How to get AI API keys for free and the daily limit of each

7 providers give free API access to AI models. Most need no credit card, and 4 work in apps made for OpenAI by changing the base URL. Every free tier has a limit: below is each one’s daily allowance, what it covers, and the page it comes from.

Each figure is from the provider’s own page, read on the date shown. Free tiers change without notice; the provider’s page is the final word.

Free AI APIs compared

Provider	Free allowance	Card needed	OpenAI-compatible
Google Gemini API	20 to 500 requests a day per model	No	Yes
Gemma 4 on the Gemini API	14,400 requests a day	No	Yes
Groq	1,000 requests a day	No	Yes
OpenRouter	50 requests a day	No	Yes
Cloudflare Workers AI	10,000 Neurons a day	Not confirmed	Yes - URL includes your account ID
NVIDIA (build.nvidia.com)	No daily limit stated	No	Not confirmed
Cohere	1,000 API calls a month	No	Yes

Each free tier in detail

Google Gemini API

20 to 500 requests a day per model

Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 and 3.1 Flash-Lite, 2.5 Flash and Flash-Lite, text-to-speech and embedding models. Not free: Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.1 Pro and the Nano Banana image models.

Flash models 5 requests a minute and 20 a day; Flash-Lite 15 a minute and 500 a day; embeddings 100 a minute and 1,000 a day. Limits are per project, not per key, and reset at midnight Pacific time.

No card neededOpenAI-compatible

Base URL https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/

On the free tier Google uses your prompts to improve its products. Do not send private data.

How to get a Gemini API key for free, step by step →

Source: ai.google.dev, read 24 October 2026

Gemma 4 on the Gemini API

14,400 requests a day

Gemma 4 31B and Gemma 4 26B A4B, input and output free of charge. There is no paid tier.

30 requests a minute and 16,000 tokens a minute, per model.

No card neededOpenAI-compatible

Base URL https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/

Source: ai.google.dev, read 24 October 2026

Groq

1,000 requests a day

The free plan: gpt-oss-120b, gpt-oss-20b, Qwen3.8-27B and the Whisper speech-to-text models.

Chat models 30 requests a minute, 8,000 tokens a minute and 200,000 tokens a day. Whisper 20 requests a minute, 2,000 a day and 7,200 audio seconds an hour.

No card neededOpenAI-compatible

Base URL https://api.groq.com/openai/v1

How to get a Groq API key for free, step by step →

Source: console.groq.com, read 25 October 2026

OpenRouter

50 requests a day

Every model whose ID ends in ":free", plus the openrouter/free router, which picks an available free model for each request.

20 requests a minute. The daily limit rises to 1,000 once an account has bought at least 10 credits.

No card neededOpenAI-compatible

Base URL https://openrouter.ai/api/v1

How to get an OpenRouter API key for free, step by step →

Source: openrouter.ai, read 25 October 2026

Cloudflare Workers AI

10,000 Neurons a day

Included in the Workers Free plan: most text models, including gpt-oss-20b, gpt-oss-120b, Gemma 4 26B and Llama 3.3 70B. Some models (Kimi, GLM-5.x, DeepSeek V4) need Workers Paid.

Neurons are Cloudflare's unit of compute, billed at $0.011 per 1,000, so the free allowance is worth $0.11 a day at each model's listed price. Resets at 00:00 UTC.

Not confirmedOpenAI-compatible

How to get a Cloudflare Workers AI API key for free, step by step →

Source: developers.cloudflare.com, read 25 October 2026

NVIDIA (build.nvidia.com)

No daily limit stated

Free access to NIM API endpoints for prototyping, through the NVIDIA Developer Program. An API key needs phone verification with a one-time code first.

The verification screen lists unlimited API requests without daily limits; the rate depends on the model and current traffic. Phone verification is offered in 231 locations, which in October 2026 do not include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran or Russia.

No card neededOpenAI-compatible: not confirmed

Source: developer.nvidia.com, read 25 October 2026

Cohere

1,000 API calls a month

Free trial API keys for every new account, on all Command models. Trial keys cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Every chat model (Command A, A+, A Reasoning, A Vision, A Translate, Command R, R+, R7B, North Mini Code) 20 requests a minute on a trial key; Embed 2,000 inputs a minute; Rerank 10 requests a minute.

No card neededOpenAI-compatible

Base URL https://api.cohere.ai/compatibility/v1

How to get a Cohere API key for free, step by step →

Source: docs.cohere.com, read 25 October 2026

Use a free API in an app made for OpenAI

Many chat apps, coding tools and plugins ask for an “OpenAI API key”. If a provider offers an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, the app works with it by changing three settings: the API key (from that provider), the base URL (sometimes called “API endpoint”), and the model name.

Provider	Base URL
Google Gemini API	https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/
Groq	https://api.groq.com/openai/v1
OpenRouter	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
Cohere	https://api.cohere.ai/compatibility/v1

Gemma 4 uses the same base URL as Gemini. Cloudflare’s OpenAI-compatible URL includes your account ID; its docs show where to find it.

Want to use these APIs in a desktop app? OpenCode is a free, open-source AI coding app for Windows, Mac and Linux. How to add free API keys to OpenCode and pick a model.

APIs that are not free

These are often listed as free. Their own pages say otherwise:

Cerebras: A Free Trial only: $5 of credits, granted after you add a verified payment method and expiring after 30 days. There is no permanently free tier. (inference-docs.cerebras.ai)
SambaNova Cloud: A new account needs a payment method before any request runs, and buys credits for its first requests. The rate-limits page still lists a Free Tier, but it does not apply to new accounts. (cloud.sambanova.ai)
Alibaba Cloud Model Studio: New accounts get a one-off free quota (about 1,000,000 tokens per model, Singapore region, valid 90 days) after completing their account information. When it runs out, billing starts automatically unless Free Quota Only is switched on first, and a new account does not get a second quota. (alibabacloud.com)
Experiential Labs: Its Free plan lists DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GPT-6 Luna and Jev at no per-token charge (1M tokens a day), but models stay locked until the account passes a $1 card verification, a one-time charge credited to the balance. (platform.experientiallabs.ai) How to get an Experimental Labs API key for free (with the $1 verification)
Mistral: A new account starts on the Free plan, where API keys stay inactive until you upgrade. The Free plan covers Mistral Studio; API credits come with Pro. (mistral.ai)
Together AI: The platform needs a minimum $15 credit purchase. Together Chat is free, but it is a chat app, not the API. (docs.together.ai)
Fireworks AI: A $1 starter credit only. (docs.fireworks.ai)
xAI (Grok API): The quickstart says to load the account with credits before using the API. (docs.x.ai)
DeepSeek API: Paid. Only its Search & Fetch calls are free, and per-request billing for those starts on 1 November 2026. (api-docs.deepseek.com)
Z.ai (GLM): The Limited-time Free label on its pricing page is for cached-input storage, not the model. GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens. (docs.z.ai)
Hugging Face Inference Providers: Free accounts get no monthly credits; PRO accounts get $2 a month. (huggingface.co)

Free AI plans, with no API key

Free use of AI inside an app (ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude free plans, OpenCode, Google AI Pro with Jio, student offers) is not an API key and cannot be used in other apps. How to get free AI plans lists each one, and how to get free AI as a student has the student offers step by step.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI APIs are free?+

7 providers offer free API access on their own pages: Google Gemini, Gemma 4 on the Gemini API, Groq, OpenRouter, Cloudflare Workers AI, NVIDIA and Cohere. Each has its own daily or monthly limit.

Is there a free AI API with no limit?+

Almost every free tier has a per-minute limit and a daily or monthly allowance. The exception is NVIDIA: its verification screen lists unlimited API requests without daily limits, but a key needs phone verification first, which is not offered in every country (not in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran or Russia in October 2026).

Do I need a credit card for a free AI API key?+

Not for Google Gemini, whose free tier needs an active project rather than a billing account, or for OpenRouter's 50 free requests a day. Groq's Free plan and Cloudflare's Workers Free plan are $0 plans, Cohere gives every new account a free trial key, and NVIDIA asks for phone verification instead of a card. Cerebras, SambaNova, Mistral, Experiential Labs and Alibaba Cloud need a payment method, a card verification or an upgrade before free use.

Can I use a free API key in an app made for ChatGPT or OpenAI?+

Yes, if the provider offers an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. In the app, enter the provider's base URL, your key from that provider, and one of its model names. Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, Cohere and Cloudflare Workers AI (with your account ID in the URL) publish one.

What happens when I reach a free tier limit?+

The API returns an error, usually HTTP 429 (too many requests or resource exhausted). Wait for the per-minute window, or for the daily reset the provider states - midnight Pacific time for Gemini, 00:00 UTC for Cloudflare.