Free AI Models
Every genuinely-free AI model & API (open-weight, free tiers, and no-signup tools), ranked by the community. Each row shows how to use it, how it performs, the free limits, and the catch. No paywalls, no shared keys, no trial-credit traps.
| # | Model | Modality | Access | Performance | Free limits | The catch | ▲ Votes | How to use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ollama Cloud · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 2 |  Z.ai · ✓ Jun 2026 | TEXTCODE | Open-weight | Strong~ Medium | Self-host free | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 3 |  Google AI Studio · ✓ Jun 2026 | TEXTIMAGEAUDIO | Free API | Frontier⚡ Fast | Generous · no card | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 4 |  Qwen · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 5 |  Hugging Face · ✓ Jun 2026 | TEXTIMAGE | Free API | Solid~ Medium | Rate-limited · 1000s of models | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 6 |  Mistral · ✓ Jul 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 7 |  OpenRouter · ✓ Jun 2026 | TEXTCODE | Free API | Solid~ Medium | 20 RPM · 50-1000 RPD | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 8 | Qwen · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Strong | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 9 |  Scaleway · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Strong | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 10 |  Google Gemini · ✓ Jul 2026 | IMAGEVIDEOAUDIOTEXT | Free API | unrated | 15 RPM, 1,500 RPD | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 11 | Google Gemini · ✓ Jul 2026 | IMAGEVIDEOAUDIOTEXT | Free API | unrated | 5 RPM, 50 RPD | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 12 | Google AI Studio · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 13 |  NVIDIA NIM · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 14 | NVIDIA NIM · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 15 | Scaleway · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 16 | OpenCode Zen · ✓ Jun 2026 | CODETEXT | Free API | Frontier | Free tier | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 17 |  Cloudflare Workers AI · ✓ Jul 2026 | TEXT | Free API | unrated | 10K neurons/day (shared) | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 18 | Cloudflare Workers AI · ✓ Jul 2026 | TEXT | Free API | unrated | 10K neurons/day (shared) | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 19 |  Kilo Code · ✓ Jul 2026 | TEXT | Free API | unrated | ~200 req/hr | ✓ no card · ? comm | ||
| 20 |  Tencent (via OpenRouter) · ✓ Jul 2026 | TEXTCODE | Free API | Frontier~ Medium | Free for ~2 weeks from 2026-07-07 via OpenRouter (tencent/hy3:free); standard OpenRouter rate limits apply | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 21 |  DeepSeek · ✓ Jun 2026 | TEXTCODE | Open-weight | Frontier~ Medium | Self-host free | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 22 |  OpenAI · ✓ Jun 2026 | AUDIO | Open-weight | Strong~ Medium | Self-host free | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 23 |  ElevenLabs · ✓ Jun 2026 | AUDIO | Free API | Strong⚡ Fast | 10k chars/mo | ✓ no card · △ non-comm | ||
| 24 |  Black Forest Labs · ✓ Jun 2026 | IMAGE | Open-weight | Strong⚡ Fast | Self-host / free on HF | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial | ||
| 25 |  Groq · ✓ Jun 2026 | TEXTCODE | Free API | Strong⚡⚡ Blazing | 1,000 RPD · 30 RPM | ✓ no card · ✓ commercial |
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Free AI models, honestly answered
Are free AI models really free?
Three kinds of free exist: open-weight models you self-host (free forever, you pay only infrastructure), permanent free API tiers (free within rate limits), and no-signup tools. The catch is usually rate limits, non-commercial clauses, or your data being used for training. Every listing here shows its catch.
What is the best free AI model right now?
It depends on the job: the community votes on this page rank what practitioners actually rate highest, and you can filter by text, code, image, video, audio, or embeddings. For raw quality per dollar, open-weight frontier models you self-host are hard to beat.
Can I use free AI models commercially?
Often yes for permissive open-weight licenses (Apache-2.0, MIT), but many free API tiers prohibit commercial use and some community licenses add revenue caps. Check the commercial column on each listing and verify the current license before shipping.
Do free AI API keys without signup exist?
Yes, a small set of services work with no key at all, and they are labeled No-signup here. Never use shared API keys posted online: they run on someone else's billing, violate provider terms, and get revoked.
How do I use a free model in my own project?
Most free API tiers are OpenAI-compatible, so you point your SDK at the provider base URL with your free key. Every listing has a How drawer with setup steps, a quickstart snippet, and a copy-paste prompt that walks Claude Code through the setup for you.
Free model guides
How we rank & verify. Listings are ordered by community upvotes (one vote per model per device, no login); ties fall back to our performance estimate. Performance is a composite estimate from public benchmarks (LMArena, SWE-bench, MTEB) and provider specs; unknowns are marked “unrated”. “Free” claims and limits are re-checked periodically and dated per row.
Sources. Seeded and cross-checked against mnfst/awesome-free-llm-apis · zebbern/no-cost-ai · 12britz/awesome-free-models · vava-nessa/free-coding-models · open-free-llm-api · cheahjs/free-llm-api-resources. We never list or link shared API keys.