Resources · Getting started

Free LLM APIs

Several cloud providers offer free or long-term free API tiers you can use with custom models in BenchmarkFree. No credit card required for many of them — always verify on the provider's site.

Best for development & testing

Free tiers may train on your data and impose rate or speed limits. Great for exploration and evaluation — avoid routing production traffic through them.

Providers

118

Models

How to use a free API for evaluation

Pick a provider below and click Get API key to open their signup page.

Create a BenchmarkFree account, then click Add to my models on any listed model.

Enter your API key in the dialog, validate the connection, and save to start evaluating.

Aion Labs

🇮🇱 IL

Permanent free tier, no credit card required. 15 RPM, 20K tokens/day. Specialized for roleplay and storytelling.

Get API key

Base URLhttps://api.aionlabs.ai/v1

Available models·3

ModelContextMax outputModalityRate limitActionAion 2.5128K32KText (roleplay)15 RPM, 20K TPDAion 2.0128K32KText (roleplay)15 RPM, 20K TPDAion-RP 1.0 (8B)32K~8KText (roleplay)15 RPM, 20K TPD

Cohere

🇨🇦 CA

Free "Trial" API key, no credit card. 1,000 API calls/month. Non-commercial use only.

Get API key

Base URLhttps://api.cohere.ai/compatibility/v1

Available models·5

ModelContextMax outputModalityRate limitActionCommand A+ (218B)128K4KText20 RPMCommand A (111B)256K4KText20 RPMCommand R+128K4KText20 RPMCommand R128K4KText20 RPM

Google Gemini

🇺🇸 US

Free tier unavailable in EU/UK/Switzerland. Free-tier prompts may be used by Google to improve products.

Get API key

Base URLhttps://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta

Available models·4

ModelContextMax outputModalityRate limitActionGemini 3.5 Flash1M64KText + Image + Audio + Video15 RPM, 1,500 RPDGemini 3.1 Flash-Lite1M65KText + Image + Audio + Video30 RPM, 1,500 RPDGemini 2.5 Flash1M65KText + Image + Audio + Video15 RPM, 1,500 RPDGemini 2.5 Pro2M65KText + Image + Audio + Video5 RPM, 50 RPD

•Free tier not available in the EU, UK, or Switzerland ([available regions](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/available-regions)).

Mistral AI

🇫🇷 FR

Free "Experiment" plan, no credit card. ~1B tokens/month. Prompts may be used to improve models.

Get API key

Base URLhttps://api.mistral.ai/v1

Available models·6

ModelContextMax outputModalityRate limitActionMistral Medium 3.5 (128B)256K256KText + Image + Code~1 RPS, 500K TPMMistral Small 4256K256KText + Image + Code~1 RPS, 500K TPMMistral Large 3256K256KText~1 RPS, 500K TPMMistral Nemo (12B)128K128KText~1 RPS, 500K TPM

Z AI (Zhipu AI)

🇨🇳 CN

Permanent free models, no credit card required.

Get API key

Base URLhttps://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4

Available models·2

ModelContextMax outputModalityRate limitActionGLM-4.7-Flash200K128KText1 concurrent requestGLM-4.6V-Flash128K~4KText + Image1 concurrent request

Glossary

RPM: Requests per minute
RPD: Requests per day
TPM: Tokens per minute
TPD: Tokens per day
RPS: Requests per second