Free LLM API tiers you can use today without applying
By Perq team · · LLM APIs · free tiers · no application
Offer details below are pulled from our dataset when the page is built, so they match the directory. Latest verification of offers in this post: .
You don’t need a startup program to start building with LLMs. Everything below comes from a pricing or docs page that anyone can sign up through. There’s no application and no investor referral. Some offers want a payment method on file, and we say so where the vendor does.
Free tiers with ongoing limits
These don’t run out like a credit balance. Instead you work within rate limits or a monthly allowance. For prototypes, internal tools and evals, that’s often all you need.
| Vendor | Offer (vendor wording) | Eligibility | Verified | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google (Gemini API) | Free of charge input/output on Free Tier models (rate-limited) | Anyone with an AI Studio API key (free tier project) | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Groq | Free Plan with per-model rate limits (RPM/RPD/TPM/TPD) | Anyone with a GroqCloud account | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Mistral AI | Included monthly usage in Free mode (limits shown in console) | Any Mistral Studio account | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Cohere | Free Trial API key (rate-limited; 1,000 API calls/month cap) | All new Cohere accounts | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| OpenRouter | Free :free model variants — 50 requests/day (1,000/day after buying 10 credits), 20 RPM | Any OpenRouter account | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Cloudflare | 10,000 Neurons per day free on Workers AI | Anyone on Workers Free or Paid | source ↗ · claim ↗ |
Practical notes, taken from each vendor’s wording:
- Google Gemini API: the Free Tier models are free of charge for input and output, with rate limits. You only need an AI Studio API key.
- Groq and OpenRouter publish per-model rate limits. OpenRouter’s free variants are the model IDs ending in
:free, and buying credits raises the daily request cap. - Cohere: trial keys are created automatically at signup and capped by monthly API calls.
- Cloudflare Workers AI: the daily free allowance is measured in Neurons and is available on the free Workers plan.
Free, with conditions
| Vendor | Offer (vendor wording) | Eligibility | Verified | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Free daily token quota (e.g. 1M tokens/day on eligible models) when sharing traffic with OpenAI | Eligible API orgs that enable data sharing (offer shown in settings) | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Perplexity | pplx-decider models: free output tokens, $0.02/$0.01 per 1M input | Perplexity API users | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Novita AI | Apodex 1.1 Mini listed with free input/output | Novita AI users | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| SambaNova | Opportunity to earn credits via SambaNova Developer Community | SambaNova Cloud developers | source ↗ · claim ↗ |
OpenAI’s free daily tokens depend on your account: the offer appears in your API organization’s settings only if you’re eligible, and you have to enable data sharing. Perplexity’s offer covers output tokens only. SambaNova’s is a chance to earn credits through its developer community rather than a fixed grant.
One-time signup credits
Small, but they let you try a provider’s paid models before you commit:
| Vendor | Offer (vendor wording) | Eligibility | Verified | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI21 Labs | $10 credits for 7 days, no credit card | New AI21 accounts | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Cerebras | One-time $5 promotional credit (expires 30 days after activation) | Accounts that add a valid payment method | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Fireworks AI | $1 starter credit | New Fireworks accounts | source ↗ · claim ↗ |
AI21’s trial needs no credit card and lasts 7 days. Cerebras gives its promotional credit when you add a payment method, and it expires 30 days after activation.
A gateway credit
$5/month AI Gateway credit included on every team
Eligibility: Every Vercel team
“Monthly credit $5 /month included”
Embeddings
If you’re building retrieval, two embedding providers give a sizable free token allowance:
| Vendor | Offer (vendor wording) | Eligibility | Verified | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voyage AI (MongoDB) | First 200 million tokens free per account (voyage-4 family embeddings) | Every Voyage account | source ↗ · claim ↗ | |
| Jina AI | 10M free tokens with every new API key | New API keys | source ↗ · claim ↗ |
Promotions end, so check the date
Limited-time free models come and go. This one ended on October 18, and we keep it listed so you can see what happened:
Muse Spark Open free for limited time (promo until 10/18/2026)
Eligibility: Together AI customers (prepaid account)
“Muse Spark Open (Free for limited time) PROMO Promotion valid until 10/18/2026”
Get the whole list
Perq pack
Model and embedding APIs you can call for free today: free tiers, daily quotas and small signup credits.
13 offers · 10 free tiers and 3 signup credits, no application needed
Limits change often. Each row shows when we last checked it; confirm the current limits on the vendor’s page before you design around them.