Guides & comparisons
Practical, answer-first guides to getting free LLM and AI API credits — each links to the verified offers behind it.
- How-to
How to stay within free-tier rate limits (without paying)
Practical tactics for living inside LLM free-tier limits — knowing each provider's real caps, backing off on 429s, caching, batching and routing across providers with independent quotas.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Roundup
Best free LLM API credits right now
A ranked, regularly updated roundup of the best ways to get free LLM and AI API credits — from ongoing free tiers to the biggest cloud trial credits. Every figure verified against the provider and dated.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Comparison
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: which free credits are best for AI?
Side-by-side comparison of the three cloud new-account credits for AI work — $300 on Google Cloud, $200 on Azure, up to $200 on AWS — including what each excludes and what happens when the trial ends.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Roundup
Startup AI credits: check eligibility before applying
A qualification checklist for startup AI credits: bootstrap and VC routes, open applications, award ceilings, expiry and billing after credits end.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
How to claim AWS Activate credits (Founders vs Portfolio)
Step-by-step guide to AWS Activate startup credits: the $1,000–$5,000 self-serve Founders tier, the up-to-$200,000 Portfolio tier via an Activate Provider, eligibility and expiry.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
How to combine free AI tiers legitimately (and what crosses the line)
A ToS-safe playbook for stacking free LLM tiers — one account per provider, many providers — with a worked example stack and the practices that get accounts banned.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
How to claim Microsoft for Startups Azure credits (2026 flow)
The current Microsoft for Startups application flow step by step — a new personal Microsoft account, LinkedIn or referral-code verification, the mandatory card step, and the staged path to $150,000 in Azure credits.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Roundup
Free AI APIs without a card: confirmed routes and exceptions
The free LLM and AI APIs whose providers say, in their own words, that you can start without a credit card — verified, with their real limits — and the popular ones that never say either way.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
How to get free AI credits as a student
A step-by-step guide to the student AI offers that are verified and claimable today — Azure for Students, the GitHub Student Developer Pack, JetBrains and Google AI Pro — and what each actually gives you.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Roundup
Best free LLM tiers for hobby projects
Which free LLM tiers actually sustain a side project rather than just a demo — matched to real hobby workloads like a Discord bot, a weekend scraper, a personal RAG app or a coding helper.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Guide
Free AI credits: expiry, billing and application traps
The mistakes that cost people their free AI credits — expiry clocks that start at signup, credits that quietly exclude the model you wanted, cards that do get charged, and eligibility claims that get accounts revoked.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
How to use LLMs for free with OpenRouter (':free' models)
Step-by-step guide to OpenRouter's free model variants: creating a key, finding ':free' models, the 50/day and 20/minute limits, and the one-time $10 top-up that unlocks 1,000 requests/day.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Comparison
Free LLM API rate limits compared: which tier survives your traffic?
Every published free-tier rate limit side by side — requests per minute, requests per day, tokens, and what each provider actually meters. Reviewed against current offer records on 21 October 2026.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Guide
Free AI API tiers narrowed in 2026: ten sourced changes in one quarter
Between July and October 2026, free LLM API allowances were withdrawn, converted to trials, fenced off or left unquantified. Ten changes, each quoted from the provider, plus the counter-evidence and the limits of what we can claim.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
Claude API credits: what to do while the cohort is closed
Check Claude’s closed cohort, existing-member access, partner-VC eligibility and AWS Activate before attempting to claim API credits.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- How-to
How to get free OpenAI / GPT credits
Check OpenAI API billing and the documented Azure credit routes. Separate ChatGPT, hosted GPT models and free open models with compatible APIs.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Comparison
Hugging Face vs OpenRouter for free inference
Both put many models behind one API key — but since October 2026 only one of them gives free accounts anything. A verified comparison of the free allowances, limits and trade-offs.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Comparison
OpenAI vs Claude vs Gemini: what is free for API users?
Compare API access, not chat subscriptions: Gemini’s selected free models, Claude’s closed cohort and conditional credits, and Azure routes to GPT models.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Comparison
OpenRouter vs Groq vs Together AI: who actually has a free tier?
OpenRouter and Groq both offer real free tiers; Together AI requires a minimum $15 credit purchase and states it offers no free trials. Verified limits and the right pick per use-case.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Comparison
Which LLM provider gives the most for free? (2026 comparison)
Every major LLM free tier compared by what you actually get — tokens, requests, models and card requirements — from Gemini and Groq to Cloudflare, Cohere, Mistral and OpenRouter.
Updated 21 Oct 2026
- Briefing
Free AI credits briefing — October 2026: what changed
October 2026 verification sweep: Hugging Face ended its free monthly credit, Mistral and Fireworks stopped publishing their figures, Claude Startups opened up and then hit capacity, and we corrected two things we had told you.
Updated 10 Oct 2026
- Briefing
Free AI credits briefing — September 2026: what changed
September 2026 verification sweep: Cerebras is no longer a free tier and now needs a card, Groq dropped every Llama chat model from its free plan, Cloudflare excluded two more models, and the GitHub Copilot Student pause has ended.
Updated 13 Sept 2026