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GuidesJune 29, 2026

Free LLM API: 150+ models with a real free tier

You don't need a credit card to start building with large language models. A free LLM API should give you real models, an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and a way to keep costs at zero as you grow — here's how that works in practice.

What 'free' usually means — and what it should mean

Search for a free LLM API and you mostly find two things: a trial balance that expires in a week, or a single tiny model with no path to anything bigger. Neither lets you actually build.

A free tier worth using has three properties: real models you'd ship with, a standard API so your code isn't throwaway, and a way to keep the cost at zero as usage grows instead of a cliff at the end of a trial.

Three durable ways to stay at zero

The most reliable approach combines a hosted free tier with your own provider quota. You can mix all three:

  1. A free model tier — route to free-tier models with a daily request allowance and no spend required.
  2. Starter credit — a small one-time credit (AnyRouter gives every new account $2, no card on file) usable across the whole catalog.
  3. Bring your own keys — if you already pay a provider directly, route on your own keys through the gateway at $0 markup and pay only what the provider charges.

The third point is the one people miss: many providers (for example Google AI Studio for Gemini) have generous free tiers of their own. Routing those keys through a gateway gives you unified billing, logs, and failover on top of a free upstream.

One endpoint, OpenAI-compatible

A free API is only useful if it's easy to call. An OpenAI-compatible endpoint means any existing client works — you just set the base URL and a key.

curl https://anyrouter.dev/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk-ar-v1-..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "model": "anyrouter/free",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello from a free LLM API"}]
}'
A free call with curl — pick a free-tier model id.

Swap anyrouter/free for any of the 150+ provider/model ids when you want a bigger model — your starter credit or your own keys cover those, and nothing in your code changes.

AnyRouter gives you a free LLM API: a free model tier, $2 starter credit, and $0-markup BYOK behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Set it up free

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