Is Claude Free?
Where to use Claude free in 2026: no-card API credits for new accounts, research grants and router credits, all with Claude Opus 5.5.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- You need
- A Claude Console account at platform.claude.com · For the research grant: an application · For AgentRouter: a GitHub or LinuxDO account
- Last checked
The short answer
4 offers in this guide are live today, 4 of them with no card required. Start with Claude API New User Credits: A small free Claude API credit for new Console accounts.
- Claude API New User Credits - A small free Claude API credit for new Console accounts · verified
- Anthropic AI for Science Program - Up to $20,000 in Claude API credits for selected researchers, 6 months · verified
- AgentRouter Free Credits - Free AI coding credits: $25 per daily check-in and $50 per invite · verified
- Claude for Startups - Claude startup program, cohort full; up to $100K API credits via partner VCs · verified
Last checked
Yes, through API credits: new developer accounts get a small free credit with no card, and researchers can apply for a grant. A third-party router also hands out daily credits for Claude models, and all three include Claude Opus 5.5.
Where Claude is free today #
- API credits for new accounts: Claude API New User Credits gives each new Claude Console account a small one-time credit. No credit card is needed. Anthropic does not publish the amount, and the credit expires one year after it is issued unless stated otherwise.
- Research grants: the Anthropic AI for Science Program awards selected researchers up to $20,000 in Claude API credits for six months.
- Third-party router: AgentRouter gives $25 of API credit per daily check-in for AI coding tools. Claude models come in limited daily batches that can run out.
- Startups: Claude for Startups is closed: the current cohort is full and Anthropic is not accepting new applications. Startups backed by a partner VC may still get API credits through that VC.
For setup steps, see how to get free Claude API credits.
Where to use Claude Opus 5.5 for free #
Claude Opus 5.5 is served by the new user API credits, the AI for Science Program and AgentRouter. The Claude Opus 5.5 page compares every live source with its limits and card requirement.
Credit card #
None of the live offers above asks for a credit card. You add payment details only when you buy API credits after the free credit runs out. For other APIs that need no card, see the free Gemini API key guide, the free DeepSeek API guide and the full list of free AI APIs with no credit card.
Offers in this guide
| Offer | Free part | Who can claim | Card | Ends | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude API New User Credits | Free credits | Anyone | No card | No end date | |
| Anthropic AI for Science Program | $20,000 | Researchers at academic or nonprofit institutions applying generative AI to scientific research; fields include life sciences, chemistry, medicine, environment, physics, CS, earth sciences. | No card | No end date | |
| AgentRouter Free Credits | $25 | Anyone | No card | No end date | |
| Claude for Startups | Startup program | Open to bootstrapped, pre-seed, and venture-backed startups; apply through the Claude Console. | No card | No end date |
Frequently asked questions
- Can I use Claude Opus 5.5 for free?
- Yes, within the free credit. The new user API credit, the AI for Science Program and AgentRouter all serve Claude Opus 5.5; none of them needs a credit card.
- Do I need a credit card to use Claude for free?
- No. The new user API credit, the AI for Science Program and AgentRouter credits need no card. You add one only when you buy more API credits.
- Does the Claude API have a free tier?
- No recurring free tier. New Console accounts get a small one-time credit (amount not published) that expires one year after issue; after that, standard API pricing applies.
- Can startups still get free Claude credits?
- Not directly right now. The Claude for Startups cohort is full and new applications are closed; startups backed by a partner VC may get API credits through that VC.
Sources
Steps and limits were checked against these official pages.
More guides
- Is GitHub Copilot Free?
- Is Cursor Free?
- Is Perplexity Pro Free?
- Is ElevenLabs Free?
- Is Runway Free?
- Is Hailuo AI Free?
- Is Leonardo AI Free?
- How to Get a Free Gemini API Key
- How Students Can Get ChatGPT Plus Free
- Free Alternatives to ChatGPT Plus Features
- How Students Can Get Google Gemini (AI Pro) Free
- How to Use an AI Coding Agent for Free
- Free Models in OpenCode: Built-in Stealth and Compatible APIs
- Free API for Claude Code and Cline: Compatible Providers
- How to Get a Free GPU for AI
- How to Apply for AI Startup Credits
- How to Get Free Claude API Credits
- How to Get a Free Groq API Key
- Free AI Image Generation: In the Browser and by API
- Free OpenAI API Access in 2026: What's Actually Free
- Free Embeddings and Reranking APIs in 2026
- Free Text-to-Speech APIs in 2026
- Free Speech-to-Text APIs in 2026
- Free AI Video Generators in 2026
- Free Image Generation APIs in 2026
- Free Web Search APIs for LLM Agents in 2026
- Free Vector Databases for RAG in 2026
- Free DeepSeek API in 2026: What Is Actually Free
- Free Qwen, GLM and Kimi API in 2026: Where They Are Free
- Free Mistral API in 2026: Studio Free Mode, Codestral and Vibe
- Free Llama API in 2026: Where Llama Is Still Free
- Free Grok API in 2026: What xAI Actually Offers
- OpenRouter Free Models: Limits, Credits and API Setup
- Free Hugging Face Inference: Credits, ZeroGPU and Spaces
- Free AI APIs With No Credit Card in 2026
- Track Free-Tier Changes Automatically
- How to Run AI Locally for Free
- Free Vision APIs: Read Images and Screenshots for Free
- Free Reasoning Model APIs: Thinking Models for Free
- Free Translation APIs in 2026: DeepL, Google, Azure, Amazon and LLMs
- Free AI for Teachers in 2026: Lesson Planning, Grading and Slides
- How to Run an AI Agent for $0 in 2026: Models, Search and Vector DB
- Free AI for Nonprofits in 2026: Google, Microsoft, Canva, OpenAI and Claude
- Free AI Coding Tools for Students in 2026: Copilot, JetBrains, Cursor and More
- How to Fine-Tune an LLM for $0 in 2026: Colab, Kaggle and Unsloth
- Best Free AI APIs for Vietnamese in 2026: Benchmark Scores and Free Tiers
- Free AI Writing Assistants in 2026: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Notion AI, Grammarly and Copilot
- Free AI Chat Without Login in 2026: Duck.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and HuggingChat
- Free Web Scraping APIs in 2026: Firecrawl, ZenRows, ScraperAPI, Jina Reader, Apify and More
- Free OCR and Document AI APIs in 2026: Google Document AI, Azure, AWS Textract, Mistral OCR, Tesseract
- Free AI Music Generators in 2026: Suno, Udio, Stable Audio, ACE-Step and What You May Do With the Songs
- Free Hosting for AI Apps in 2026: Vercel, Cloudflare, Hugging Face Spaces, Render, Fly.io, Cloud Run
- Free AI for Data Analysis in 2026: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Colab and Kaggle
- Free AI Presentation Makers in 2026: Gamma, Pitch, SlidesAI and Beautiful.ai Compared
- Free AI Research Tools in 2026: Elicit, Semantic Scholar, NotebookLM, Consensus and Scite
- Best Free AI APIs for Spanish, Portuguese and Indonesian in 2026: Published Scores and Free Tiers
- Free AI for Job Seekers in 2026: Resume, Cover Letter and Interview Practice
- Free AI Credits for Hackathons: No Card, No Waiting
- Free AI Voice Generators in 2026
- Free AI Image Editors in 2026
- Free AI Subtitle Generators in 2026
- Free AI courses