How to Get Free AI Credits, API Keys and Models

Building with AI doesn't have to mean paying for API access. Ten different platforms hand out free models, API keys and starter credits, and this share walks you to each one in order so nothing stalls your next project.

One thing to hold on to: free is not the same as unlimited. Rate limits, the models on offer, signup credits and regional availability all change without warning, so check the current limits before you build anything that depends on a free tier.

Tutorial

1. Open https://aistudio.google.com/apikey for Google Gemini. The API is free to use, with usage limits attached.
2. Open https://console.groq.com for Groq. It serves a selection of open models with fast inference.
3. Open https://console.mistral.ai for Mistral AI. API access to Mistral models is there, with free options where available.
4. Open https://dash.cloudflare.com for Cloudflare Workers AI. It runs supported AI models through Cloudflare's own infrastructure.
5. Open https://build.nvidia.com for NVIDIA NIM. This is where you experiment with hosted AI models and APIs.
6. Open https://openrouter.ai for OpenRouter. One API reaches many different models, including the ones marked as free.
7. Open https://huggingface.co for Hugging Face. A huge collection of open models, plus inference tools and APIs.
8. Open https://1min.ai for 1min.AI. Multiple AI models and tools, with free usage options.
9. Look up Atria if you want another platform with model and API access options.
10. Look up Mercury / Inception for access to Inception's AI models and developer platform.

Wrapping Up

You now have ten starting points for free AI access, from a Gemini key to Cloudflare's infrastructure and OpenRouter's free-tier models. Pick the one that matches your stack, then read its limits page before you write code that depends on it. Keep the list somewhere handy, because the next time a project needs an API, one of these ten will probably cover you.