Key facts
| Model class | Free-plan reasoning-capable model in the Plugsky catalogue |
| Best for | Free-agent chat, tool use, structured extraction and analysis |
| Free plan | One of the two free models, together with plugsky-lite; no card required |
| Context class | 128K-class window; live limits are published per model |
| Capabilities | Streaming, JSON mode and function calling |
| API | OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions — keep your SDK |
| Resilience | Automatic backup upstream plus same-profile fallback peers |
| Product status | Live |
TL;DR
- A free model for tasks that need more than the fastest possible answer.
- Free plan access with no card, plus tools, JSON mode and streaming.
- Compare it with plugsky-lite on your prompts — both are free.
- Move to paid tiers only when your evaluation shows a real quality gap.
- Automatic fallback keeps free-tier integrations stable.
How it works, step by step
- Create an account and generate an API key on the free plan — no card needed.
- Read the live model card at /models for the current window and feature flags.
- Call plugsky-micro with a real tool-calling or analysis prompt.
- Run the same prompts through plugsky-lite and compare quality and latency.
- Pick the free model that wins for each task in your application.
- Escalate tasks that fail your quality bar to a paid model when you are ready.
- Monitor usage and status through your dashboard and the status page.
Try it yourself
Open the LLM cost calculator →
What plugsky-micro is
plugsky-micro is one of the two free models on Plugsky's free plan. Where lite optimises for speed on simple tasks, micro is the free option for requests that benefit from reasoning: multi-step chat, tool selection, structured extraction and light analysis. It exposes the same OpenAI-compatible surface as paid models, including streaming, function calling and JSON mode.
Free-tier routing is updated over time, so check the live card at /models for the engine, context window and capability flags currently in effect. Its free sibling is plugsky-lite.
When to choose it
Choose plugsky-micro when you want to build or validate a reasoning-capable feature at zero cost: an agent that calls a couple of tools, a form extractor that returns JSON, a classifier that must follow a short chain of logic, or a development environment for prompts before you move them to production models.
Move up to a paid model when accuracy, long-form synthesis or hard reasoning becomes business-critical. The 14-day full-access trial is the structured way to compare a paid tier against micro on your own workload before upgrading.
Free-tier trade-offs
Free models are excellent value and have real limits. The engineering discipline is to know which requests they pass and to route the rest.
- Keep prompts short and explicit; small models reward clarity over volume.
- Use JSON mode with schema validation for structured output.
- Route low-confidence or failed results to a paid model rather than retrying the same prompt.
- Track quality on a small labelled set so upgrades are evidence-based.
- Compare micro and lite before assuming which free model suits a feature.
How to switch to plugsky-micro
Switching is a base URL plus a model name: {"model": "plugsky-micro", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Extract the order details as JSON."}], "response_format": {"type": "json_object"}} posted to https://api.plugsky.com/v1/chat/completions.
Existing OpenAI-compatible code works unchanged. When a task outgrows the free tier, change one model name to a paid model and keep the rest of the integration intact.
Honest comparison
| Dimension | plugsky-micro | plugsky-lite | Paid reasoning model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | Free, no card required | Free, no card required | Paid plan |
| Best fit | Free tasks needing reasoning and tools | Fast simple chat at high volume | Production-grade deep work |
| Latency profile | Fast | Fastest tier | Slower by design |
| Tools and JSON mode | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Context class | 128K-class | 128K-class | 128K-class |
| Failover | Automatic peer fallback | Automatic peer fallback | Automatic peer fallback |
Frequently asked questions
Is plugsky-micro free?
Yes. The free plan includes two free AI models, plugsky-micro and plugsky-lite, and no credit card is required to start.
How is it different from plugsky-lite?
Both are free. Micro is the reasoning-capable free option; lite is positioned for the fastest simple responses. Test both on your own prompts to see which fits each task.
What context window does it have?
It is 128K-class today. The exact live window and output limit are published per model at /models.
Can it call tools?
Yes — function calling, JSON mode and streaming are part of the shared OpenAI-compatible surface.
Is it good enough for production?
For tasks it passes on your evaluation, yes. Keep an escalation path to a paid model for requests that need deeper reasoning or higher accuracy.
How does the paid trial work?
A 14-day full-access trial lets you test paid models on your workload so you can decide with evidence rather than guesswork.
What happens if the free model has an incident?
Requests retry through a backup upstream and same-profile fallback peers. Live component health is on the status page.
Can I use my existing OpenAI SDK?
Yes. Change the base URL to the Plugsky endpoint and set the model name; your prompts, tools and response parsing stay the same.