The best free AI model APIs
Dozens of providers now serve real models at $0. Most lists stop there. This one adds the part that matters: independent proof that the model behind each free tier is actually good, ranked on a single benchmark that scores every one of them. The weak free models are left off.
What is the best free AI model API right now?
The best free AI model APIs in 2026 pair a genuinely capable model with a real zero-cost tier. Ranked on the one benchmark that scores them all, the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (v5): Meta Muse Spark 1.3 leads at 36 of 100, free through the OpenCode Zen Contributor tier, followed by Google Gemini 3.8 Flash at 31 and StepFun Step 5 Preview at 29. 5 of the 9 ranked models are open-weight, so they survive a free tier being withdrawn. Every model here scores at least 12, so the weak free models are filtered out.
Every free model on one yardstick
The Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index is the one independent benchmark that scores all of these models, so it is the only fair way to rank them together. It is a demanding scale: on v5 the best model at any price scores 58, so a free model in the teens to 30s is genuinely capable.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Muse Spark 1.3 | 36 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | 31 |
| Step 5 Preview | 29 |
| MiMo V2.6 Flash | 27 |
| Qwen3.8 27B | 20 |
| Inkling Small | 13 |
| Inkling | 12 |
| Nemotron 3 Ultra | 12 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | 12 |
The free models, ranked
Sort by intelligence or context window, and filter to open-weight models. Coding is 25% of the index itself, carried by FrontierCode 2.0 and Terminal-Bench 4.0, so it is already folded into the ranking. Each row links to the providers that serve it free.
Good free models, ranked by intelligence
Every model here clears the quality bar (Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index of at least 20) and is callable at $0 on at least one hosted provider. Sort, or show only open-weight models.
| # | Model | AA Index | Context | Free via |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muse Spark 1.3 Meta | 36 | 1M | OpenCode Zen |
| 2 | Gemini 3.8 Flash Google | 31 | 1M | Google AI Studio |
| 3 | Step 5 Preview StepFun | 29 | 1M | OpenCode Zen |
| 4 | MiMo V2.6 Flash Xiaomi· open weight | 27 | 200K | OpenCode Zen |
| 5 | Qwen3.8 27B Alibaba· open weight | 20 | 262K | GroqCloudflare Workers AI |
| 6 | Inkling Small Thinking Machines· open weight | 13 | 1M | OpenRouter |
| 7 | Inkling Thinking Machines· open weight | 12 | 1M | OpenRouter |
| 8 | Nemotron 3 Ultra NVIDIA· open weight | 12 | 1M | OpenCode ZenOpenRouterNVIDIA NIM (build.nvidia.com) |
| 9 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Google | 12 | 1M | Google AI Studio |
AA Index is the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (0-100, v5): one independent score that blends knowledge work, coding, science and general knowledge across nine evaluations, so it ranks every model on the same yardstick. The scale runs low: the best model at any price scores 58. Coding is 25% of it, carried by FrontierCode 2.0 and Terminal-Bench 4.0. Where a lab ships several reasoning-effort settings, the figure is the highest one Artificial Analysis publishes, named in each model's note. Free-via links open each provider; verify current limits at the source, as free tiers change often.
The free tiers, and their limits
The same model is often free on several providers, each with its own catch. Here is what each free tier actually gives you, verified against the provider source on October 28, 2026. Free tiers change often: confirm at the link before you build on one.
| Provider | Free tier | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Studio | Gemini 3.8 and 3.6 Flash plus 3.5 and 3.1 Flash-Lite free of charge (3.x Pro is not); per-model request limits are shown only in the AI Studio dashboard | Inputs may be used to improve the model. |
| OpenRouter | 19 zero-priced models (15 tagged :free) at 20 req/min and 50 req/day, or 1,000/day after a one-time $10 credit purchase | Account signup only. |
| OpenCode Zen | About a dozen models free for a limited time through the OpenCode CLI and Desktop, including Muse Spark 1.3, Step 5 Preview, Ling 3.1 Flash, MiMo V2.6 Flash, Nemotron 3 Ultra and several stealth models | Inputs may be used to improve the model. |
| NVIDIA NIM (build.nvidia.com) | Free API access for prototyping to NVIDIA Developer Program members; about 40 req/min after phone verification (last publicly stated limit) | Phone verification. |
| GroqFastest-class inference on custom LPU hardware | Free plan: 30 req/min, 1,000 req/day and 8K tokens/min on the large models (gpt-oss-120b, Qwen3.8 27B) | Account signup only. |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | 10,000 neurons/day free across the model catalog (a usage credit, not a request cap) | Account signup only. |
How this list is built
Two grounded inputs. First, which providers serve a model at $0, checked against each provider's own rate-limit documentation and the live OpenRouter API, and dated. Second, how good that model actually is, measured by the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, read from the public Artificial Analysis leaderboard. This site does not run the evaluations.
One benchmark, so the ranking is fair
Earlier versions of this page mixed coding benchmarks because no single coding test scored every model. The fix is to rank on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, the one independent benchmark that scores all of them. It is a single 0-100 number that blends nine evaluations across four categories weighted 25% each: Knowledge Work, Coding (FrontierCode 2.0 and Terminal-Bench 4.0), Science and General. Coding ability is already folded into the figure and every model is judged on the same yardstick. Artificial Analysis stopped publishing the individual evaluation scores on its public leaderboard with v4.2, so this page does not break the coding evaluations out as their own columns rather than showing figures it cannot cite. The quality gate is the index is demanding, and v5 made it more so: the best model of any price scores 58 and the strongest free model here scores 36, so the 0-100 scale runs low and small models bunch at the bottom. The bar was 20 under v4.3.2 and moved to 12 when v5 compressed the field; four ranked models (Inkling Small at 13, Inkling, Nemotron 3 Ultra and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at 12) sit right on it, so treat them as capable but light. Models that already scored well below the old bar, such as Google Gemma 4 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super, are still free; they are just not models we would tell you to build on.
Why "free" has a catch
A free API tier is a customer-acquisition cost for the provider, not charity. That shapes the three catches in the table above: rate limits (requests per minute and per day, often tightened over time), data use (several free tiers may train on your inputs, so never send confidential data), and availability (community-funded free pools can be throttled without notice). For anything beyond prototyping or low-volume personal use, price the paid tier with the cost-per-task calculatorbefore you depend on a free one. The OpenRouter AI guideexplains that pool's daily limits, paid-credit fee and routing tradeoffs.
Most of these free models are open-weight, part of a wider shift: open-source LLMs are overtaking closed models, and many of the best open-weight models can run locally if a hosted free tier ever disappears.
Free, but not ranked
A model is ranked only once the Artificial Analysis index scores it. These are offered free but not yet scored on that benchmark, so they are not ranked here:
- Ling 3.0 Flash Fin (OpenCode Zen). The finance-tuned Ling 3.0 Flash, free for a limited time. Artificial Analysis publishes no v5 score for it (its model page reads N/A).
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (Google AI Studio). Still free on AI Studio, but Artificial Analysis marks it deprecated and publishes no v5 score (its model page reads N/A), so it cannot be ranked on the same scale.
- Ling 3.1 Flash (OpenCode Zen and OpenRouter). Free on two gateways, but Artificial Analysis publishes no v5 score for the 2026-09-29 build (its model page reads N/A). A newer Ling 3.1 Flash 1019 build scores 29 on v5; it is not ranked here until the free endpoints are confirmed to serve that build.
- Big Pickle, Space Bunny, Exo and Jev 1.13 (OpenCode Zen). Stealth or unannounced models offered free for a limited time while their makers collect feedback. No named lab, no published weights and no Artificial Analysis score, so they cannot be ranked.
- LongCat 2.5 Preview (OpenCode Zen). A preview successor to LongCat 2.0, free for a limited time. Artificial Analysis does not score it yet.
- MiMo V2.5 (OpenCode Zen). Listed as free in the Zen docs but missing from the live Zen model endpoint, and Artificial Analysis has removed it from the index entirely, so there is no score to rank it on.
- Laguna S 2.1 and Laguna XS 2.1 (OpenRouter). poolside open-weight coding models, free on OpenRouter, but Artificial Analysis does not score either.
- Apodex 1.1 Mini and dots.3 Note Preview (OpenRouter). Artificial Analysis scores the full Apodex 1.1 (26) but not the Mini that is free, and does not score dots.3.
For per-token rates once you outgrow the free tiers, see the AI model release tracker, or rank paid models by value on the value leaderboard. For when each of these shipped and what it charged on day one, see AI model releases by month.
Know a free tier that is missing, or one whose limits have changed? Send a correction, or contact us about apaid listing (free listings are no longer accepted).
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best free AI model API in 2026?
- For raw quality, Muse Spark 1.3 leads at 36 of 100 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, free through the OpenCode Zen Contributor tier. Read the terms before you use it: that tier grants permission to train future Meta models on your prompts and completions. For an open-weight model you can also self-host, MiMo V2.6 Flash is the strongest at 27. For a first-party free tier from a frontier lab, Gemini 3.8 Flash on Google AI Studio is the strongest, and Google keeps the older Gemini 3.6 Flash free alongside it. The best one depends on whether you optimize for capability, open weights, or who gets to keep your data.
- Are free AI models good enough for real work?
- Increasingly, yes. The top free model here, Muse Spark 1.3, scores 36 of 100 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, a demanding scale where the best model at any price scores 58. So the leading free models sit about twenty points below the frontier. That gap widened with v5, which is harder on small models than on frontier ones; on v4.3.2 it was about ten. The real limits are throughput and terms rather than quality: free tiers cap requests per minute and per day, and several of them take your prompts as payment, so they suit prototyping, low-volume tools and personal use more than high-traffic production or anything confidential.
- What is the catch with free AI model APIs?
- Three things. First, rate limits: most free tiers cap requests per minute and per day (often tightened over time, as Groq did in 2026), and some disappear outright: Cerebras replaced its always-free tier with a $5 credit that expires after 30 days. Second, data use: several free tiers (Google AI Studio outside the EEA, the OpenCode Zen free models) may use your inputs to improve their models, so do not send confidential data. Third, availability: free pools are rotated without notice. OpenCode Zen cut its free list from 36 models to about a dozen in October 2026, labels every remaining one limited time, and OpenRouter dropped Qwen3.8 27B from its free pool the same month.
- Which of these free models are open-weight?
- 5 of the 9 ranked models are open-weight, meaning you can also download and self-host them: Xiaomi MiMo V2.6 Flash, Alibaba Qwen3.8 27B, Thinking Machines Inkling Small, Thinking Machines Inkling and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra. The closed ones are Meta Muse Spark 1.3, Google Gemini 3.8 Flash, StepFun Step 5 Preview and Google Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. Open weights matter most for free use, because if a hosted free tier disappears the model itself does not.
- How are these free models graded?
- On a single benchmark that scores every model here: the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (v5). It is one 0-100 number blending nine independent evaluations across four categories weighted 25% each (Knowledge Work, Coding, Science and General), so one figure ranks the whole table on the same yardstick. Scores are read from the public Artificial Analysis leaderboard, or from a model's own Artificial Analysis page once it leaves the default leaderboard view; this site does not run the evaluations. A model is listed only if it scores at least 12. Note that v5 is not comparable with the v4.3.2 figures this page carried until October 2026: it removed SciCode, GDPval-AA and AA-LCR, added FrontierCode 2.0 and Terminal-Bench-Science, and moved most small models down by ten points or more, which is why the quality bar moved from 20 to 12. The figures on this page were re-read on 2026-10-28.
Sources
- Artificial Analysis (2026). Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (v5). Scores read 2026-10-28 from the public leaderboard. https://artificialanalysis.ai/leaderboards/models
- Google AI Studio (2026). Free-tier terms and rate limits. Verified 2026-10-11. https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
- OpenRouter (2026). Free-tier terms and rate limits. Verified 2026-10-11. https://openrouter.ai/docs/api-reference/limits
- OpenCode Zen (2026). Free-tier terms and rate limits. Verified 2026-10-11. https://opencode.ai/docs/zen/
- NVIDIA NIM (build.nvidia.com) (2026). Free-tier terms and rate limits. Verified 2026-10-11. https://build.nvidia.com/
- Groq (2026). Free-tier terms and rate limits. Verified 2026-10-11. https://console.groq.com/docs/rate-limits
- Cloudflare Workers AI (2026). Free-tier terms and rate limits. Verified 2026-10-11. https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers-ai/platform/pricing/
- OpenRouter (2026). Models API (used to verify which models are currently $0). https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models
Machine-readable data: /free-ai-models.json. Methodology and the benchmark source are documented in the site repo.