Best Free LLM API Tiers

These models offer a free rate-limited API tier — no credit card required to start. Ranked by quality score. All free API tiers have rate limits; none are suitable for production traffic without a paid plan. Useful for prototyping, evaluation, and low-volume personal projects.

Gemini 3 ProGoogle

Google AI StudioFree tier + $2/$12 per 1M paidFree tier for developers: rate-limited (60 req/min). Not a consumer product — for API testing and development only. Paid: $2/$12 per 1M tokens. Prompts >200K tokens billed at 2×.

8.8

quality

Get API access for Gemini 3 Pro →

Llama 4 ScoutMeta

GroqFree tier + $0.11/$0.11 per 1M paidFastest hosted inference (~180 t/s). Free tier available — rate-limited by requests/min and daily tokens. Not suitable for production workloads on free tier.

Together AIFree tier + $0.18/$0.18 per 1M paid$25 free credits on signup.

7.5

quality

Get API access for Llama 4 Scout →

Gemini 3 FlashGoogle

Google AI StudioFree tier + $0.5/$3 per 1M paidFree tier: rate-limited (60 req/min). Paid: $0.50/$3.00 per 1M tokens. Prompts >200K tokens billed at 2×. All four modalities (text/image/audio/video) included.

7.3

quality

Get API access for Gemini 3 Flash →

DeepSeek V3.2DeepSeek

Together AIFree tier + $0.3/$1.2 per 1M paid$25 free credits on signup.

6.3

quality

Get API access for DeepSeek V3.2 →

Llama 4 MaverickMeta

Together AIFree tier + $0.27/$0.85 per 1M paid$25 free credits on signup. Fast inference at 124+ t/s.

GroqFree tier + $0.31/$0.85 per 1M paidVery fast inference. Free tier available with rate limits.

4.4