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
$ 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" }
}refer a developer+50 compute
they get 10 — you get 50
310 routers & providers · 490 models tracked · $4.3k free credits
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.
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.
$ 20 entries match — showing 1–20 · sort: Free credits ↓
- Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 3d agodeepgram.comsource · deepgram.com/pricingoverview
Deepgram is a specialized speech-to-text and text-to-speech API provider. It offers high-performance audio models like Nova-3 and Flux, with real-time streaming and batch processing capabilities. Authentication is via API key created in its own dashboard.
free quota$200 free credit on sign-up with no expiration.
free models— none trackedsee deepgram.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agoyou.comsource · you.com/pricingoverview
You.com provides a specialized Web Search API for AI agents and LLM applications. It offers real-time web intelligence and structured search results (snippets, full text). Features a consumption-based pricing model and generous onboarding credits for new developers.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee you.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agogladia.iosource · gladia.io/pricingoverview
Gladia is a speech-to-text API provider offering high-accuracy asynchronous and real-time transcription across 100+ languages. It features speaker diarization and automatic language detection, billed via a prepaid credit wallet system with a significant free starting grant.
free quota50€ free credits (~$55 USD) one-time grant upon signup.
free models— none trackedsee gladia.io’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agoexa.aisource · exa.ai/pricingoverview
Exa is an internet-scale search and content extraction API designed for AI agents. It features embeddings-based search, deep research capabilities, and structured content retrieval. Details were checked against the provider's own page at exa.ai.
free quota$20 signup credit + $10 recurring monthly credit.
free models— none trackedsee exa.ai’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agofirecrawl.devsource · firecrawl.dev/pricingoverview
Firecrawl is a search and scrape API designed to turn websites into LLM-ready markdown. It supports crawling, scraping, and real-time search with a usage-based credit system. Details were checked against the provider's own page at www.firecrawl.dev.
free quota500 free credits allowance on signup.
free models— none trackedsee firecrawl.dev’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 3d agoelevenlabs.iosource · elevenlabs.io/pricingoverview
ElevenLabs is a leading AI audio platform providing high-fidelity text-to-speech, speech-to-speech, and voice cloning APIs. It supports multiple languages and low-latency streaming for voice agents. Details were checked against the provider's own page at elevenlabs.io.
free quota10,000 characters per month free.
free models— none trackedsee elevenlabs.io’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agofish.audiosource · fish.audio/planoverview
Fish Audio is a leading AI speech platform offering state-of-the-art text-to-speech, voice cloning, and speech recognition. It features the S2.1 Pro model with high quality and low latency. Users authenticate with an API key and are billed via a credits-based pay-as-you-go system.
free quotaFree tier provides 8,000 credits monthly (approx. 12.8 minutes of generation). Based on $15 per 1M UTF-8 bytes (~720 mins), 12.8 mins is ~$0.16.
free models— none trackedsee fish.audio’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 3d agoassemblyai.comsource · assemblyai.com/pricingoverview
AssemblyAI is a leading speech-to-text API provider offering high-accuracy transcription (Universal-3.5 Pro) and a multi-model LLM Gateway. It supports OpenAI-compatible routing for its language model features. Access is pay-as-you-go after a free trial.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models— none trackedsee assemblyai.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agobrave.comsource · api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricingoverview
Brave Search API offers privacy-preserving web search results for AI grounding. It features a $5 monthly free credit and is priced per 1,000 queries plus token usage for the LLM-powered context features.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee brave.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 3d agocartesia.aisource · cartesia.ai/pricingoverview
Cartesia offers ultra-fast text-to-speech (Sonic) and speech-to-text (Ink) APIs. It uses a credit-based subscription model starting at $5/mo, with a free tier providing 20,000 credits monthly for development.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models— none trackedsee cartesia.ai’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agodevelopers.google.comsource · developers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overviewoverview
Google Programmable Search (Custom Search) provides a RESTful JSON API to retrieve web and image search results. As of 2026, the service is discontinued for new customers and will be decommissioned in early 2027. It offers 100 free queries per day for existing users.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee developers.google.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agoinworld.aisource · inworld.ai/pricingoverview
Inworld AI provides a sophisticated platform for realtime AI characters and audio/speech APIs. It features low-latency TTS (Text-to-Speech) and STT (Speech-to-Text) with specific optimization for interactive applications. The platform includes an LLM router for character brains.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models— none trackedsee inworld.ai’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agodocs.linkup.sosource · linkup.sooverview
Linkup Search is a specialized search API designed for AI agents. It provides real-time access to web content, including deep search capabilities for technical and legal data. It offers a generous free tier of 4,000 queries for new users.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee docs.linkup.so’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 3d agoplay.htsource · play.ht/pricingoverview
PlayHT is an AI-driven text-to-speech platform providing realistic synthetic voices and voice cloning via a REST API. It serves professional creators and developers with multiple voice models, including its proprietary PlayHT 2.0 and 3.0 engines.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models— none trackedsee play.ht’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 3d agowww.rev.aisource · rev.ai/pricingoverview
Rev AI provides a suite of speech-to-text APIs powered by Rev's proprietary speech engine. It offers high-accuracy asynchronous and real-time transcription, as well as language identification and topic extraction for developers building voice-enabled applications.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models— none trackedsee www.rev.ai’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agowww.searchapi.iosource · searchapi.io/pricingoverview
SearchAPI is a real-time SERP scraping API providing structured data from Google, Bing, Baidu, and more. It is designed for AI agents and developers, offering an OpenAI-compatible interface and a focus on 'pay-per-success' results.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee www.searchapi.io’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agoserper.devsource · serper.devoverview
Serper Search is a specialized Google Search API designed for speed and cost-efficiency in AI agent and RAG workflows. It returns structured JSON for Search, Images, News, Maps, and more. Authentication is via API key with a generous free tier for new users.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee serper.dev’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agosoniox.comsource · soniox.com/pricingoverview
Soniox is an AI speech platform providing high-accuracy Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech APIs. It features token-based pricing for both transcription (Async and Real-time) and speech generation. It supports over 60 languages with bundled features like diarization.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found (researched 2026-08-29).
free models— none trackedsee soniox.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agowww.speechmatics.comsource · speechmatics.com/pricingoverview
Speechmatics is an enterprise-grade speech-to-text platform offering high-accuracy transcription in over 50 languages. It supports both batch and real-time processing with specialized models like 'Melia' for optimized performance.
free quotaFree tier — 8 hours/month, no credit card required.
free models— none trackedsee www.speechmatics.com’s free quota / risk review → - Search / Audio APIunknownupdated 2d agotavily.comsource · tavily.com/pricingoverview
Tavily is an AI-optimized search engine designed for LLMs and RAG systems. It provides structured, clean web data and content extraction without the need for manual scraping. It offers an API with a free monthly credit allowance.
free quotaNo public free-tier information found in the source reference; treat free-tier availability as unverified rather than confirmed absent.
free models— none trackedsee tavily.com’s free quota / risk review →
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.
Informational only — not an endorsement. Verify pricing with the provider. ToS compliance is your responsibility.
Guides on AI API routers, free tiers, pricing and reliability — written by the Uprouter editorial team, data-true and linked to the live directory.
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