How to Get a Groq API Key for Free

In short: Groq has a Free plan that costs $0. You sign in to the GroqCloud console, create an API key, and can then send up to 1,000 requests a day to models such as gpt-oss-120b, gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3.8-27B. Groq's API follows OpenAI's format, so the same key works in most apps made for OpenAI.

What you need

• An email address or an account to sign in with on console.groq.com.
• A computer. Windows, Mac or Linux all work.
• Nothing to pay: Groq's rate-limits page lists separate limits for the Free plan and the paid Developer plan.

Step 1: Try the models without any code

Sign in to the GroqCloud console. Open Playground at the top. Pick a model from the list at the top right (box 1), type a question in the User box, and click Submit (box 2). The right side shows the code for the same request.

Step 2: Open the API Keys page

An API key is a password that lets a program use your free allowance. Click API Keys at the top, then Create API Key (box 1).

Step 3: Create your free API key

Give the key a name you will recognise (box 1), for example "my laptop", and choose when it expires (box 2). No expiration is the default. A short security check runs at the bottom of the window; then confirm.

Copy the key straight away and keep it private:

• Anyone who has your key can use your allowance.
• Never paste it into a website, a public code repository or a screenshot.
• If it leaks, delete it on the API Keys page (the bin icon) and create a new one.

Step 4: Check your free limits

Click the gear icon at the top right, then Limits. The table lists every model your account can use, with its limits per minute and per day. The Requests per day column (box 1) is the number most people run into first.

The Free plan limits Groq publishes, read on 25 October 2026:

Three rules from the same page:

• Limits apply to your whole organization, not to each key, so a second key does not give you more.
• You hit whichever limit you reach first. 30 tiny requests in one minute stop you even if you used few tokens.
• Cached tokens do not count towards the limits.

Your own Limits page can list more models than the public table, such as allam-2-7b at 7,000 requests a day.

Step 5: Send your first request (no programming)

Open a command window. On Windows, press the Start key, type PowerShell and open it. On a Mac, open Terminal.

Windows (PowerShell) - paste these lines, putting your key in place of YOUR_API_KEY:

$env:GROQ_API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
$body = '{"model":"openai/gpt-oss-20b","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Explain how AI works in a few words"}]}'
$r = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions" -Headers @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:GROQ_API_KEY" } -ContentType "application/json" -Body $body
$r.choices[0].message.content

Mac or Linux (Terminal):

export GROQ_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
curl https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "openai/gpt-oss-20b",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Explain how AI works in a few words"}]
  }'

You get a short answer back. That is one request from your 1,000 for the day.

Step 6: Use it from Python

Groq's quickstart installs its own Python library, which reads your key from GROQ_API_KEY so the key never sits in the code:

pip install groq

import os
from groq import Groq

client = Groq(api_key=os.environ.get("GROQ_API_KEY"))

chat_completion = client.chat.completions.create(
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain how AI works in a few words"}],
    model="openai/gpt-oss-20b",
)
print(chat_completion.choices[0].message.content)

Groq's quickstart example uses llama-3.3-70b-versatile. That model is not in the Free plan table, so the example above uses openai/gpt-oss-20b.

Step 7: Use it in an app made for OpenAI

Groq's API works with most apps and libraries made for OpenAI (Groq's OpenAI compatibility page). In any app that asks for an OpenAI key, change three settings:

The same page lists the few OpenAI features Groq does not support yet, such as logprobs; sending one returns a 400 error.

When something goes wrong

Words to know

• API key: the password that identifies you to the API and counts your usage. See what is an API key.
• Free plan: Groq's no-cost tier, with the limits above.
• RPM / RPD / TPM / TPD: requests per minute, requests per day, tokens per minute, tokens per day.
• Token: a piece of a word; the unit models read and write. See tokens and context windows.
• Base URL: the address an app sends its requests to.

More free AI API keys

Groq is one of the providers with a free tier. How to get AI API keys for free lists each one with its daily limit and source. For Google's models, see how to get a Gemini API key for free.