You don't need an OpenAI bill to build with LLMs in 2026. There are still eleven providers with a genuinely free tier — real models, real endpoints, no credit card on most — and I pulled the current limits, because half the listicles out there are quoting 2024 numbers that have since been cut.
The short version
Below are 11 LLM APIs with a free tier that still works in June 2026 — each with what's free, what it's best for, and the catch. Most are OpenAI-compatible, so you swap three things (base URL, key, model) and your existing code runs against any of them. One honest warning up front: free limits are moving fast this year (Google in particular has tightened them), so treat every number here as "check the provider's page before you depend on it."
The list at a glance
| # | API | What's free (June 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Google Gemini | Gemini 2.5 Flash, large context, no card — but limits cut in 2026, check AI Studio | Big context, broad capability |
| 2 | Groq | Llama 3.3 70B: ~30 RPM, ~1,000 req/day | Fast short calls (LPU) |
| 3 | Cerebras | ~1M tokens/day, 30 RPM, 8K-ctx cap, no card | Very high throughput |
| 4 | OpenRouter | 25+ :free models, ~20 RPM, ~50/day |
Model variety, one endpoint |
| 5 | GitHub Models | OpenAI/other models for devs, tier limits | Devs already on GitHub |
| 6 | Cloudflare Workers AI | 10,000 neurons/day at the edge | Edge / serverless apps |
| 7 | Mistral | Experiment tier: all models, ~1B tok/mo, no card | EU-hosted prototyping |
| 8 | SambaNova Cloud | Fast Llama inference, no card | Fast long-context calls |
| 9 | Hugging Face | Serverless Inference, many models | Open models beyond chat |
| 10 | Cohere | Free trial key (rate-limited) | RAG: embed + rerank |
| 11 | NVIDIA build | Free credits on hosted models | Trying many models fast |
One code pattern for most of them
Most of these speak the OpenAI Chat Completions format — Groq, Cerebras, OpenRouter, Mistral, SambaNova, NVIDIA and GitHub Models, and Gemini/Cloudflare/Hugging Face now expose OpenAI-compatible endpoints too. So you don't learn a dozen SDKs — you point the OpenAI client at a different base URL:
from openai import OpenAI
# swap these three lines per provider; everything else stays the same
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1", # provider endpoint
api_key="YOUR_FREE_KEY", # from the provider's console
)
resp = client.chat.completions.create(
model="llama-3.3-70b-versatile", # provider's model id
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Say hi in 5 words."}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)
To move from Groq to Cerebras, change base_url to https://api.cerebras.ai/v1 and the model id. That's the whole migration — and it's also how you build a fallback chain: when one free tier rate-limits you, route to the next. (Cohere is the main exception — it has its own API for embed/rerank.)
The 11, with the real details
1. Google Gemini (AI Studio)
Still a strong free option — Gemini 2.5 Flash, a large context window, and no credit card. The big 2026 caveat: Google has tightened the free limits, and the real cap is now "whatever AI Studio shows for your project" rather than a fixed public number (reports range widely, and extra keys don't add quota). Key from aistudio.google.com.
Catch: free-tier requests may be used to improve Google's models — keep proprietary data off it, and verify your live limit in AI Studio.
2. Groq
Groq runs models on custom LPU hardware and is one of the fastest free options for short calls. Published free limits for llama-3.3-70b-versatile are around 30 RPM and 1,000 requests/day with a per-minute token cap. OpenAI-compatible. Key from console.groq.com.
Catch: the per-minute token cap bites on long prompts.
3. Cerebras
Cerebras is built for speed and has one of the most generous free volumes: ~1,000,000 tokens/day, 30 RPM, no card — across models including Llama 3.3 70B, Qwen3, and GPT-OSS 120B. Throughput is very high (multiple thousand tokens/sec on smaller models). OpenAI-compatible at api.cerebras.ai/v1. Key from cloud.cerebras.ai.
Catch: a free-tier context cap (~8K tokens) across models — fine for chat, tight for long documents.
4. OpenRouter
One endpoint, 25+ models whose id ends in :free (Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen and more). Free limits are modest — roughly 20 RPM and ~50 requests/day on free models; adding ~$10 of credit once raises the free-model daily cap substantially. Endpoint openrouter.ai/api/v1.
Catch: free models get added and removed — pin the id and watch the changelog.
5. GitHub Models
If you have a GitHub account, you have free access to a rotating catalog of models (OpenAI's GPT family and others) for development. Limits depend on the model tier and your account. Auth with a GitHub token.
Catch: it's meant for dev/prototyping, not production traffic; the catalog and limits change.
6. Cloudflare Workers AI
10,000 neurons/day of free inference running at the edge — great when your app already lives on Workers/Pages. Call models like @cf/meta/llama-3.1-8b-instruct; an OpenAI-compatible endpoint is available too.
Catch: "neurons" is its own unit — a heavy model burns the daily budget faster than a small one.
7. Mistral (La Plateforme)
Mistral's Experiment tier gives free, rate-limited access to its models (including larger ones and Codestral) for prototyping — no credit card, just a verified phone number, with monthly token quotas that are generous for development. Key from console.mistral.ai.
Catch: it's an experimentation tier — production is pay-as-you-go per token.
8. SambaNova Cloud
Free, fast Llama inference with no credit card — strong on longer-context calls. OpenAI-compatible. Key from cloud.sambanova.ai.
Catch: which models are available shifts; check the catalog.
9. Hugging Face
The free serverless Inference option lets you call many open models — not just chat, but embeddings, vision, audio, classification. Token from huggingface.co.
Catch: cold starts and per-model limits; not built for steady high QPS.
10. Cohere
A free, rate-limited trial key for command, embed, and rerank. It's here for one specific reason: Cohere's embed + rerank make a genuinely good free RAG backbone, not just another chat endpoint. Key from dashboard.cohere.com.
Catch: trial-tier limits are modest — fine for building, not for serving users.
11. NVIDIA (build.nvidia.com)
Free credits to call a large catalog of hosted models through an OpenAI-compatible endpoint (integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1) — a quick way to try many models without a dozen separate signups.
Catch: it's credits, not a permanent quota — they run out.
How to actually use these (without lying to yourself about limits)
The free-API market splits into three buckets, and mixing them up is how people get a nasty surprise:
-
Free-quota-style tiers — Groq, Cerebras, Cloudflare, OpenRouter
:free. The more durable options — but still verify before you build on them. - Small monthly credits — NVIDIA and similar. Good for trials, not a backend.
- Signup trials — short-lived. Don't architect around them.
The practical move: treat free tiers as routing lanes, not one backend. Send fast short calls to Groq/Cerebras, big-context jobs to Gemini, RAG embeddings to Cohere, and let a fallback chain (that one OpenAI-compatible client above) hop to the next lane when one rate-limits you.
Two honest caveats for all of them: some free tiers may use your inputs to improve their models — check each provider's policy and keep proprietary data off them; and these numbers move — what's generous today can be cut next quarter (Google already did in 2026), so verify before you commit.
Which of these are you actually running in production vs just testing? And did I miss a free tier that's been carrying your side projects? Drop it 👇 — I'll re-test and fold it into the next update.
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