“OpenRouter vs Groq vs Together” is a common comparison, but it hides a category error: only two of the three have a free tier at all. Here’s what each actually gives you, verified against their own docs.
At a glance
| Platform | Free tier? | Free limits | Card needed | Model selection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | Yes — ‘:free’ models | 20 req/min; 50 req/day (1,000/day after a $10 lifetime top-up) | No card | Rotating catalogue, many providers |
| Groq | Yes — free plan | Per-model, published (e.g. gpt-oss-120b: 30 rpm, 200K tok/day) | Not stated | Open models (gpt-oss, Qwen) |
| Together AI | No | ”Does not currently offer free trials”; $15 minimum purchase | — (prepaid) | Large open-model catalogue (paid) |
OpenRouter — the widest free selection
OpenRouter’s free models are variants whose IDs
end in :free, callable through one OpenAI-compatible API. Free usage is capped at
20 requests/minute and 50 requests/day; if you’ve ever purchased at least
$10 in credits, the daily cap rises to 1,000 free-model requests. Two
practical caveats: the list of :free models rotates over time, and OpenRouter
states that “Failed attempts count toward that daily cap”, so handle errors with
backoff rather than blind retries. Best for: trying many models cheaply, fallback
chains, and low-volume apps that value variety.
Groq — the fastest free tokens
GroqCloud’s free plan runs open models on custom LPU
hardware, and its per-model free limits are now published — for example
openai/gpt-oss-120b allows 30 requests/minute, 1,000 requests/day, 8,000
tokens/minute and 200,000 tokens/day on the free plan. Groq does not say whether
the Free plan needs a card; its billing FAQ says a payment method is needed “to
upgrade from the Free tier to the Developer tier”. Its agentic groq/compound
systems were decommissioned on 21 September 2026. Best for:
latency-sensitive prototypes and anything where inference speed is the feature.
For these two against every other free tier, see free LLM API rate limits compared.
Together AI — a good paid platform, not a free one
Together AI hosts a large open-model catalogue, but its billing docs are unambiguous: “Together AI does not currently offer free trials. Access to the Together platform requires a minimum $15 credit purchase.” (It was $5 when we first checked.) The platform is fully prepaid — “If your balance reaches zero, API access is suspended until you add credits” — though Together says prepaid credits “do not currently have an expiration date”. That makes Together a reasonable $15 entry-level paid option, not a free tier, which is why it isn’t listed in our free-offers directory.
Verdict
For zero-cost usage today: OpenRouter for breadth, Groq for speed — and they combine well, since each has independent limits. Reach for Together only when you’ve outgrown free tiers and are ready to prepay. For everything else that’s free right now, see the free LLM routers category and the flagship roundup.