---
title: "Sail Research Free Credits"
slug: "sail-research-free-credits"
provider: "Sail Research"
status: "verified"
verifiedAt: "2026-11-10"
listedAt: "2026-11-10"
canonical: "https://aifree.dev/offer/sail-research-free-credits"
---

# Sail Research Free Credits

Free today: $5 in monthly credits for open-model inference and cloud Linux VMs, for developers. It needs a sign-up and a credit card, available worldwide; verified Nov 10, 2026.

> $5 in monthly credits for open-model inference and cloud Linux VMs

- Provider: [Sail Research](https://aifree.dev/provider/sail-research)
- What is free: Free tier
- Status: verified by a person on 2026-11-10
- Credit card: required
- Sign-up: required
- For: Developers
- Regions: worldwide
- Claim at: https://app.sailresearch.com

## What you get

$5 in credits every month to spend on open-weight models (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM-5.3 Flash, Gemma 4, Kimi K3) via an OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible API, or on usage-billed Linux VMs (Sailboxes).

## The catch

Card required to unlock the full $5/month, and accounts on promotional credits only are capped at a limited number of requests per minute.

## Eligibility

Open to everyone; the full $5 per month needs a payment method on the account.

## Limits

- $5 in credits per month, shared between inference and Sailboxes
- The full $5/month needs a payment method attached; a smaller promotional credit comes with sign-up
- Accounts on promotional credits only are limited to a reduced number of requests per minute until credits are purchased
- Usage stops when credits reach $0; Sailboxes are paused, not terminated
- Each new Sailbox costs $0.01 on the Free plan

## Models served free

Published free-tier rate limits; "—" = not published.

| Model | API id | Context (k tokens) | Tool calling | Vision | RPM | RPD | TPM |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| zai-org/GLM-5.3-Flash | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| nvidia/Gemma-4-31B-IT-NVFP4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| moonshotai/Kimi-K3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |

## Details

## Overview

[Sail Research](https://sailresearch.com) runs inference for open-weight models through an OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible API, plus Sailboxes: persistent Linux VMs billed only for the CPU, RAM and disk they actually use. Every account gets $5 in free credits each month, usable for either.

## Free Tier Quotas & Limits

- The full $5 per month needs a payment method on the account; sign-up alone gives a smaller promotional credit.
- The credit resets monthly and covers both inference and Sailboxes.
- Accounts using only promotional credits are limited to a reduced number of requests per minute. Buying any credits removes that limit.
- When the balance hits $0, requests stop and Sailboxes pause. There are no surprise bills.

## Key Free Models

Default-window prices per 1M tokens (input / output):

- **DeepSeek V4.1 Flash** (`deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017`): $0.09 / $0.30, about 55M input or 17M output tokens for $5.
- **GLM-5.3 Flash** (`zai-org/GLM-5.3-Flash`): $0.11 / $0.35, about 45M input or 14M output tokens.
- **Gemma 4 31B NVFP4** (`nvidia/Gemma-4-31B-IT-NVFP4`): $0.14 / $0.40, about 36M input or 12M output tokens.

Cheaper "Balanced" and "Flex" windows stretch the credit further. Larger models such as Kimi K3 ($1.50 / $10.00) are available but use $5 quickly.

## Sailboxes (Cloud VMs)

Used vCPU costs $0.015/hour, RAM $0.008 per GiB-hour and NVMe disk $0.0007 per GiB-hour. Sleeping boxes are not billed. Each new Sailbox costs $0.01 on the Free plan.

## How to Get Started

1. Sign up at [app.sailresearch.com](https://app.sailresearch.com).
2. Add a payment method to unlock the full $5/month.
3. Create an API key and point any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible client at Sail.

## FAQ

### Is Sail Research Free Credits free?

Yes. $5 in monthly credits for open-model inference and cloud Linux VMs. Verified on Nov 10, 2026.

### Does Sail Research Free Credits need a credit card?

Yes, a credit card is required, along with a sign-up.

### Who can get Sail Research Free Credits?

Open to everyone; the full $5 per month needs a payment method on the account.

### Which countries can use Sail Research Free Credits?

It is available worldwide.

## More

- HTML page: https://aifree.dev/offer/sail-research-free-credits
- Change history: https://aifree.dev/offer/sail-research-free-credits/history
- How it was verified: https://aifree.dev/offer/sail-research-free-credits/verification
- More in [Free AI coding tools](https://aifree.dev/free-ai-coding-tools.md)
- JSON: https://aifree.dev/api/v1/offers/sail-research-free-credits