OmniRoute/docs/FREE_TIERS.md

🆓 Free LLM API Providers — Consolidated Directory

The ultimate aggregated reference for all permanently free LLM API providers. Consolidated from 6 community repositories. Use with OmniRoute to route through 25+ free providers simultaneously.

Last consolidated: May 2026 · Sources: awesome-free-llm-apis, awesome-free-llm-apis2, free-llm-api-resources, Free-LLM-Collection, FREE-LLM-API-Provider, gpt4free

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Table of Contents

• Quick Comparison
• Provider APIs (First-Party)
• Inference Providers (Third-Party)
• China-Based Providers
• Trial Credit Providers
• Using with OmniRoute
• Glossary

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Quick Comparison

All free providers at a glance, sorted by generosity of free tier:

Provider	Type	Best Free Model	RPM	RPD	Tokens	OpenAI Compat	Speed
Groq	Inference	Llama 3.3 70B	30	14,400	6K TPM	✅	🟢 Fast
Cerebras	Inference	Qwen3 235B	30	14,400	1M TPD	✅	🟢 Fast
Mistral AI	Provider	Mistral Large 3	60	Unlimited	1B/month	✅	🟡 Medium
Google Gemini	Provider	Gemini 2.5 Flash	5–15	20–1,500	250K TPM	✅	🟢 Fast
NVIDIA NIM	Inference	129 models	40	—	—	✅	🟡 Medium
Ollama Cloud	Inference	400+ models	—	—	Session limits	❌ (Ollama API)	🟡 Medium
OpenRouter	Inference	35+ free models	20	50–1,000	—	✅	🟡 Medium
GitHub Models	Inference	GPT-4.1, GPT-5	10–15	50–150	8K in/4K out	✅	🟡 Medium
Cloudflare AI	Inference	50+ models	—	10K neurons	—	⚠️ Partial	🟡 Medium
Hugging Face	Inference	Thousands	—	—	$0.10/mo credits	✅	🔴 Slow
Cohere	Provider	Command A (111B)	20	—	1K calls/month	⚠️ Partial	🟡 Medium
Pollinations	Inference	Text+Image+Video+Audio	—	Hourly reset	—	✅	🟡 Medium
Z.AI (Zhipu)	Provider	GLM-4.7-Flash	—	—	Undocumented	✅	🟡 Medium
SiliconFlow	Inference	Qwen3-8B	1,000	—	50K TPM	✅	🟡 Medium
Kilo Code	Inference	Free auto-router	~200/hr	—	—	✅	🟡 Medium
LLM7.io	Inference	30+ models	15–30	—	—	✅	🟡 Medium
Kluster AI	Inference	DeepSeek-R1	—	—	Undocumented	✅	🟡 Medium
ModelScope	Inference	Qwen, DeepSeek	—	2,000	≤500/model/day	✅	🟡 Medium
IBM watsonx	Provider	Granite models	2/sec	—	300K/month	❌	🟡 Medium

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Provider APIs (First-Party)

APIs from the companies that train or fine-tune the models.

Google Gemini 🇺🇸

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta

⚠️ Free tier NOT available in EU/UK/Switzerland. Prompts may be used by Google to improve products.

Model	Context	Max Output	Modality	RPM	RPD
Gemini 2.5 Flash / Gemini 3 Flash	1M	65K	Text+Image+Audio+Video	5	20
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	1M	65K	Text+Image+Audio+Video	10	20
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	1M	65K	Text+Image+Audio+Video	15	1,500
Gemma 4 26B/31B	—	—	Text	15	1,500
Gemma 3 (1B/4B/12B/27B)	—	—	Text	30	14,400

Mistral AI 🇫🇷

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://api.mistral.ai/v1

Free "Experiment" plan, no credit card. ~1B tokens/month. Requires phone verification.

Model	Context	Max Output	Modality	Rate Limit
Mistral Small 4	256K	256K	Text+Image+Code	1 RPS, 500K TPM
Mistral Medium 3	128K	128K	Text	1 RPS, 500K TPM
Mistral Large 3	256K	256K	Text	1 RPS, 500K TPM
Mistral Nemo (12B)	128K	128K	Text	1 RPS, 500K TPM
Codestral	256K	256K	Code	30 RPM, 2K RPD
Pixtral Large	128K	128K	Text+Image	1 RPS, 500K TPM

Cohere 🇨🇦

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://api.cohere.com/v2

Free "Trial" key. 1,000 API calls/month. Non-commercial use only. 20 RPM.

Model	Context	Max Output	Modality
Command A (111B)	256K	4K	Text
Command A Reasoning	256K	4K	Text (reasoning)
Command A Vision	256K	4K	Text+Image
Command A Translate	256K	4K	Translation
Command R+	128K	4K	Text
Command R	128K	4K	Text
Command R7B	128K	4K	Text
Embed 4	—	—	Embeddings (Text+Image)
Rerank 3.5	—	—	Reranking

Z.AI (Zhipu AI) 🇨🇳

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4

Permanent free models, no credit card. No published rate limits.

Model	Context	Max Output	Modality
GLM-4.7-Flash	200K	128K	Text
GLM-4.5-Flash	128K	~8K	Text
GLM-4.6V-Flash	128K	~4K	Text+Image
GLM-5 / GLM-5.1	—	—	Text

IBM watsonx 🇺🇸

🔗 Pricing

Free tier: 2 RPS, 300K tokens/month. Granite foundation models.

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Inference Providers (Third-Party)

Groq 🇺🇸

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://api.groq.com/openai/v1

Ultra-fast LPU inference (~300–500 tok/s). No credit card required.

Model	RPM	RPD	TPM	Modality
llama-3.3-70b-versatile	30	1,000	12K	Text
llama-3.1-8b-instant	30	14,400	6K	Text
llama-4-scout-17b-16e-instruct	30	1,000	30K	Text+Vision
llama-4-maverick-17b-128e-instruct	30	1,000	6K	Text+Vision
qwen3-32b	60	1,000	6K	Text
kimi-k2-instruct	60	1,000	10K	Text
gpt-oss-120b / gpt-oss-20b	30	1,000	8K	Text
deepseek-r1-distill-70b	30	14,400	—	Text (reasoning)
whisper-large-v3 / v3-turbo	20	2,000	—	Audio→Text

Cerebras 🇺🇸

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://api.cerebras.ai/v1

Wafer-scale chip inference (~2,600 tok/s). 1M tokens/day cap.

Model	RPM	RPH	RPD	TPM	TPD
gpt-oss-120b	30	900	14,400	64K	1M
llama3.1-8b	30	900	14,400	60K	1M
qwen-3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507	30	900	14,400	60K	1M
zai-glm-4.7	10	100	100	60K	1M

NVIDIA NIM 🇺🇸

🔗 Explore Models · Base URL: https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1

Free with NVIDIA Developer Program. 129 models, 40 RPM. Phone verification required.

Notable models: DeepSeek-R1, DeepSeek-V3.2, Nemotron Ultra 253B, Llama 3.1 405B, Qwen3 Coder 480B, Mistral Large 3, Kimi K2, GLM-5.1, MiniMax M2.7, Gemma 4 31B, + 100 more.

OpenRouter 🇺🇸

🔗 Get API Key · Base URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1

35+ free models (suffix :free). 20 RPM.

Credits Purchased	RPD
< $10	50
≥ $10 (one-time)	1,000

Notable free models: DeepSeek R1, DeepSeek V3, Qwen3 Coder 480B, Llama 4 Scout/Maverick, GPT-OSS 120B, Nemotron 3 Super 120B, MiniMax M2.5, Gemma 4 31B, Devstral, + 23 more.

GitHub Models 🇺🇸

🔗 Marketplace · Base URL: https://models.inference.ai.azure.com

Free for all GitHub users. 45+ models including frontier models.

Tier	RPM	RPD	Tokens/Request
Low tier models	15	150	8K in / 4K out
High tier models	10	50	8K in / 4K out
DeepSeek-R1 / MAI-DS-R1	1	8	4K in / 4K out
Grok-3	1	15	4K in / 4K out

Notable models: GPT-4.1, GPT-4o, GPT-5, GPT-5-mini, o3-mini, o4-mini, DeepSeek-R1, Llama 4 Scout/Maverick, Codestral, Mistral Medium 3, Phi-4, Grok-3.

Cloudflare Workers AI 🇺🇸

🔗 Get Token · 10,000 Neurons/day free. 50+ models.

Notable models: Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout, Qwen3 30B-A3B, QwQ 32B, DeepSeek R1 Distill, Gemma 4 26B, GLM 4.7 Flash, Nemotron 3 120B, Kimi K2.5/K2.6, Mistral Small 3.1, GPT-OSS 120B/20B, + 40 more.

Hugging Face 🇺🇸

🔗 Get Token · Base URL: https://api-inference.huggingface.co/v1

$0.10/month free credits (auto-replenished). Thousands of models. Serverless limited to <10GB models.

Ollama Cloud 🇺🇸

🔗 Get Key · Base URL: https://api.ollama.com

400+ models. Session/weekly limits (unpublished). NOT OpenAI SDK-compatible.

Notable models: GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek V3.2/V4, Kimi K2/K2.5/K2.6, GLM-5/5.1, Qwen3 Coder 480B, Gemini 3 Flash, MiniMax M2.7, Cogito 2.1 671B, Nemotron 3 Super 120B.

Pollinations AI 🇩🇪

🔗 Get Key · Base URL: https://gen.pollinations.ai/v1

No sign-up required for basic use. Unique: text + image + video + audio all free.

Text models: openai, openai-large, openai-reasoning, gemini, mistral, llama. Image models: flux, gpt-image, seedream, kontext. Video: wan-fast. Audio: tts-1, 30+ ElevenLabs voices.

SiliconFlow 🇨🇳

🔗 Get Key · Base URL: https://api.siliconflow.cn/v1

14 CNY signup credits. Permanently free models: 1,000 RPM, 50K TPM.

Model	Context	Modality
Qwen/Qwen3-8B	131K	Text
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B	~33K	Text (reasoning)
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B	131K	Text (reasoning)
THUDM/glm-4-9b-chat	32K	Text
THUDM/GLM-4.1V-9B-Thinking	66K	Vision+Text
DeepSeek-OCR	—	Vision (OCR)

Kilo Code 🇺🇸

🔗 Get Key · Base URL: https://api.kilo.ai/api/gateway

Free models, no credit card. ~200 req/hr. Auto-router kilo-auto/free.

LLM7.io 🇬🇧

🔗 Get Token · Base URL: https://api.llm7.io/v1

30+ models. 15 RPM (30 RPM with free token). No registration for basic access.

Kluster AI 🇺🇸

🔗 Get Key · DeepSeek-R1, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen3-235B + more.

OpenCode Zen

🔗 Docs · Free models (Big Pickle Stealth, MiniMax M2.5 Free, Arcee Large).

Vercel AI Gateway

🔗 Docs · $5/month free credits. Routes to various providers.

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China-Based Providers

ModelScope (魔搭社区) 🇨🇳

🔗 Get Token · Base URL: https://api-inference.modelscope.cn/v1

2,000 req/day total, ≤500/model/day. Requires Alibaba Cloud account + real-name verification.

Models: DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, DeepSeek V3.2, GLM-5/5.1, MiniMax M2.5, Qwen3-235B, Qwen3 Coder 480B, Ling-2.6-1T.

Tencent Hunyuan (腾讯混元)

Hunyuan-Lite: free. Other models: 100M tokens free (1-year expiry).

Volcengine (火山引擎)

500 resource points/day. Tongyi Qwen free (100 calls/day). Doubao models with tiered pricing.

ChatAnywhere

🔗 Base URL: https://api.chatanywhere.tech · GPT-5.4-mini, DeepSeek-V4, and more.

InternAI (书生)

🔗 Base URL: https://chat.intern-ai.org.cn/api/v1 · 10 RPM. Keys valid 6 months.

Models: intern-latest, intern-s1-pro, internvl3.5-241b-a28b.

Bigmodel (智谱)

🔗 Base URL: https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4/ · 30 concurrent requests.

Models: GLM-4-Flash, GLM-4V-Flash, GLM-4.1V-Thinking-Flash, GLM-4.6V-Flash, GLM-4.7-Flash.

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Trial Credit Providers

These offer one-time or time-limited credits (not permanent free tiers):

Provider	Credits	Expiry	Notable Models
Baseten	$30	—	Any model (pay by compute)
NLP Cloud	$15	—	Various open models
AI21	$10	3 months	Jamba family
Upstage	$10	3 months	Solar Pro/Mini
Modal	$5/mo	Monthly	Any model (compute time)
SambaNova	$5	3 months	Llama 3.3, Qwen3, DeepSeek R1
Scaleway	1M tokens	One-time	Llama 3.3, Gemma 3, GPT-OSS
Alibaba Cloud	1M tokens/model	—	Qwen family
Fireworks	$1	—	Various open models
Nebius	$1	—	Various open models
Inference.net	$1 (+$25 survey)	—	Various open models
Hyperbolic	$1	—	DeepSeek V3, Llama 3.3
Novita	$0.50	1 year	Various open models

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Using with OmniRoute

OmniRoute supports all providers listed above as connections. Here's how to maximize free usage:

1. Add Multiple Free Providers

Dashboard → Providers → Add Connection

Add API keys for Groq, Cerebras, Mistral, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, GitHub Models, etc.

2. Create a Free-Tier Combo

Dashboard → Combos → Create Combo → Add all free providers as targets

Use the "priority" or "round-robin" strategy to distribute load across free tiers.

3. Recommended Free Combo Strategy

Priority	Provider	Why
1	Groq	Fastest inference, 14,400 RPD on small models
2	Cerebras	1M TPD, fast wafer-scale chips
3	Mistral	1B tokens/month, large model selection
4	Google Gemini	1M context, multimodal
5	NVIDIA NIM	129 models, 40 RPM
6	OpenRouter	35+ free models as final fallback

4. Environment Variables

# These providers work out of the box with OmniRoute:
GROQ_API_KEY=your-key
CEREBRAS_API_KEY=your-key
MISTRAL_API_KEY=your-key
GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY=your-key
NVIDIA_API_KEY=your-key
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your-key
GITHUB_TOKEN=your-token
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=your-token
COHERE_API_KEY=your-key
SILICONFLOW_API_KEY=your-key

5. Estimated Free Capacity

With all top-6 providers combined in a combo:

Metric	Combined Free Capacity
Requests/Day	~31,000+ RPD
Tokens/Month	~32B+ tokens
Models Available	200+ unique models
Cost	$0.00

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Glossary

Term	Meaning
RPM	Requests per minute
RPD	Requests per day
RPH	Requests per hour
RPS	Requests per second
TPM	Tokens per minute
TPD	Tokens per day
Neurons	Cloudflare's compute unit (~1 output token)

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Sources

This document consolidates data from 6 community repositories:

Repository	Focus
awesome-free-llm-apis	Curated list with detailed model tables
awesome-free-llm-apis2	Extended list with speed tiers and code snippets
free-llm-api-resources	Auto-generated model lists with trial credits
Free-LLM-Collection	Chinese + global providers with rate limits
FREE-LLM-API-Provider	Deep provider analysis with CN platforms
gpt4free	Config-based routing with quota awareness

⚠️ Disclaimer: Rate limits change frequently. Always verify with the provider's official documentation before relying on specific limits. Trial credits and time-limited promotions are separated from permanent free tiers.