OpenRouter (free models)
permanent free · aggregator · verification: partially_verified (75%, doc_fetch, 2026-07-17) · setup guide →
The record
| Base URLs | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 openai-compatible |
|---|---|
| API key required | yes |
| Credit card | no |
| Phone verification | no |
| May train on prompts | yes |
| Quota | free_tier [rpm, rpd] “20 requests/minute; 50 requests/day; up to 1000 requests/day with $10 lifetime topup. Models share a common quota. "Making additional accounts or API keys will not affect your rate limits, as we govern capacity globally."” |
| Signup friction | 3 steps · ~5m to first key |
| Env var | OPENROUTER_API_KEY |
| Notes | Free models carry the ":free" suffix in model_id (~20-22 models). Also offers a Free Models Router (model id "openrouter/free") and model fallbacks for chaining. Tool calling is model-dependent on free models. |
Models (4)
| model | capabilities | context | free | limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| google/gemma-4-31b-it:free | chat, vision | 262,144 | yes | 20 rpm · 50 rpd |
| meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free | chat | 131,072 | yes | 20 rpm · 50 rpd |
| openai/gpt-oss-20b:free | chat, reasoning | 131,072 | yes | 20 rpm · 50 rpd |
| qwen/qwen3-coder:free | chat, completion | 1,048,576 | yes | 20 rpm · 50 rpd |
Provenance
| source_openrouter_docs | official_docs | trust: high | checked 2026-07-17 |
| source_repo_cheahjs | curated_repo | trust: medium_high | checked 2026-07-17 |
| source_repo_mnfst | curated_repo | trust: medium_high | checked 2026-07-17 |