Voyage AI Free Embedding and Reranking Tokens](https://aifree.dev/offer/voyage-ai-free-embedding-tokens) | 200,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Without a payment method you are held to 3 requests and 10K tokens a minute; the published 2,000 RPM limits need a card on file (Usage Tier 1). Older model generations get no free tokens. |
| [Inception - 100M Free Tokens for Mercury 3](https://aifree.dev/offer/inception-100m-free-tokens-mercury-2) | 100,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | One-time grant for new accounts, then paid usage (Mercury 3: $0.10/1M input, $0.35/1M output at a 50% launch discount). Mercury 2 and 2.5 are no longer open to new users. |
| [IteraCompute free Qwen3.8-27B](https://aifree.dev/offer/iteracompute-free-qwen3-8-27b) | 30,000,000 tokens/month | no card | verified 2026-10-19 | Brand-new operator (domain registered Aug 2026, identity not disclosed) hosting the model itself - treat it as untrusted infrastructure. Free tier has no SLA, queues at peak, and 160K TPM cap. |
| [Free.ai Startup Grant](https://aifree.dev/offer/free-ai-startup-tokens) | 15,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Acceptance is application-based, and the grant covers Free.ai's self-hosted models but not premium external models. |
| [Jina AI 10M Free API Tokens](https://aifree.dev/offer/jina-ai-free-api-tokens) | 10,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The 10M tokens are one-time and shared across all Jina APIs; a web search costs from 10,000 tokens. The Reader models are CC-BY-NC 4.0, so self-hosting them commercially needs a license. |
| [NaraRouter Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/nararouter-free-tier) | 7,000,000 tokens/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free access covers only the three free models at 15 requests per minute under a fair-use policy; all other models require a paid plan. |
| [Alibaba Cloud Model Studio Free Token Quota](https://aifree.dev/offer/alibaba-cloud-model-studio-free-quota) | 1,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Quota expires 90 days after activation (or model release/approval, whichever is latest), covers real-time inference only in the Singapore region, and is shared by the account plus its RAM users. |
| [Scaleway Generative APIs Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/scaleway-generative-apis-free-tier) | 1,000,000 tokens | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free Tier applies to your most expensive tokens first; once exceeded, per-token billing starts with a 1,000-token minimum billing unit. |
| [IBM watsonx.ai Lite Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/ibm-watsonx-ai-lite-plan) | 300,000 tokens/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Rate-limited to 2 inference requests per second, custom foundation models are not available, and you cannot downgrade back to Lite after upgrading. |
| [AnyAPI Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/anyapi-free-tier) | 100,000 tokens/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The daily 100K ₳nyTokens cover basic and free models only - premium models need a paid plan, free API calls are rate-limited, and there is no SLA. |
| [Cartesia Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/cartesia-free-tier) | 20,000 credits/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Concurrency is low (2 concurrent TTS requests), there is no commercial use license, and voice cloning (instant or professional) requires a paid plan. |
| [ElevenLabs Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/elevenlabs-free-plan) | 10,000 credits/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | No commercial license, no voice cloning, no credit rollover, and audio quality capped at 128 kbps on the Free plan. |
| [Tavily Student Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/tavily-student-plan) | 4,000 credits/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Requires student verification via an official student email or student ID, and the free Project Plan access ends after 4 months. |
| [Cohere Free Trial API](https://aifree.dev/offer/cohere-free-trial-api) | 1,000 requests/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Trial API keys are rate limited and not permitted for production or commercial use. |
| [Context.dev Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/context-dev-free-plan) | 1,000 credits/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | No overage — API calls return 401 once the 1,000 monthly credits run out, and heavy endpoints burn them fast (Answers costs 100 credits a call). |
| [Firecrawl Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/firecrawl-free-plan) | 1,000 credits/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free plan has low rate limits (e.g. 2/min for crawl), 2 concurrent requests, and unused credits do not roll over. |
| [Infron Free AI Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/infron-free-models) | 1,000 requests/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Standard :free models require a $5+ account balance (not consumed); free requests share one daily pool and run on a shared public pool without SLA. |
| [Requesty Free Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/requesty-free-models) | 200 requests/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Only the 13 designated zero-cost models are free; they are rate-limited per organization and free-model terms can change. |
| [Routeway Free Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/routeway-free-models) | 200 requests/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free models run on a shared, low-priority queue with best-effort availability and one concurrent request — suitable for prototyping, with no uptime guarantee. |
| [Alysis Code Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/alysis-code-free-credits) | 50 credits/month | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Unused credits do not carry over between 30-day periods; the free tier now spans multiple providers (DeepSeek, GLM, GPT-6 Luna, Claude Sonnet) and is subject to fair-use limits. |
| [Stability AI 25 Free API Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/stability-ai-free-api-credits) | 25 credits | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | One-time 25 credits granted via Google signup for initial testing only; further API use requires purchasing credits. |
| [Venice AI Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/venice-ai-free-tier) | 15 images/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Base AI models only and 0 monthly credits; the full model catalog requires Pro ($18/month), and API calls are pay-per-use even on the free plan. |
| [Coze Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/coze-free-plan) | 10 credits/day | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Credit cost per call varies by model, so 10 daily credits may cover far fewer than 10 messages on premium models. |
| [Agnes AI Free API](https://aifree.dev/offer/agnes-ai-free-api) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free video pricing is a limited-time promotion; free access is rate-limited (about 20 effective RPM text, 1 RPM video) and the docs say all limits may be adjusted in the future. |
| [AMD Radeon Cloud Free APIs](https://aifree.dev/offer/amd-radeon-cloud-free-apis) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | AMD picks which models are served; per-key rate limits, a concurrency allowance, and a spend cap all apply, and only chat-completions and messages endpoints are served. |
| [Claude API New User Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/claude-api-new-user-credits) | Free credits | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Anthropic publishes no amount; it is a one-time small grant that expires (one year after issue unless stated otherwise), then standard paid pricing applies. |
| [Cline Free Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/cline-free-models) | Free credits | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Rotating, limited-time promotions with a usage quota; after the quota ends you need ClinePass ($9.99/mo), usage billing, or your own API key. |
| [Evot Free Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/evot-free-models) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Which models are free changes over time, and access is sponsor-funded (Databend Cloud names may appear in ad spaces inside the tool). |
| [Fireworks for Startups](https://aifree.dev/offer/fireworks-ai-startup-program) | Startup program | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Build Credits expire after 1 year and no dollar amount is published; credits exclude reserved GPU capacity, SLAs, professional services, and premium support. |
| [Gladia Free Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/gladia-free-credits) | Free credits | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | One-time credit that expires one year after signup, with no monthly reset; once used you must top up or upgrade to continue. |
| [Mistral AI Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/mistral-ai-free-plan) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free plan has limited messages, web searches, and coding sessions; Vibe access is limited compared with paid plans. |
| [NVIDIA NIM Free Inference Endpoints](https://aifree.dev/offer/nvidia-nim-free-inference) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free endpoints are limited to catalog models tagged "Free Endpoint" and can be deprecated; you need a verified NVIDIA account and an API key, and no rate limits or SLA are published for the free tier. |
| [OpenCode Zen Free Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/opencode-zen-free-models) | Free tier | card | verified 2026-10-12 | All free models are limited-time and you must add billing details and credits; Big Pickle, LL Alpha, Exo and MiMo data may be used to improve the models, and NVIDIA trial endpoints log use. |
| [Pollinations Free API](https://aifree.dev/offer/pollinations-free-api) | Fully free | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Every generation request now requires an API key — there is no documented anonymous tier — and free-tier images may include watermarks. |
| [Replicate Try for Free](https://aifree.dev/offer/replicate-try-for-free) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free runs are limited (exact cap not published); after hitting it you must add billing and buy credits to continue. |
| [Sarvam AI Free API Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/sarvam-ai-free-api-credits) | Free credits | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Rate limits are enforced per account across all keys (60 req/min for most APIs on Starter), and the credits are denominated in INR. |
| [Sarvam AI Startup Program](https://aifree.dev/offer/sarvam-ai-startup-program) | Startup program | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | No credit dollar value or eligibility criteria are published; credit size is matched to each startup's scale, stage and expected use. |
| [Token Harbor Free Allowance](https://aifree.dev/offer/token-harbor-free) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The free allowance size is not published, it resets on a rolling 7-day period, and the free model lineup rotates. |
| [Token Harbor Free Allowance](https://aifree.dev/offer/token-harbor-free-allowance) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | The free allowance size is not published, it resets on a rolling 7-day period, and the free model lineup rotates. |
| [Upstage AI Initiative Free Access](https://aifree.dev/offer/upstage-ai-initiative-free-access) | Student program | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Access runs only through March 31, 2027; applications undergo internal review and approval is not guaranteed. |
| [Z.AI Free API Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/z-ai-free-api-tier) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free pricing applies only to the Flash models; limited-time free cached-input storage on paid models is promotional and can end. |
| [Experiential Labs Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/experiential-labs-free-plan) | $1 | card | listed | A card and a one-time $1 verification charge (added to your balance) are required to start the monthly free credits and unlock free models, which have hourly and daily limits. |
| [APInex Free AI Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/apinex-free-ai-models) | 10,000,000 tokens/month | no card | listed | Free models are capped at 5 requests per minute, and each request deducts input plus output tokens times a model weight (2 to 4) from the daily allowance. |
| [CleanAPIs free monthly tokens](https://aifree.dev/offer/cleanapis-free-monthly-tokens) | 500,000 tokens/month | no card | changed | Brand-new domain (registered 22 Sep 2026) run by an unidentified operator; it's a third-party relay, so model authenticity and prompt privacy are unproven. |
| [BytePlus Free Trial](https://aifree.dev/offer/byteplus-free-trial) | 500,000 tokens | no card | listed | — |
| [Cloudflare Workers AI Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/cloudflare-workers-ai-free-tier) | 10,000 credits/day | no card | listed | 10,000 Neurons is small (about 49K output tokens a day on Llama 3.3 70B at the published rate); Kimi, GLM-5 and DeepSeek V4 models need Workers Paid or prepaid credits. |
| [Serper 2,500 Free Google Search Queries](https://aifree.dev/offer/serper-free-queries) | 2,500 requests | no card | listed | One-time allowance, not monthly; after it runs out you buy prepaid credits (from $50 for 50,000). Free-credit expiry and free rate limits are not published. |
| [Brave Search API Free Monthly Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/brave-search-api-free-credits) | 1,000 requests/month | card | listed | A credit card is required at signup (Brave says to prevent abuse); usage beyond the free $5 per plan is charged from prepaid credits. |
| [Tavily Free Researcher Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/tavily-free-researcher-plan) | 1,000 credits/month | no card | listed | Requests stop when the 1,000 monthly credits run out until the reset on the 1st; development keys are limited to 100 requests per minute. |
| [OrcaRouter Free AI Models & API Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/orcarouter-free-models) | 50 requests/day | no card | listed | — |
| [Pinecone Starter Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/pinecone-starter-plan) | 2 GB | no card | listed | AWS us-east-1 only, 1 project and 2 users, community support only; going past the monthly read/write units means upgrading to Builder ($20/month flat) or Standard ($50/month minimum). |
| [BigModel Free GLM Flash Models](https://aifree.dev/offer/bigmodel-free-glm-flash-models) | Free tier | no card | listed | China-facing platform with Chinese-language docs and console; rate limits for the free models are not published on the overview page. |
| [Ollama Cloud Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/ollama-cloud-free-plan) | Free tier | no card | listed | Ollama does not publish the starter amount or name the starter models, and Free allows 1 concurrent request; all other cloud models need purchased usage credits. |
| [Claude for Startups](https://aifree.dev/offer/claude-for-startups) | Startup program | no card | changed | New applications are closed until the next cohort; API credits come only through partner VCs and work only on the first-party Claude API. |
| [BAI Limited Free LLM Models & Developer API Access](https://aifree.dev/offer/bai-limited-free-llm-models) | Free tier | no card | listed | B.AI's docs now list Qwen3.8-Flash at 30% and GLM-5.3-Flash at 70% of list price via API and Chat, and show no free promotion; only the chat model list still shows these four models at zero cost. |

## Top picks

- [Gemini API free tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/google-gemini-developer-api-free-tier) or [Groq](https://aifree.dev/offer/groq-free-tier) for an always-on project - both permanent, with published, stable limits you can plan around.
- [OpenRouter's free models](https://aifree.dev/offer/openrouter-free-models) or [llm7.io](https://aifree.dev/offer/llm7-io-free-tier) for model variety without commitment - many LLMs through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint at $0 (llm7.io serves 1M tokens a day).
- [Deepgram's $200 credit](https://aifree.dev/offer/deepgram-free-credit) for speech APIs - the most generous grant we have verified, no card needed.
- [Voyage AI's embedding grant](https://aifree.dev/offer/voyage-ai-free-embedding-tokens) for raw token volume - 200M tokens per model, the largest no-strings grant; [AgentRouter's $200](https://aifree.dev/offer/agentrouter-free-credits) remains the biggest one-time all-rounder.

## How we verify

We claim every credit with a fresh account and run our own test requests against it.

- **We record** the rate limits we actually hit, the models that answered, and whether the card field was skippable at signup.
- **We re-check** balances and quotas monthly; the verified date on each row is the day we last confirmed the numbers.
- **We pull** providers that quietly throttle, de-scope, or never deliver the advertised credits - and name them on our scam list where it looks intentional.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many free AI API credits does aifree.dev list?

89 right now: 74 verified by a person and 15 listed, waiting for a first check. By type: 37 credit grants, 36 free tiers, 11 startup programs, 3 student programs, 1 free trial and 1 fully free tool. The newest verification is from Oct 19, 2026.

### Which API credits need no credit card?

79 of 89, among them AgentRouter Free AI Credits, Google Gemini Developer API Free Tier and Groq Free Tier. 10 ask for a card, often to verify identity or to bill usage past the free part. The "Card?" column of the table marks each row.

### What changed in free AI API credits this week?

In the 7 days to Oct 29, 2026: 20 with changed terms (Token Harbor Free Allowance, Scaleway Generative APIs Free Tier and 18 more). Every change is on the hub's changes page and its RSS feed.

### 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.

### 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.

HTML page: https://aifree.dev/free-api-credits