awesome-free-llm-apis

Awesome Free LLM APIs

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection.

A curated list of LLM providers offering permanent free tiers for text inference — no trial credits, no expiry. All endpoints listed are OpenAI SDK-compatible unless noted.

---

Provider Overview

Provider APIs (trained/fine-tuned by the company)

Inference Providers (host open-weight models)

---

Getting API Keys

Each provider has its own key management page:

# Store keys as environment variables — never hardcode them
export GROQ_API_KEY="your_groq_key"
export GEMINI_API_KEY="your_gemini_key"
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your_openrouter_key"
export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your_mistral_key"
export COHERE_API_KEY="your_cohere_key"
export CEREBRAS_API_KEY="your_cerebras_key"
export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_pat"
export HF_TOKEN="your_huggingface_token"
export NVIDIA_API_KEY="your_nvidia_key"
export CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN="your_cf_token"
export CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID="your_cf_account_id"

---

OpenAI SDK Integration

All providers (except Ollama Cloud) are OpenAI SDK-compatible — just swap the base_url and api_key.

Python

from openai import OpenAI

# ── Groq ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["GROQ_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

# ── Google Gemini ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/",
    api_key=os.environ["GEMINI_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gemini-2.0-flash",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum entanglement."}],
)

# ── Mistral AI ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.mistral.ai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["MISTRAL_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="mistral-small-latest",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about code."}],
)

# ── OpenRouter ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek/deepseek-r1",          # free model on OpenRouter
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is 2+2?"}],
    extra_headers={
        "HTTP-Referer": "https://yourapp.com",   # optional but recommended
        "X-Title": "My App",
    },
)

# ── Cerebras ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.cerebras.ai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["CEREBRAS_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="llama-3.3-70b",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me a joke."}],
)

# ── NVIDIA NIM ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["NVIDIA_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this text."}],
)

# ── GitHub Models ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://models.inference.ai.azure.com",
    api_key=os.environ["GITHUB_TOKEN"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Draft an email."}],
)

# ── Cohere (OpenAI-compatible endpoint) ───────────────────────────────────────
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.cohere.com/compatibility/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["COHERE_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="command-a-03-2025",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Translate to French: Hello world"}],
)

JavaScript / TypeScript

import OpenAI from "openai";

// ── Groq ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
const groq = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.GROQ_API_KEY,
});

const completion = await groq.chat.completions.create({
  model: "llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello!" }],
});
console.log(completion.choices[0].message.content);

// ── OpenRouter with free model router ────────────────────────────────────────
const openrouter = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.OPENROUTER_API_KEY,
  defaultHeaders: {
    "HTTP-Referer": "https://yourapp.com",
    "X-Title": "My App",
  },
});

// Use the free models router — automatically picks an available free model
const freeCompletion = await openrouter.chat.completions.create({
  model: "openrouter/free",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What is the capital of France?" }],
});

// ── Mistral ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
const mistral = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.mistral.ai/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.MISTRAL_API_KEY,
});

const mistralCompletion = await mistral.chat.completions.create({
  model: "mistral-small-latest",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Explain async/await in JavaScript." }],
});

---

Cloudflare Workers AI

Cloudflare uses a slightly different auth pattern:

import requests, os

ACCOUNT_ID = os.environ["CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID"]
API_TOKEN  = os.environ["CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN"]

response = requests.post(
    f"https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/ai/run/"
    "@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_TOKEN}"},
    json={"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is Cloudflare Workers?"}]},
)
result = response.json()
print(result["result"]["response"])

// Cloudflare Workers runtime (inside a Worker)
export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env): Promise<Response> {
    const ai = new Ai(env.AI);
    const response = await ai.run("@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast", {
      messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello from Workers AI!" }],
    });
    return Response.json(response);
  },
};

---

Ollama Cloud (Non-OpenAI API)

Ollama Cloud uses the Ollama API format, not the OpenAI format:

import requests, os

response = requests.post(
    "https://ollama.com/api/chat",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['OLLAMA_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "model": "deepseek-v3.2",
        "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is 2 + 2?"}],
        "stream": False,
    },
)
print(response.json()["message"]["content"])

# Using the ollama Python client
import ollama, os

client = ollama.Client(
    host="https://ollama.com",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['OLLAMA_API_KEY']}"},
)
response = client.chat(
    model="qwen3.5",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a poem about the sea."}],
)
print(response["message"]["content"])

---

Hugging Face Inference API

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://router.huggingface.co/novita/v3/openai",
    api_key=os.environ["HF_TOKEN"],
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize the theory of relativity."}],
    max_tokens=512,
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

---

Streaming Responses

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["GROQ_API_KEY"],
)

with client.chat.completions.stream(
    model="llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a short story about a robot."}],
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

const stream = await groq.chat.completions.create({
  model: "llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Write a haiku." }],
  stream: true,
});

for await (const chunk of stream) {
  process.stdout.write(chunk.choices[0]?.delta?.content ?? "");
}

---

Provider Fallback Pattern

Cycle through providers when rate limits are hit:

from openai import OpenAI, RateLimitError
import os

PROVIDERS = [
    {
        "name": "Groq",
        "base_url": "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
        "api_key": os.environ.get("GROQ_API_KEY"),
        "model": "llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
    },
    {
        "name": "Cerebras",
        "base_url": "https://api.cerebras.ai/v1",
        "api_key": os.environ.get("CEREBRAS_API_KEY"),
        "model": "llama-3.3-70b",
    },
    {
        "name": "Mistral",
        "base_url": "https://api.mistral.ai/v1",
        "api_key": os.environ.get("MISTRAL_API_KEY"),
        "model": "mistral-small-latest",
    },
    {
        "name": "OpenRouter",
        "base_url": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
        "api_key": os.environ.get("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
        "model": "openrouter/free",
    },
]

def chat_with_fallback(messages: list[dict], **kwargs) -> str:
    for provider in PROVIDERS:
        if not provider["api_key"]:
            continue
        try:
            client = OpenAI(
                base_url=provider["base_url"],
                api_key=provider["api_key"],
            )
            response = client.chat.completions.create(
                model=provider["model"],
                messages=messages,
                **kwargs,
            )
            return response.choices[0].message.content
        except RateLimitError:
            print(f"Rate limited on {provider['name']}, trying next...")
            continue
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error on {provider['name']}: {e}, trying next...")
            continue
    raise RuntimeError("All providers exhausted.")

# Usage
answer = chat_with_fallback(
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is the speed of light?"}]
)
print(answer)

---

OpenRouter Free Models Router

OpenRouter provides a special router that automatically selects available free models:

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"],
)

# Use the free router — picks from 29+ free models automatically
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="openrouter/free",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain recursion."}],
)

# Or use model fallbacks for priority ordering
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek/deepseek-r1",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain recursion."}],
    extra_body={
        "route": "fallback",
        "models": [
            "deepseek/deepseek-r1",
            "meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free",
            "openrouter/free",
        ],
    },
)

---

LangChain Integration

from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI
from langchain_core.messages import HumanMessage
import os

# Works with any OpenAI-compatible provider
llm = ChatOpenAI(
    model="llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
    openai_api_base="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
    openai_api_key=os.environ["GROQ_API_KEY"],
    temperature=0.7,
)

response = llm.invoke([HumanMessage(content="What are the SOLID principles?")])
print(response.content)

# Gemini via LangChain
gemini = ChatOpenAI(
    model="gemini-2.0-flash",
    openai_api_base="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/",
    openai_api_key=os.environ["GEMINI_API_KEY"],
)

---

Rate Limit Reference

---

Common Troubleshooting

AuthenticationError

• Double-check the env var is set: echo $GROQ_API_KEY
• Ensure the key is for the correct provider
• Some providers (GitHub Models) require a classic PAT, not a fine-grained token

RateLimitError

• Implement exponential backoff or use the fallback pattern above
• Switch to a provider with higher limits (Cerebras: 14,400 RPD)
• For Groq, use llama-3.1-8b-instant for the 14,400 RPD limit

Model not found

• Check the exact model ID on the provider's docs/dashboard
• OpenRouter free models have :free suffix: meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free
• Cloudflare models use @cf/ prefix: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast

Gemini free tier unavailable

• The free tier is not available in EU, UK, or Switzerland
• Use a VPN or switch to a different provider like Groq or Mistral

Ollama Cloud not working with OpenAI SDK

• Ollama Cloud uses its own API format — use the ollama Python package or raw HTTP

OpenRouter 50 RPD limit

• Make a one-time $10 credit purchase to unlock 1,000 RPD for free models permanently
• Alternatively, use openrouter/free router to distribute across all free models

---

Choosing the Right Provider

Need highest RPD?         → Cerebras (14,400 RPD)
Need smartest free model? → Gemini 2.5 Pro (if not in EU/UK/CH)
Need EU-hosted?           → Mistral AI (France)
Need most model variety?  → OpenRouter (29+ free models) or Cloudflare (48+ models)
Need fastest inference?   → Groq (purpose-built inference chips)
Need reasoning model?     → DeepSeek-R1 on Groq/OpenRouter/Kluster AI
Need vision?              → Gemini Flash, Llama 4 Scout (Groq), GLM-4.6V-Flash (Zhipu)
No rate limit concern?    → Cloudflare (10K neurons/day, compute-based)