Run Claude Code on free models in two lines

Install the anyr CLI, then launch Claude Code through it on the free router:

curl -fsSL https://anyrouter.dev/setup.sh | bash
anyr claude --model anyrouter/free

The first run opens a browser to sign you in, creates a key and saves it. Later runs go straight into Claude Code. If Claude Code is not installed yet, add --install and anyr installs it first. You need an AnyRouter account but no card.

anyrouter/free picks one of the free models that is healthy right now and falls back to the next if it fails. The same two lines are on the /claude-code page, and the signed-in version, with your own key filled in, is at /welcome#claude-code.

Claude Code sends some calls to a small background model, and to subagents. anyr claude points those at Claude Haiku by default, and that model is only available through your own provider key (BYOK). On a Free account without one, those calls can fail with 404 model_unavailable even while your main model is free. Pin all the aliases to the free router to avoid that:

anyr claude --model anyrouter/free \
  --haiku anyrouter/free --sonnet anyrouter/free \
  --opus anyrouter/free --fable anyrouter/free

anyr claude --dry-run prints the command and environment it would use, with the key redacted, so you can check the aliases before you start.

Claude Code reads two environment variables. Create a key in the dashboard (every key starts with sk-ar-), then:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://anyrouter.dev/api"
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ar-your-key"
claude --model anyrouter/free

Leave /v1 off the base URL: Claude Code adds /v1/messages itself. Full reference: docs.anyrouter.dev/cli/claude-code.

We have not ranked free models for coding, and any ranking would go stale in a week. What we can say is which ones anyrouter/free may route to and have at least 128K of context, since Claude Code's own prompt and tool list use a good part of a small window. This table is generated from the catalog when the page is built.

Pass any id to --model to pin it. The full, current list is at /free. To see only models that speak the Messages API Claude Code uses, filter the model list.

• Cost: free models bill $0 per token and do not touch your credit balance. Paid models return 402 until you add credits or a plan.
• Rate: no daily cap. Free models share 2,400 requests per minute per API key on every plan.
• Sign-in: a request with no key gets a 401. Signing up is free.
• Quality: these are not Claude. Hard multi-file work is where a free model is most likely to stall or go wrong, so review diffs as you would for any agent.
• Availability: free capacity comes from upstream providers and changes. anyrouter/free falls back automatically, but a pinned model can be busy or gone.
• Settings: if a privacy setting such as Zero Data Retention rules out every free model, you get 400 no_eligible_models. Pin a model that meets it.
• Long runs: for slow models, export API_TIMEOUT_MS=3000000 raises Claude Code's timeout. The anyr launcher already sets it.

Run any prompt, then open your request logs. The call shows up a few seconds after the stream closes, with the model that answered, token counts and cost. Free calls show $0.

Coming from OpenRouter? The same two-line swap works for any OpenAI-compatible client. See AnyRouter vs OpenRouter for a sourced comparison and the migration steps.