liveuprouter — AI API router and gateway

Find the best AI API routers.
Use them all with one API key.

UPROUTER is an OpenAI- and Claude-compatible gateway: plug in your API keys from 310 routers (eg. OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, Alibaba Cloud), then route every request with any model, through any vendor — via a single URL with failover aliases, daily spend caps and per-request compute metering you can audit line by line.

BYOK keys — AES-256-GCM encrypted
failover aliases, cheapest-first
daily caps with soft-limit headers
per-request compute metering

Open Connect Get free welcome compute

Explore the directory

gateway — first request

$ curl https://uprouter.online/api/connect/v1/chat/completions \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer upr_live_…" \
   -d '{"model": "sandbox-echo"'}'

← 200 OK · 412ms · 0.0002 compute · routed via sandbox-echo
  audit log: tokens in/out, latency, cost — per request

  {
    "id": "chatcmpl_9f2…",
    "model": "sandbox-echo",
    "routed_via": "sandbox-echo",
    "usage": { "compute": 0.0002, "tokens": "42/310" }
  }

endpoint

/api/connect/v1

auth

Bearer upr_live_…

metering

compute / request

routers 310 free-tier 215 connect 211 live up 116 models 490 free quota 215

refer a developer+50 compute

they get 10 — you get 50

// the index — expansive, community-regulatedno affiliate ordering · no pay-to-rank · uprouter.online

310 routers & providers · 490 models tracked · $4.3k free credits

// community-regulatedthe ranking is earned, never bought

Every entry answers to the community

The index is expansive; the community keeps it honest. Votes, reviews and verified corrections feed straight back into rankings and data confidence.

Vote
Upvote routers that deliver, downvote the ones that don’t — the score re-ranks the index.
Review
Evidence-based reviews with verification tags. Ratings, not vibes.
Verify
Corrections that survive review earn compute — and flip the entry to verified.

Join & start voting Earn compute for reviews →

Anyone can edit this index

Every router page has an edit button — propose corrections to descriptions, prices and free tiers. Editors review each proposal before it goes live, and accepted edits earn compute.

Propose
Open a router page, hit the edit button, and detail your proposed corrections.
Review
Editors rigorously verify every proposed correction against primary sources.
Live
Accepted edits are published instantly, and you earn compute for your work.

Browse the index → pick edit

Paid API

$ 105 entries match — showing 25–48 · sort: Free credits ↓

Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
api.oriper.com
source · api.oriper.com
overview
Chat Oripe is an AI API aggregator offering access to multiple LLM families via a unified interface. It targets low-cost inference with standardized pricing across different upstream models. Details were checked against the provider's own page at api.oriper.com.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMistral NemoDeepSeek Chat
see api.oriper.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
docs.clarifai.com
source · clarifai.com/pricing
overview
Clarifai provides a production-ready AI API for developers, offering an OpenAI-compatible endpoint to run inferences on Clarifai-hosted models from labs like Meta, Google, and Mistral, alongside their own specialized vision and NLP models.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Mistral LargeAnthropic: Claude 3.5 SonnetMeta: Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
see docs.clarifai.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
coze.com
source · coze.com/premium
overview
Coze is an all-in-one AI bot building platform that allows users to create and deploy agents with multiple models. It provides a production API for developers to integrate these bots into external applications with usage-based billing.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Llama-3.1-8B-InstructAnthropic: Claude 3.5 SonnetGPT-4o
see coze.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
cursor.com
source · cursor.com/pricing
overview
Cursor API provides the backend intelligence for the Cursor AI editor, offering access to frontier models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o. It features a tiered subscription model with on-demand usage billed for overages.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
gpt-3.5-turboAnthropic: Claude 3.5 SonnetGPT-4o
see cursor.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
dgrid.ai
source · dgrid.ai
overview
DGrid AI is a decentralized AI network that routes requests across a distributed mesh of nodes. It features an OpenAI-compatible gateway and is integrated into tools like Chatbox and Claude Code. Operates with on-chain transparency.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Meta: Llama 3.1 405B InstructDeepSeek Chatclaude-sonnet-5Google Gemini Pro LatestGPT-4o
see dgrid.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
www.databricks.com
source · databricks.com/product/pricing/foundation-model-serving
overview
Databricks Foundation Model Serving provides enterprise-grade access to open foundation models like Llama 3.3 and DBRX. It is billed per token using Databricks Units (DBUs), integrated into the broader Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
Meta: Llama 3.1 405B InstructMeta-Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMistral: Mixtral 8x7B InstructDatabricks: DBRX Instruct
see www.databricks.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
docs.digitalocean.com
source · docs.digitalocean.com/products/inference/details/pricing
overview
DigitalOcean Inference provides a unified control plane for AI model inference. It offers serverless access to foundation models (Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Kimi) at provider-aligned rates, plus dedicated GPU deployments.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
Meta-Llama-3.1-70B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMistral: Mixtral 8x7B Instruct
see docs.digitalocean.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
doubao.com
source · volcengine.com/docs/6459/115516
overview
Doubao (by Bytedance/Volcengine) provides a suite of models including the high-performance Doubao-Pro and Lite series. It is a major Chinese cloud provider with native API endpoints. Details were checked against the provider's own page at www.volcengine.com.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
ByteDance: Doubao Lite 32kByteDance: Doubao Pro 32k
see doubao.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
docs.empower.dev
source · docs.empower.dev
overview
Empower provides an AI API router with an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. It focuses on bridging multiple model providers (Llama, etc.) through a single gateway for standard clients and SDKs. Details were checked against the provider's own page at docs.empower.dev.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Meta-Llama-3.1-70B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
see docs.empower.dev’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
fal.ai
source · fal.ai/pricing
overview
Fal.ai provides serverless inference and GPU compute for media generation models (Wan, Kling, Flux). It offers output-based pricing for image/video and time-based pricing for dedicated GPU fleets. Details were checked against the provider's own page at fal.ai.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
— none tracked
see fal.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
featherless.ai
source · featherless.ai/docs/plans
overview
Featherless AI provides serverless access to LLMs and agent runtimes. It offers subscription-based 'Chat' plans with unlimited tokens and credit-based 'Developer' plans for API usage. Details were checked against the provider's own page at featherless.ai.
free quota
Free tier available — no credit card required
free models
Ling 3.0 FlashLaguna S 2.1Qwen3.8 27BDeepSeek V4 FlashMuse Glimmer 30BLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct+6
see featherless.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
fenayai.com
source · fenayai.com
overview
FenayAI is an AI API router and aggregator providing unified access to major models like GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable. It features an OpenAI-compatible gateway with BYOK support. Details were checked against the provider's own page at fenayai.com.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
DeepSeek V4 FlashGemini 3.8 FlashGPT-6 AstraClaude Fable 5.1
see fenayai.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
developers.sber.ru
source · developers.sber.ru
overview
GigaChat is an AI model series developed by Sberbank, optimized for the Russian language and multimodal tasks. It provides a robust API for developers featuring both chat and reasoning capabilities, primarily targeting the Russian AI ecosystem.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
— none tracked
see developers.sber.ru’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
docs.gitlab.com
source · about.gitlab.com/pricing
overview
GitLab Duo is a suite of AI-powered features integrated into the GitLab DevSecOps platform. It uses models like Claude and Gemini to provide code suggestions and chat. API access is powered by 'GitLab Credits', which can be purchased or included in premium plans.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
claude-sonnet-5gemini-3.1-pro-preview
see docs.gitlab.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
jules.google
source · jules.google
overview
Google Jules is an AI-driven cloud coding agent platform. It allows developers to automate complex coding tasks and manage cloud resources via a dedicated API. It is part of Google's broader AI ecosystem for developers.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Gemini 2.5 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview
see jules.google’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
haiper.ai
source · docs.haiper.ai/api-reference/api-pricing
overview
Haiper AI is an advanced generative video platform offering text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video capabilities. Its API provides programmatic access to Haiper Video 2.x and 1.5 models with support for multiple resolutions, billed per second of generated video.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
— none tracked
see haiper.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
www.heroku.com
source · heroku.com
overview
Heroku AI is a suite of managed AI services on the Salesforce Heroku platform. It enables developers to integrate and scale AI features using vector databases and third-party AI add-ons. It focuses on simplifying the transition from prototype to production for AI applications.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
Nova Lite 1.0MiniMax M2Qwen: Qwen3 72B
see www.heroku.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
www.ibm.com
source · ibm.com/products/watsonx-ai/pricing
overview
IBM watsonx.ai Gateway provides managed access to foundation models from IBM and third parties. It offers an OpenAI-compatible endpoint and enterprise-grade tools for model governance and scaling. Access is available via pay-as-you-go billing per million tokens.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Meta-Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMistral Large
see www.ibm.com’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
ideogram.ai
source · ideogram.ai/pricing
overview
Ideogram is a specialized AI image generation platform offering a production-grade API. It supports text-to-image, remixing, and advanced editing features like layer separation (Layerize). The API uses a token-based system for both text and image modalities, compatible with standard integration patterns.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
— none tracked
see ideogram.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
jina.ai
source · jina.ai
overview
Jina AI (Foundation API) provides specialized AI models for search and RAG, including high-quality embeddings, reranking, and a Reader API that converts web content to LLM-friendly markdown. The Reader API is currently free for developers, while other APIs follow token-based usage billing.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
— none tracked
see jina.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
kie.ai
source · kie.ai
overview
KIE.AI is an AI model API relay providing access to frontier models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o. It operates on a pay-as-you-go basis and provides an integrated dashboard for API key management and usage tracking.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
gemini-3.1-pro-previewclaude-opus-4-7gpt-5.5
see kie.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
kenari.id
source · kenari.id
overview
Kenari is an Indonesian AI gateway providing a unified OpenAI-compatible API to 38+ models from Claude, GPT, and Gemini. It is uniquely tailored for the Indonesian market, accepting local payment methods like QRIS and billing in Rupiah (IDR).
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
Muse Spark 1.3 Contributorglm-5.3-flashdeepseek-v4-flash-0731gpt-5.6-lunaMiMo-V2.5Hy4 preview
see kenari.id’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
kilo.ai
source · kilo.ai
overview
Kilo Gateway is a developer-focused AI model router integrated with Kilo Code. It provides a unified gateway to multiple providers (OpenRouter, etc.) at their original rates with no added markup. It supports free models for initial development and pay-as-you-go for production usage.
free quota
No public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models
GPT-4oGPT-6 Astra
see kilo.ai’s free quota / risk review →
Paid API
unknownupdated 3d ago
llmgateway.io
source · llmgateway.io
overview
LLM Gateway is a unified AI API router that allows access to over 200 models from multiple providers. It features a 'Hosted Free' plan where free models are accessible with a 5 requests per 10 minutes limit when no credits are available in the account.
free quota
No public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models
MiniMax-M3glm-5.3Gemini 3.8 Flashgemini-3.7-flashMuse Spark 1.3DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813+6
see llmgateway.io’s free quota / risk review →

// about_uprouter

UPROUTER.ONLINE is an independent, developer-facing directory of AI API providers. It tracks model aggregators, official first-party APIs, free relays, subscription routers and cloud platforms in one index. Inclusion is an editorial decision made on the merits of the data — it is never sold, and no listing position can be bought.

We do the normalization once so you can compare on facts instead of marketing: prices are expressed in USD per 1M tokens, free tiers are valued at each provider’s own pay-as-you-go rates, and reliability comes from our own best-effort uptime probes rather than self-reported status pages. Every entry carries source URLs, a verification date, a data-confidence flag and a change history.

The directory is informational only and is not an endorsement of any provider. Prices and free-tier values change frequently — always confirm current terms with the provider before you purchase. The full methodology, independence and non-endorsement policies are documented in detail, and you can reach the editors via /contact for corrections, takedowns or partnership questions.

$ free AI API key — a practical guide

Everything below is written for the person who just typed free AI API key into a search box: what the key is, how to get one, what “free” really costs, and how to use more than one without managing six dashboards. It is the prose companion to the live index above, which tracks the same providers with current numbers.

What is a free AI API key?

An AI API key is the credential your program uses to call a language model. Think of it as a password for a specific service: it identifies you, authorizes the request, and is what the provider meters and bills. A free AI API key is the same object, except the usage behind it is covered by the provider rather than your credit card — at least for a while.

Under the hood, the flow is always the same. You create a key in a provider’s dashboard, you send it with each request, and the provider runs your prompt on a model and returns tokens. The free part is a policy layer on top of that plumbing: a monthly credit budget, a per-minute and per-day rate cap, or a restricted list of models marked free. None of those policies change the fact that a free key and a paid key are the same shape of string pointed at the same kind of endpoint.

The reason the distinction matters in practice is that a free key is usually metered against a budget you did not choose to spend. When the budget empties, your request stops working until you reset the period, top up, or switch models. A paid key is metered against money you explicitly put there. Everything else — the header, the JSON request, the streaming response — is identical, which is exactly why a single gateway can sit in front of both.

How to get a free AI API key in 2026

Getting a free key takes minutes. The steps are the same at nearly every provider, so you can pick whichever free tier fits your use case and follow the pattern:

Choose a provider. If you want the easiest first experience, Google AI Studio or Groq are the most forgiving. If you want the widest choice of models behind one key, OpenRouter is hard to beat. The directory above lists each option with its current free-credit value so you are not guessing.
Create an account. An email address is enough for most free tiers. A handful ask for a card on file for abuse prevention but will not charge you until you move to a paid plan — read that note before you enter it.
Generate the key. In the dashboard’s “API keys” or “credentials” page, click create. The key is shown once; copy it to a secrets manager or environment variable immediately. Do not paste it into client-side code or a public repo.
Make a test call. Send a tiny completion request to confirm the key works and the free tier is active. If the response includes a usage or rate-limit header, note the numbers — those are the real limits you are working within.
Decide where to keep it. Either point your application straight at the provider, or drop the key into a gateway like Uprouter Connect so you can add more keys, set spend caps, and fail over when a free tier throttles you.

One nuance worth internalizing: the value of a free key is not that it exists, it is that it is portable. Because every free key talks the same OpenAI- or Claude-compatible protocol, the code you write against one key will run against another with only the base URL and the credential changed. That portability is what makes it sensible to hold several free keys and route among them.

Free key vs. free credits vs. free tier

People say “free AI API key” and “free credits” interchangeably, but they are three different things, and confusing them is how a project quietly stops working at exactly the wrong moment.

The key is the credential. It has a value only in that it grants access to whatever budget is attached to your account.
Free credits are a dollar amount of usage the provider has fronted for you — a signup grant or a trial balance. They are one-time in most cases: spend them and they are gone until the provider replenishes them.
A free tier is a standing, rate-limited plan you can use month after month. It is usually the “always available” part of a free key, with credits layered on top for a burst.

When you evaluate a provider for a free key, ask three questions. First, how many credits do I get on signup, and do they ever come back? Second, what is the standing free tier — which models, and what are the per-minute and per-day caps? Third, is there a hard wall — a day when the key requires payment to keep working? The directory above values the free tier at each provider’s own pay-as-you-go rates so the “how much is this actually worth” question is answered in one comparable number.

Safety and terms: what “free” actually means

The three things a free key’s terms almost always get wrong for the user are privacy, durability, and data use. Read for all three before you build on top of a free tier.

Data and training

Many free tiers may use your prompts and completions to improve models; paid plans usually may not, or let you opt out. If your traffic contains anything you would not want a model vendor to see, this single clause can disqualify a free key for production regardless of how generous the credits are.

Durability

A free tier is a marketing surface, not a service level. Limits can be reduced, models can rotate, and free previews can end. Treat any free key as best-effort and keep at least one alternative key warm so an upstream change is a config swap, not an outage.

Responsible use

Rate limits exist for the provider’s cost and your neighbors’ latency. Hitting them aggressively, or routing shared keys across many users, is the fastest way to get a free account suspended. Meter your own calls, cache what you can, and keep a per-user or per-project cap so one caller cannot burn the shared budget.

The risk tier on each entry in the directory above is our editorial read of exactly these questions — established operator versus young relay, clear terms versus vague ones, stable history versus a history of limit changes. It is one signal among many, and it is always paired with the source so you can verify it yourself.

The most useful free AI API keys right now

A shortlist to start from, grouped by what the free tier is best for. Free tiers change often, so treat the notes as the shape of the offer, not a spec — the live index above has the current credit values, rate-limit observations, and risk tier for each.

Provider	Models	Free offer	Notes
Google AI Studio	Gemini API	Free tier with rate limits	Standard models are free to key with no card; heavy or pro models move to paid. Good first key for chat and embeddings.
Groq	Llama, Gemma, and more	Free API key, fast inference	One of the lowest-latency free keys around; per-minute and per-day rate limits apply.
OpenRouter	Hundreds of models	Free :free model routes	A router with free variants of many models marked :free, plus a credit system for paid ones.
Mistral AI	Mistral, Codestral	Free La Plateforme tier	Free-tier keys with rate limits; a paid tier unlocks higher throughput.
Hugging Face	Open models	Free inference providers	Free access to a range of open models through hosted inference, subject to per-day quotas.
Cohere	Command, Embed	Free trial key	A trial key with a usage budget for text generation, embeddings, and reranking.
Cerebras	Llama, Qwen	Free fast inference	Very high token rates on a small set of open models, free while in preview.

verify current terms with the provider before relying on a free tier in production.

Using one gateway across many free keys

The natural next step after collecting a few free keys is to stop calling each provider by its own URL. Because the keys all speak the same protocol, you can point them at a single gateway and drive them like one API. That is the job of Uprouter Connect: it takes your OpenAI- and Claude-compatible calls, routes them to whichever provider you name, and gives you one base URL and one auth scheme in exchange.

The payoff is threefold. Failover: when a free tier rate-limits you mid-request, the gateway can try the next provider on an alias instead of returning an error. Metering: every call is logged with tokens in, tokens out, latency, and compute cost, so you can see exactly how hard each free key is working. And caps: you can set a daily compute ceiling so a runaway loop cannot drain a shared budget before you notice. For anyone managing more than one free AI API key, that single point of control is usually worth the hop.

Frequently asked questions

What is a free AI API key?

A free AI API key is a credential that lets your code call a large-language-model or AI service without paying, usually within a free tier or a set of free models. You sign up with an email, the provider issues a key, and you send it with each request (typically as an Authorization header) to hit an endpoint such as /chat/completions. "Free" almost always means "free up to a limit" — a monthly credit allowance, per-minute and per-day rate caps, or a subset of free models — not unlimited usage forever.

How do I get a free AI API key in 2026?

Pick a provider that offers a free tier (Google AI Studio, Groq, Mistral, OpenRouter, Hugging Face, Cohere, Cerebras are common starting points), create an account, open the API-keys console in the dashboard, and generate a key. Copy it into your client or into a gateway. Most free keys require no credit card, though some providers ask for one to prevent abuse and refund nothing until you top up.

Are free AI API keys really free, or is there a catch?

They are free to use within the stated limits, and the catch is the limit — not a hidden fee. Typical constraints: a monthly or one-time credit budget, rate limits (requests per minute, tokens per day), a restricted set of models, and data-handling rules that differ from paid plans. The important catches to read before you rely on a free key are (1) whether free-tier data may be used for training, (2) what happens to your key when the trial budget is exhausted, and (3) whether the free tier is guaranteed or best-effort.

What is the difference between a free key, free credits, and a free tier?

A free key is the credential itself. Free credits are a dollar amount of usage the provider grants so you can run paid models at no cost until the budget runs out. A free tier is an ongoing, rate-limited free plan you can keep using. A provider may give you all three at once: a free key, a one-time credit grant, and a persistent free tier for cheaper models. Knowing which of the three you are using tells you what happens the moment the number hits zero.

Which providers have the most useful free AI API keys?

For a first key, Google AI Studio (Gemini) and Groq are the friendliest: no card for standard models and fast responses. For breadth, OpenRouter gives you one key across hundreds of models with explicit :free variants. For open-weight models at speed, Cerebras and Hugging Face are strong. The right choice depends on whether you value raw speed, model variety, or a large credit budget — the directory on this page ranks all of these by free-credit value, risk, and live status so you can compare on facts.

Is it safe to use a free AI API key for a production app?

Use a free key for prototypes, demos, and light internal tooling, but treat it as best-effort: free tiers change limits, can be throttled, and usually sit behind paid plans for production SLAs and higher throughput. Before you ship something user-facing, read the provider’s terms on data retention and training use, confirm your rate limits cover real traffic, and have a paid or gateway-based fallback. If you are juggling several free keys, route them through a single gateway so you can switch providers and meter usage in one place.

What is Uprouter Connect and how does it help with free keys?

UPROUTER CONNECT is an OpenAI- and Claude-compatible gateway. You bring your keys (the free ones from the directory, your paid ones, or a mix), and every request goes through one URL with one auth scheme. That means failover across providers when a free tier rate-limits you, per-request compute metering so you can see exactly what each call costs, and daily spend caps. The directory above maps which providers work through Connect, their free-credit values, and their risk profile, so you can start with the best free key and graduate to paid without rewriting your integration.

Start with a free key, stay on one gateway

Claim welcome compute, add the free keys from this page, and make a real gateway call in under a minute. Every provider in the index above is marked for which ones route through Connect, so you can start free and scale to paid without changing a line of application code.

Get your key Browse free tiers

Informational only — not an endorsement. Verify pricing with the provider. ToS compliance is your responsibility.

// from_the_blog

Guides on AI API routers, free tiers, pricing and reliability — written by the Uprouter editorial team, data-true and linked to the live directory.

read the blog →

News & Methodology

Find the best AI API routers.
Use them all with one API key.

Every entry answers to the community

Anyone can edit this index

$ free AI API key — a practical guide

What is a free AI API key?

How to get a free AI API key in 2026

Free key vs. free credits vs. free tier

Safety and terms: what “free” actually means

Data and training

Durability

Responsible use

The most useful free AI API keys right now

Using one gateway across many free keys

Frequently asked questions

What is a free AI API key?

How do I get a free AI API key in 2026?

Are free AI API keys really free, or is there a catch?

What is the difference between a free key, free credits, and a free tier?

Which providers have the most useful free AI API keys?

Is it safe to use a free AI API key for a production app?

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How Uprouter Verifies Data: Our Methodology, in Plain Language

The Real Risks of Using Third-Party AI API Routers: Data & Privacy

How We Check AI API Provider Reliability (and What "Up" Really Means)

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$ free AI API key — a practical guide

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What is the difference between a free key, free credits, and a free tier?

Which providers have the most useful free AI API keys?

Is it safe to use a free AI API key for a production app?

What is Uprouter Connect and how does it help with free keys?

Start with a free key, stay on one gateway

How Uprouter Verifies Data: Our Methodology, in Plain Language

The Real Risks of Using Third-Party AI API Routers: Data & Privacy

How We Check AI API Provider Reliability (and What "Up" Really Means)

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