Every major AI provider offers a free tier. But they're not created equal. Some expire. Some require a credit card. Some train on your data. Some throttle to unusable levels after the first burst. This page compares every free API tier side by side so you can pick the right one for your use case.
Free tier comparison table
Here is every major AI provider's free tier as of July 2026. Rows are sorted alphabetically. All data verified within the last 30 days.
| Provider | Free amount | Reset | Models | RPM/RPD | Card? | Expiry | Train? | OAI comp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $5 credit | One-time | Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Haiku | — | ✅ | 90 days | No | — |
| DeepSeek | 500K tokens | One-time | DeepSeek-V2, DeepSeek-Coder | — | No | None | No | ✅ |
| Google Gemini | 60 req/min | Rolling | Gemini 1.5 Pro, Flash, Nano | 60/min | No | None | Yes* | — |
| Groq | 30 req/min | Rolling | Llama 3, Mixtral, Gemma | 30/min | No | None | No | ✅ |
| OpenAI | $5 credit | One-time | GPT-4o mini, GPT-4o | — | ✅ | 90 days | Yes* | Native |
| Plugsky | 500 requests/day | Daily | 30+ models incl. micro, lite, vision | 10/min | No | None | No | ✅ |
| Together AI | 25K tokens/mo | Monthly | Llama, Mixtral, DeepSeek | — | No | None | No | ✅ |
| xAI / Grok | $5 credit | One-time | Grok-2, Grok-2 mini | — | ✅ | 30 days | Yes* | — |
* Provider reserves the right to use API data for training unless you opt out. Last updated July 2026. Data subject to change — verify on provider's website.
Best free AI API for developers
When evaluating free tiers, most developers care about five factors. Here's how the providers rank:
| Factor | OpenAI | Anthropic | DeepSeek | Groq | Plugsky | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No credit card | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| No expiry | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data not used for training | Opt out | Opt out | Opt out | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| OpenAI-compatible format | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Generous daily/reset limit | One-time | One-time | 60/min | 500K tokens | 30/min | 100K/day |
Plugsky wins on the combination of no card, no expiry, daily reset, OpenAI-compatible, and data privacy. Google Gemini gives you generous rate limits but you give up data privacy and OpenAI compatibility. DeepSeek gives you a large one-time pool but no daily reset.
Plugsky free tier
Plugsky's free tier is designed for developers who want to build without friction. Here's exactly what you get:
- 500 requests per day — on the two free models (plugsky-micro, plugsky-lite), resetting every 24 hours.
- 30 requests per minute — sufficient for testing, prototyping, and light production use.
- 30+ models — including plugsky-micro (fast reasoning), plugsky-lite (general chat), plugsky-vision (image understanding), and more.
- No credit card required — sign up with email or Google. Start building immediately.
- No expiry — your daily quota never expires. Come back in a year and it's still there.
- OpenAI-compatible — use any OpenAI SDK. Change
base_urltohttps://plugsky.com/v1and your code runs. - Data NOT used for training — your prompts and responses stay private. No opt-out needed.
Best for: developers testing new AI features, building prototypes, evaluating models for a specific task, and running proof-of-concept projects before committing to a paid plan.
Free tier use cases
Different free tiers serve different needs. Here's our recommended match:
| Use case | Best provider | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Development / testing | Plugsky | No card, no expiry, daily reset. Perfect for CI/CD, staging, and dev environments. |
| Research / evaluation | Google AI Studio | 60 req/min with Gemini Pro. Best for large-scale model evaluation and benchmarking. |
| Production trial | OpenAI | $5 credit gives you real GPT-4o access. When it runs out, you're already set up to pay. |
| Local experimentation | Ollama | Completely free, runs on your hardware. No API needed. Best for offline experimentation. |
AI API pricing trends
AI API prices have dropped roughly 10x in 18 months. GPT-4 class output was ~$60/MTok in early 2025; by mid 2026 it's under $5/MTok from multiple providers. Open-source models like Llama 4 and Qwen 3 now match or beat proprietary models on many benchmarks.
This trend makes the wait vs. buy decision real: if your project can wait 6 months, it will cost half as much. But if you need to ship now, free tiers reduce the risk to zero — you start building before you spend anything.
Key trends to watch:
- Commoditization of small models — 3B-8B parameter models now outperform GPT-3.5 on many tasks. Free tiers are increasingly viable for real workloads.
- Inference optimization — speculative decoding, KV caching, and quantization cut costs by 2-4x per generation.
- Flat-rate pricing — per-token metering is being replaced by flat monthly tiers (like Plugsky, OpenRouter Pro, and GitHub Copilot).
- Free tier as loss leader — providers use free tiers to capture developer mindshare. The best time to try AI APIs is now.
Frequently asked questions
Which free AI API is best for developers?
Plugsky offers the best balance for developers: 500 requests/day across 30+ models, no credit card required, no expiry, OpenAI-compatible format, and data NOT used for training. It's the only free tier that checks all boxes.
Do I need a credit card for Plugsky free tier?
No. Plugsky's free tier requires no credit card. Sign up with your email or Google account and start building immediately. The free tier is genuinely free — no trial, no billing info.
How does Plugsky free tier compare to OpenAI?
OpenAI gives you $5 in free credits that expire after 3 months and requires a credit card upfront. Plugsky gives you 500 requests/day that never expire, no card required, and your data is never used for training. Plugsky's daily reset gives you 3,500 free requests a week vs. OpenAI's one-time $5.
Can I use free tiers for commercial projects?
Most free tiers allow commercial use but enforce strict rate limits. Check each provider's terms of service. Plugsky's free tier explicitly allows commercial prototyping and testing. For production commercial use, consider a paid plan for higher rate limits.
Which free tier gives the most tokens?
DeepSeek gives 500K tokens as a one-time grant. Plugsky gives 500 free requests per day that reset daily — and paid plans have no token caps. Google Gemini gives unlimited tokens but with a 60 req/min rate limit.
Does Plugsky use my data for training?
No. Plugsky does not use any customer data for model training. Your prompts, responses, and API usage stay completely private. No opt-out checkbox needed — it's the default policy.
Start building for free
500 requests/day across 30+ models. No credit card. No expiry. OpenAI-compatible. Start in 30 seconds.
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