Best Free LLM in 2026
You do not need to pay for AI to get genuinely useful results. The free tiers of major LLMs are better than ever in 2026. Here is what to use — and what the real limits are.
Last updated: February 2026
Gemini 3 Pro offers the best genuinely-free consumer product of any frontier model. The web interface at gemini.google.com has no announced hard usage cap for typical queries, runs the full Gemini 3 Pro model (AA Index 48.44 — the highest measured intelligence of any model we track), and integrates with Google products. If you are only picking one free tool, start here.
Free at gemini.google.com. No credit card, no hard usage cap for normal use.
Try freeDeepSeek V3.2 is available free at chat.deepseek.com with no announced hard limit for typical use. Its reasoning capabilities match or beat paid frontier models on many benchmark tasks. Important caveat: it is operated by a Chinese company under Chinese data laws. Not appropriate for sensitive personal or business data.
Free at chat.deepseek.com. API is very cheap ($0.27/$1.10) if you exceed free web limits.
Try freeGPT-5 mini is available on ChatGPT's free tier with daily limits and is the best free option for reasoning-heavy tasks — math, multi-step problems, complex debugging. Its reasoning model architecture gives it an edge over base models at the same price point, including GPT-5.2 free tier in some task categories.
Free at chatgpt.com (daily limits). ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) for higher limits.
Try freeChatGPT's free tier gives access to GPT-5.2, one of the best models available. For casual daily use — questions, writing help, general research — the free tier is sufficient. You will hit daily limits with heavy use, at which point it falls back to a lighter model.
Free at chatgpt.com. ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) for higher limits and priority access.
Try freeLlama 4 Scout is the right choice when you want zero data sharing with any commercial provider. The weights are free to download — self-host it on your own infrastructure and your data never leaves your control. Via Groq's free API tier, you can use it with no payment required (rate-limited). Compute always costs money; open weights means Meta doesn't charge the license fee.
Free API tier via Groq (rate limited). Download weights free from Meta. Self-hosting requires GPU hardware.
Try freeBottom line
For most people: use Gemini 3 Pro free at gemini.google.com for general tasks, and ChatGPT free tier when you need OpenAI's ecosystem or tools. If you hit daily limits regularly, the $20/month plans for either platform pay for themselves quickly. For privacy-first use with no commercial data sharing, Llama 4 Scout self-hosted is the only real option.
Quick comparison
| Model | Rating | Price (input) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3 Pro | 8.8/10 | Free | 1.0M |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | 6.3/10 | Free | 128K |
| GPT-5 mini | 7.3/10 | $0.25/1M | 400K |
| GPT-5.2 | 8.3/10 | $1.75/1M | 400K |
| Llama 4 Scout | 7.5/10 | $0.11/1M | 10.0M |