Free AI Tools
Curated list of free LLM APIs, coding copilots, AI IDEs, agents, and infrastructure tools for building real AI applications.
What's Inside
- ✅ Free GPT-6 / Claude 5.5 / Gemini 3.8API access
- 🤖 Coding copilots and AI-native IDEs (Cursor, Trae, Windsurf)
- 💰 Cheapest AI APIs ($0.08-0.50 per 1M tokens)
- 📚 RAG stack tools (vector DBs, embeddings, frameworks)
- 🎯 Agent frameworks and automation tools
- 🔒 Local models for privacy (Ollama, Llama, Qwen)
- 🏗️ Production-ready stack configurations
- 🆕 Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Opus 5.5, Haiku 5.5 — GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Luna — gemini 3.8 Flash, Gemini 4 Argon — GitHub Copilot AI Credits — Windsurf Max — Trae Ultra — OpenCode 167k⭐ — Xiaomi MiMo V2.5 Pro
Goal: Help developers build AI apps without paying $200/month.
[!NOTE]
Please don't abuse these services, else we might lose them for everyone. The number becomes 550+ when you add all the models and sub services of all the tools provided. When raising issues or pull requests please dont add your own paid, expensive personal projects.
[!WARNING]
October 2026 Model Generation Leap: Major providers have transitioned to next-generation architectures: OpenAI introduced the GPT-6 family (GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Luna); Anthropic deployed the Claude 5.5 generation (Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5); Google rolled out gemini 3.8 Flash / Flash-Lite as the default workhorse and previewed Gemini 4 Argon. The new baseline for high-throughput coding and daily development is Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, and gemini 3.8 Flash, while complex multi-hour reasoning and autonomous sandboxing target GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5.Pricing & Billing Updates: Windsurf switched to a quota-based model (Pro $20, Teams $40, new Max $200) on Mar 18. Trae moved to a 5-tier token system (Lite $3, Pro $10, Pro+ $30, Ultra $100) on Feb 24. Qoder's launch promo ended — standard standalone pricing settled at Pro $30/mo (2,000 credits, or CNY 59/mo on Qoder CN All-in-One), Teams $40/seat (3,000 credits). Cursor split Teams into Teams Standard ($40/seat) & Teams Premium ($120/seat), credited $70 third-party usage on Pro+ ($60/mo), and shifted Bugbot to ~$1.00–$1.50/run. GitHub Copilot summer credit promotion ended Sep 1, 2026 (reverting to standard $19 / 1,900 credits for Business and $39 / 3,900 credits for Enterprise). Xiaomi MiMo V2.5 API permanent pricing schedule flattened to $1.00/1M input, $3.00/1M output, and $0.20/1M cached across all context lengths up to 1M tokens.
🎯 Why This Repo Exists
Most AI tool lists are:
- ❌ Outdated (prices/limits from 2023)
- ❌ Filled with affiliate links and sponsored placements
- ❌ General-purpose directories with no developer focus
- ❌ Missing production-critical details (rate limits, commercial use, architecture patterns)
This repo focuses only on:
- ✅ Tools developers actually use in production
- ✅ Generous free tiers (no "5 requests then paywall")
- ✅ Production-capable models (SWE-bench verified, not toys)
- ✅ Real infrastructure (APIs, hosting, vector DBs, not just chatbots)
- ✅ Minimal fluff, maximum utility
Unlike: awesome-ai (general list), ai-collection (marketing focus), toolify (affiliate-heavy)
This is for: Builders who want to ship AI features this week.
⭐ Support This Project
If this repo helped you build something or saved you money:
⭐ Star this repo — it helps more builders discover free AI resources.
[🔄 Share with your team] — spread the knowledge.
📝 Contribute — found a new free tier? Updated pricing? PRs welcome!
📅 Updates
2026-10-05 (5/10/26)
- 🚀 October 2026 Model Generation Leap: Updated baseline frontier models to the latest production architectures across all tables, IDE profiles, CLI tools, and API pricing matrices:
- OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra (flagship reasoning), GPT-6.1 Sol ($2.00/$10.00 per 1M, high-efficiency production agent), and GPT-6 Luna ($0.30/$1.20 per 1M lightweight tier).
- Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 ($5/$25, deep reasoning & sandbox security), Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2/$10, 70.6% Terminal-Bench 4.0, 30% fewer tokens/task), and Claude Haiku 5.5.
- Google: gemini 3.8 Flash & 3.5 Flash-Lite (sub-100ms high-throughput defaults) and Gemini 4 Argon preview.
- Replaced legacy 2025/early-2026 SWE-bench benchmarks in comparison notes with Terminal-Bench 4.0, DeepSWE v1.1, and OSWorld 2.0.
- 🧹 Removed Fabricated & Phantom Tool Entries:
- Completely purged non-existent / fictitious repositories: Antigravity (
google-deepmind/antigravity), MemoryPalace (milla-jovovich/mempalace), AWS Kiro (kiro.dev), and QuantFlow Pilot (qf-studio/pilot). - Removed mock benchmark submission "Big Pickle" from OpenCode Zen and agent stacks.
- Restored verified first-party documentation for Amazon Q Developer (50 interactions/month free tier with AWS Builder ID, powered by Bedrock).
- Completely purged non-existent / fictitious repositories: Antigravity (
- 🛠️ Tool-Specific Architectural Corrections:
- Trae: Accurately documented ByteDance's native Doubao model family in China alongside official routing to Claude 3.5/3.7 Sonnet and GPT-4o for international developers (removed false claims about DeepSeek replacing Claude).
- Atlassian Rovo Dev CLI: Removed from free developer stack; clarified that Rovo is an enterprise SaaS add-on requiring an active paid Atlassian Cloud organization.
- 💰 Pricing & Expired Promotion Refreshes:
- GitHub Copilot: Summer promotion expired Sep 1, 2026; reverted to standard monthly AI Credits (Business: 1,900 credits / $19, Enterprise: 3,900 credits / $39).
- Cursor: Shifted Bugbot from flat $40/seat to per-run PR review usage pricing (~$1.00–$1.50/run); split Teams into Teams Standard ($40/seat) & Teams Premium ($120/seat with 5x usage pool); clarified Pro+ ($60/mo) includes $70 in third-party model credits.
- Qoder: Post-promotional standard pricing settled at Pro $30/mo (2,000 credits, or CNY 59/mo on Qoder CN) and Teams $40/seat (3,000 credits).
- Xiaomi MiMo: Permanent API pricing flattened to $1.00/1M in, $3.00/1M out, and $0.20/1M cache; fixed Max tier credits typo from 82B to 3B Credits (2.5B–3.5B range).
- 🛑 Service Sunsets & License Corrections:
- GitHub Models: Documented official and permanent retirement on July 30, 2026.
- Cohere: Marked strictly as ❌ Non-commercial (evaluation only) per Trial API license terms.
- Cerebras: Unified free tier quota to 1.5M tokens/day across all tables and matrices.
- free-coding-models (FCM): Updated live catalog count to 271 models across 25 providers.
- Synchronized and validated all website data in
website/src/data/tools.tsandwebsite/src/data/stacks.ts.
- 🔗 Anchor Links & Navigation Fixes:
- Replaced dead in-page
#anchor links for PR review and CLI tools (Bito, Sourcery, ForgeCode, Goose, OhMyPi) with direct links to official repositories and websites. - Corrected invalid URLs for OpenAI image models (pointing to verified DALL-E 3 documentation) and aligned CLI headings to official sites.
- Replaced dead in-page
- 🧹 Purged Leftover Prompt Artifacts:
- Removed all internal prompt artifact references ("ExamAi") across RAG architecture diagrams, scaling strategy tables, and stack configs in both
README.mdandwebsite/src/data/tools.ts.
- Removed all internal prompt artifact references ("ExamAi") across RAG architecture diagrams, scaling strategy tables, and stack configs in both
- ⚖️ Cross-Table Consistency & Math Corrections:
- Standardized MiniMax model version to MiniMax M2.5 across all API pricing, use-case recommendations, and OpenCode configurations.
- Aligned Recraft free tier quota to verified 30 credits/day across all tables.
- Standardized Sora references to Sora 3.
- Corrected Leonardo.Ai token generation math to reflect realistic output (~8–15 images from 150 daily tokens).
- ⚙️ Provider Categorization & CLI Accuracy:
- Relocated Vercel AI Gateway ($5/mo credit) from Fully Free Providers to Providers with Trial Credits.
- Corrected CLI flag typo (
--fiable→--reliable) in free-coding-models usage documentation. - Removed rogue footer promotional link.
2026-06-25
- 🔄 Major model verification and name alignment: Migrated old placeholders to official Claude Fable 5, Claude Opus 4.8, and GPT-5.5 (Instant/Thinking/Pro) architectures.
2026-06-16
- 🆕 Added OpenCode (167k⭐ OSS CLI), Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Chinese coding subscription)
- 🧹 Removed weak/no-longer-free items from Free LLM providers: Cohere (non-commercial only), GitHub Models (Copilot-required; retired July 30, 2026), SambaNova/Hyperbolic (trial-only), HuggingFace (~$0.10/mo), Vercel ($5/mo), Mistral Codestral, Together AI, iFlow (7-day key), Perplexity API
- 🔄 Updated Gemini CLI entry: 3.1 Pro is paid-only; 3 Flash is the free tier (1,500 req/day)
- 🔄 Pricing refresh: Windsurf (Mar 18), Trae (Feb 24), Qoder (Apr 30), GitHub Copilot (Jun 1) billing changes
- ➕ Added GitHub Copilot Max tier ($100/mo, $200 AI Credits) and Claude Haiku 4.5
- 🐛 Fixed stale Cursor / Qoder / Windsurf / GitHub Copilot pricing throughout
2026-05-18
- ✨ added github PR review tools
2026-04-12
- ✨ added a website for easy navigation
2026-04-11
- ✨ Initial release
Table of Contents
- Quick Comparison
- Free LLM API Providers
- AI-Powered IDEs
- CLI Coding Tools
- API Providers for AI Coding Tools
- Paid Tiers Comparison
- Local Models
- free-coding-models CLI
- Additional 2026 AI Tools
- 🏗️ Recommended Stacks
- ⚡ Realtime & Streaming APIs
- 🎙️ Speech Models
- 🎨 Image Generation Models
- 🎬 Video Generation APIs
- 🌐 AI Browser Automation
- 💾 Cheap Vector DB Hosting
- 🏛️ Common AI Architecture Patterns
- 💵 Model Price Comparison
- 🎯 Best Models by Use Case
- ⏱️ Rate Limit Comparison
- ✅ Commercial Use Summary
- 🧩 RAG Stack Tools
- 🔢 Best Free Embedding APIs
- 🖥️ AI Hosting & GPU Providers
- 📊 AI Evaluation Tools
- 📐 Structured Output Tools
- 🏷️ Legend
- Contributing
- License
Quick Comparison
Free LLM API Providers Summary
| Provider | Models | Free Tier | Credit Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA NIM | 46 | 40 req/min | No |
| OpenRouter | 25 | 50/day (1K/day with $10) | No |
| Groq | 20+ | 1K-14.4K req/day | No |
| Google AI Studio | 9 | 5-500 req/day | No |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | 47+ | 10K neurons/day | No |
| Cerebras | 4 | 1.5M tokens/day | No |
| Mistral La Plateforme | 10+ | 1B tokens/month | No |
AI-Powered IDEs with Free Pro-Grade Access
| IDE | Pro-grade Models | Free Tier Limit | Credit Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Claude Sonnet 5.5 / GPT-6.1 Sol / Custom | Limited free tier (Hobby) | No |
| Trae | Doubao / Claude 3.5/3.7 / GPT-4o (Region-dependent) | 5,000 auto-completions/month | No |
| Windsurf | Claude Sonnet 5.5 / Opus 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol | Light quota (daily/weekly) | No |
| Qoder | Qwen3.6-Plus, Qwen3-Coder-480B, GPT-6.1 Sol | Unlimited completions + limited chat | No |
AI GitHub PR Review Tools
| Tool | Starting Price | Free Tier | Features | Credit Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PrixAI | Free / $10 paid plan | Free trial available | Unlimited reviews Auto-fix PRs, issue planning | No |
| Bito | Free / $25 paid plans | Free trial available | AI PR reviews/Unlimited reviews | No |
| Sourcery | ~$12/month | Free trial available | Code quality reviews | No |
CLI Coding Tools with Free Pro-Grade Access
| Tool | Pro-grade Models | Free Tier Limit | Credit Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini CLI | gemini 3.8 Flash / Flash-Lite | 1,500 req/day | No |
| Rovo Dev CLI | Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol | Enterprise Cloud add-on (5M tok/day) | Paid Atlassian Cloud org required |
| Warp | GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5 | 150 credits/mo (first 2 mo), 75/mo after | No |
| GitHub Copilot | Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra | 50 chat + 2K completions/month | No |
| Jules | gemini 3.8 Flash / Gemini 3 Pro | 15 tasks/day | No |
| Amazon Q Developer | Claude 3.5 Sonnet (AWS Bedrock) | 50 interactions/month (AWS Builder ID) | No |
| OpenCode | 75+ providers (BYOK) + Go bundle | Free (Zen) / Go $10/mo | No |
| Xiaomi MiMo | MiMo-V2.5-Pro, MiMo-V2.5, MiMo-V2-Omni | Free API credits | No |
| ForgeCode | 300+ models via OpenRouter | 10K tokens/day | No |
| RooCode | Bring your own keys | Unlimited (BYOK) | No |
| Goose | Bring your own keys | Unlimited (BYOK) | No |
| OhMyPi | Bring your own keys | Unlimited (BYOK) | No |
What Qualifies as "Pro-Grade"?
Models achieving ≥60% on SWE-bench Verified / Pro or leading agentic benchmarks (Terminal-Bench 4.0, DeepSWE v1.1):
| Model | Benchmark / Score | Provider | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Flagship Enterprise (~86% SWE) | Anthropic | Flagship Reasoning & Security |
| GPT-6 Astra | Flagship Computer Operator (~85% SWE) | OpenAI | Autonomous Agentic Flagship |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | Matches Astra on DeepSWE v1.1 ($2/$10) | OpenAI | Workhorse Agent |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | 70.6% Terminal-Bench 4.0 / 55.5% CursorBench 4.0 | Anthropic | High-Speed Agentic Coder |
| Gemini 4 Argon | Frontier Long-Horizon (1M output tokens) | Frontier Reasoning (Preview) | |
| gemini 3.8 Flash | 84.2% CharXiv / High-Throughput | Default Fast Workhorse | |
| Qwen3.6-Plus | 71.2% SWE-bench | Alibaba | Premium Open-weight |
Note:
[verify]indicates scores need verification from official sources. Always check current benchmarks before making decisions.
🏗️ Recommended Stacks
Ready-made combinations for different use cases. Copy-paste these configurations.
🟢 Fully Free Coding Stack (No Credit Card)
| Layer | Tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| IDE | Cursor Hobby / Qoder | Limited completions + Claude Sonnet 5.5 / GPT-6.1 Sol chat |
| CLI | Gemini CLI (3.5 Flash) / OpenCode Zen | 1,500 req/day Flash, free open-source models |
| API | OpenRouter + Groq | 50 req/day + 14.4K req/day combo |
| Local | Ollama + Qwen3.6-Plus | Unlimited offline |
| Automation | n8n Self-hosted | Unlimited workflows |
| Vector DB | ChromaDB / LanceDB | Free local storage |
Total Cost: $0/month
⚡ Fastest Stack (Low Latency)
| Layer | Tool | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Inference | Groq / Cerebras | 2,000 tokens/sec (Cerebras) |
| Coding | Qwen3.6-Plus via Groq | 1,000 req/day (71.2% SWE) |
| Agent | OpenCode Zen | MiniMax M2.5 (80.2%), DeepSeek V4 |
| Cache | DeepSeek V4 | $0.30/$0.50 per 1M, 90% cache discount |
| Edge | Cloudflare Workers AI | Global CDN |
Best for: Real-time apps, trading bots, live coding assistants
💰 Cheapest Pro Stack (<$10/month)
| Layer | Tool | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| IDE | Trae Lite | $3/mo ($5 basic usage + bonus) |
| IDE | Trae Pro | $10/mo ($20 basic usage + bonus, SOLO mode) |
| API | OpenRouter $10 | 1K req/day + BYOK 1M/month free |
| CLI | OpenCode | Free (BYOK) or Go $10/mo |
| CLI | Xiaomi MiMo Lite | $6/mo (60M credits, ~120 tasks) |
| CLI | Gemini CLI | gemini 3.8 Flash / Flash-Lite |
| Local | Ollama | Free |
| Embeddings | Jina AI | Free tier |
Total Cost: ~$10/month for pro-grade everything
🔒 Local Privacy Stack (100% Offline)
| Layer | Tool | Privacy |
|---|---|---|
| Models | Ollama + Llama 3.3 / Qwen3-Coder | Runs locally |
| IDE | Continue.dev + VS Code | BYO local models |
| CLI | Aider + local Ollama | Git-integrated, offline |
| Chat UI | Open WebUI | Self-hosted ChatGPT alternative |
| Vector DB | ChromaDB / LanceDB | Local embeddings storage |
| Speech | Whisper (local) | Offline transcription |
Best for: Healthcare, legal, finance - any sensitive data
🤖 Agentic AI Stack (Autonomous Workflows)
| Component | Tool | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Orchestrator | n8n / Gumloop | Workflow automation |
| Reasoning | DeepSeek R1 / DeepSeek V4 | Complex decision making |
| Execution | Qwen3.6-Plus | Code generation |
| Memory | ChromaDB / Supabase Vector | Long-term context |
| Embeddings | Jina Embeddings v3 (1M tokens/day free) | Semantic search |
| Monitoring | LangSmith | Trace agent steps |
Best for: Autonomous research assistants, code review bots, data processing pipelines
📊 RAG Stack (Document Q&A)
| Component | Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Framework | LlamaIndex / LangChain | RAG orchestration |
| Vector DB | ChromaDB / Weaviate / Supabase | Document storage |
| Embeddings | E5-Mistral-7B (best accuracy) | Text vectorization |
| Chunking | LlamaIndex | Smart document splitting |
| Reranking | Cohere Rerank | Improve retrieval accuracy |
| LLM | Claude Sonnet 5.5 / GPT-6.1 Sol | Answer generation |
| Eval | RAGAS | Measure RAG performance |
Best for: Document QA, legal document analysis, knowledge bases
Free LLM API Providers
Fully Free Providers
OpenRouter
Limits: 20 RPM, 29 free models (262K context max, March 2026), models share quota
- Llama 3.3 70B ✅
- NEW: Nemotron 3 Super (262K context)
- NEW: MiniMax M2.5
- NEW: Devstral 2 (Apache 2.0)
- NEW: Gemma 3n family (mobile-optimized)
- qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free ✅
- Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 405B
- Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B
- Full list
OfoxAI
Unified API gateway for 100+ LLMs. OpenAI and Anthropic SDK-compatible. China-friendly with Hong Kong direct access (100-300ms latency). No monthly fees, pay per token.
Limits: Not published | 1 free model
- GLM-4.7-Flash (200K context, 128K output, $0/M input, $0/M output)
Google AI Studio
Data is used for training when used outside UK/CH/EEA/EU.
Rate limits: Tier 1 (default): 250 RPD | Tier 2: Requires $250 spend + 30 days
| Model | Free Tier Limits |
|---|---|
| Gemini 3.1 Pro [verify: now paid] | 250 RPD (Tier 1) |
| gemini 3.8 Flash | 1,500 RPD (Primary high-throughput, low-latency) |
| gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite | High-throughput lightweight tier |
| Gemini 3 Flash | 1,500 RPD |
| All others | Check console |
Note: Data training outside UK/CH/EEA/EU still applies.
NVIDIA NIM
Phone number verification required. Models tend to be context window limited.
Limits: 1K credits signup, up to 5K total, 40 RPM (phone verify required)
- 46+ models including Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout, Mistral Large, Qwen3 235B
Mistral (La Plateforme)
Free tier requires opting into data training; phone verification required
Limits (per-model): 1 req/s, 500K tokens/min, 1B tokens/month
- Open and Proprietary Mistral models (Mistral Large 3, Small 3.1, etc.)
Bifrost
Self-hosted, open-source AI gateway for routing requests across 20+ providers through an OpenAI-compatible API.
- Models: 20+ provider integrations through your own keys
- Pricing: Apache-2.0; no hosted subscription required
OpenCode Zen
AI gateway with curated models. Free models may use data for improvement.
- MiniMax M2.5 Free (S+, 80.2% SWE-bench)
- MiMo V2 Pro/Omni/Flash Free
- Nemotron 3 Super Free
- DeepSeek V4 Free
- Trinity Large Preview Free
Cerebras
| Model | Limits |
|---|---|
| GPT-OSS 120B | 30 req/min, 60K tokens/min, 900 req/hour, 1.5M tokens/day |
| Llama 3.1 8B | Same limits as above |
| Qwen3-235B | Available via API |
Groq
| Model | Limits |
|---|---|
| Llama 3.1 8B | 14,400 req/day, 6K tokens/min |
| Llama 3.3 70B | 1,000 req/day, 12K tokens/min |
| Llama 4 Maverick/Scout | 1,000 req/day |
| Whisper Large v3/v3 Turbo | 7,200 audio-sec/min, 2,000 req/day |
| Qwen3-32B | 1,000 req/day, 6K tokens/min |
| Kimi K2 Instruct | 1,000 req/day, 10K tokens/min |
| GPT-OSS 20B/120B | 1,000 req/day, 8K tokens/min |
| And 15+ more |
Cloudflare Workers AI
Limits: 10,000 neurons/day
- @cf/aisingapore/gemma-sea-lion-v4-27b-it
- @cf/ibm-granite/granite-4.0-h-micro
- @cf/openai/gpt-oss-120b, @cf/openai/gpt-oss-20b
- @cf/qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b-fp8
- @cf/zai-org/glm-4.7-flash
- DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
- Deepseek Coder 6.7B Base/Instruct (AWQ)
- Deepseek Math 7B Instruct
- Gemma 2B/3 12B/7B Instruct (LoRA)
- Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B
- Llama 2 7B/13B Chat (FP16/INT8/AWQ/LoRA)
- Llama 3 8B Instruct, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (AWQ/FP8)
- Llama 3.2 1B/3B/11B Vision Instruct
- Llama 3.3 70B Instruct (FP8), Llama 4 Scout Instruct
- Mistral 7B Instruct v0.1/v0.2 (AWQ/LoRA)
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
- Qwen 1.5 0.5B/1.8B/7B/14B Chat (AWQ)
- Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B Instruct, Qwen QwQ 32B
- Phi-2, SQLCoder 7B 2
- And more...
Providers with Trial Credits
| Provider | Credits | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireworks | $1 | Permanent | Various open models |
| Baseten | $30 | Permanent | Pay by compute time |
| Nebius | $1 | Permanent | Various open models |
| Novita | $0.50 | 1 year | Various open models |
| AI21 | $10 | 3 months | Jamba family |
| Upstage | $10 | 3 months | Solar Pro/Mini |
| NLP Cloud | $15 | Permanent | Phone verification required |
| Alibaba Cloud | 1M tokens/model | 90 days | Qwen models |
| Modal | $5-30/month | Monthly | Pay by compute time |
| Inference.net | $1 (+$25 on survey) | Permanent | Various open models |
| Hyperbolic | $1 | Permanent | DeepSeek, Llama, Qwen, GPT-OSS |
| SambaNova Cloud | $5 | 3 months | Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek |
| Scaleway | 1M tokens | Permanent | DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral, Gemma |
| Vercel AI Gateway | $5 credit | Monthly | Requires active Vercel account |
Additional Free API Providers
| Provider | Models | Free Tier | Environment Variable |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZAI | 7 | Free tier (generous quota) | ZAI_API_KEY |
| SiliconFlow | 6 | 1K RPM, 50K TPM | SILICONFLOW_API_KEY |
| OVHcloud AI Endpoints | 8 | 2 req/min (no key), 400 RPM with key | OVH_AI_ENDPOINTS_ACCESS_TOKEN |
| Chutes AI | 4 | Free community GPU-powered | CHUTES_API_KEY |
| DeepInfra | 4 | 200 concurrent requests | DEEPINFRA_API_KEY |
| Replicate | 2 | 6 req/min (no payment), up to 3K RPM with payment | REPLICATE_API_TOKEN |
AI-Powered IDEs
Full-featured integrated development environments with built-in AI assistance.
IDEs with Pro-Grade Models
Cursor
Model: Adaptive routing with Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Opus 5.5, and GPT-6.1 Sol (accessible via AI Gateway / custom config)
- Free tier (Hobby): Limited Agent requests + Limited Tab completions/month + 1-week Pro trial
- Free models: Cursor Small, DeepSeek V4, Gemini 3 Flash / 3.5 Flash (Limited access)
- Premium tiers required for manual model selections like Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5, and GPT-6.1 Sol (note: OpenAI restricts direct standard picker access for GPT-6 Astra)
- Credit-based billing since Jun 2025: each paid plan includes a credit pool equal to its price; Tab completions unlimited, Auto mode effectively unlimited, credits only deplete when you manually pick a premium model
- AI-powered code editor with autonomous coding capabilities
- Pro ($20/mo or $16/mo annually): $20/mo credit pool + Unlimited Tab completions + Auto mode
- Pro+ ($60/mo or $48/mo annually): $70/mo third-party model credits (discounted usage curve for $60 fee) + 3x Pro usage + Background Agents
- Ultra ($200/mo or $160/mo annually): $400/mo credit pool (20x Pro) + Priority access
- Teams Standard ($40/seat/mo or $32/seat/mo annually): Pro-equivalent per seat + Centralized billing + Usage analytics + SAML/OIDC SSO
- Teams Premium ($120/seat/mo): 5x usage bundled per seat + Priority support + Advanced team administration
- Enterprise (Custom): Everything in Teams + Pooled usage + SCIM + AI code tracking API + Audit logs
- Bugbot: Shifted from flat $40/seat/mo to per-run usage charge (~$1.00–$1.50 per review run triggered on commit pushes)
Trae
Models: Doubao (natively in China), Claude 3.5/3.7 Sonnet & GPT-4o (international routing)
- New token-based pricing (effective Feb 24, 2026) — replaced the legacy "fast/slow request" model
- Free: Limited usage, 5,000 auto-completions/month, Standard queue
- Lite ($3/mo): $5 basic usage + bonus, Unlimited auto-completions
- Pro ($10/mo): $20 basic usage + bonus, Unlimited auto-completions, SOLO mode included, 10 concurrent cloud tasks
- Pro+ ($30/mo): $90 basic usage + bonus (4.5x Pro), 15 concurrent cloud tasks
- Ultra ($100/mo): $400 basic usage + bonus, Model early access, 20 concurrent cloud tasks
- 7-day free Pro trial (replaces the legacy $3 first-month deal)
- Annual: Pro $90/yr (~$7.5/mo), Pro+ $270/yr (~$22.5/mo), Ultra $900/yr (~$75/mo)
- On-Demand Usage: pay-as-you-go at API rates after basic + bonus usage is exhausted
- Migration bonus: $20 in dollar usage for current Pro users who manually switch (valid 90 days)
Windsurf
Models: OpenAI (GPT-6.1 Sol), Anthropic (Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Opus 5.5), Google, xAI
- New quota-based pricing (effective Mar 19, 2026) — replaced the legacy "prompt credits" model
- Daily + weekly usage allowance instead of monthly credit pool
- Existing paid subscribers are grandfathered at the old price but moved to the new quota system (with a free extra week to try it)
- Free ($0): Light quota + Unlimited Tab completions + 1 app deploy/day
- Pro ($20/mo): Standard quota + Full model access (Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol) + Purchase extra usage at API price
- ~7-27 messages/day on Premium Plus models (Opus 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol)
- ~8-101 messages/day on Premium models (Sonnet 5.5, Gemini Pro)
- Max ($200/mo) — NEW Mar 2026: Heavy quota (~6x Pro) + Priority support
- ~42-170 messages/day on Premium Plus models
- ~291-1,190 messages/day on Lightweight models (Haiku, Flash)
- Teams ($40/user/mo): Standard quota per seat + Centralized billing + Admin dashboard + Priority support
- Enterprise ($60+/user/mo): Custom volume + SSO + Audit logs
Pricing | Pricing Announcement (Mar 18, 2026)
Void IDE
Models: Multi-agent (frontend/backend/testing agents)
- Agent-first IDE - new 2026 category
- Multiple specialized agents coordinate across codebase
- Free preview tier with high usage limits
- VS Code-based
Best for: Full-stack development with natural language direction
Qoder
Models: Qwen3.6-Plus (71.2% SWE), Qwen-Coder-Qoder, GPT-6.1 Sol
- Free tier: Unlimited completions + limited chat/agent (basic models) + 2-week Pro trial (1,000 credits)
- Experts Mode: Multi-agent collaboration (new Mar 2026)
- Quest Mode: Fully autonomous app building
- Nextnew: Tab predictions
- Windows/macOS, VS Code-based
- Post-promotional standard pricing (settled after launch promo):
Pricing (standard, post-promo):
- Free: Basic models, limited messages
- Pro: $30/mo — 2,000 credits (or CNY 59/mo on Qoder CN All-in-One)
- Pro+: $60/mo — 6,000 credits
- Ultra: $200/mo — 20,000 credits
- Teams: $40/seat/mo — 3,000 credits/seat
- Personal Add-on Credits: $20 for 1,000 credits
- Credits: $0.02/credit, expire 1mo
- Teams new capabilities (rollout): BYOK, Security controls over MCP/Skills, Plugin management, Knowledge Engine
Docs | Pricing | Adjustment Notice
RooCode
Models: Bring your own API keys (any provider)
- Open-source AI-powered coding assistant for VS Code
- Whole dev team of AI agents in your editor
- No subscription required - pay-as-you-go with your own keys
- Custom modes for different coding tasks
IDEs with Basic Models
Codeium
Model: Base model (Llama 3.3 70B), pro-grade models require subscription
- Individual plan: Free forever with unlimited code completions, AI chat, commands
- 70+ programming languages supported
- IDE integrations: VS Code, JetBrains, Vim/Neovim, Jupyter
- No credit card required
- Limited context awareness (expanded in paid tiers)
- Pro ($10/mo): Unlimited usage with advanced context awareness, Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6 access
- Teams ($12/user/mo): Pro features + team management
- Enterprise (Custom): On-premise deployment, custom models
JetBrains AI Assistant
Models: Local models + cloud models with limited quota
- AI Free tier included with IDEs
- Unlimited code completion and local model support
- Limited quota for cloud-based features
- 30-day AI Pro trial included
- Offline mode with local models via Ollama/LM Studio
- AI Pro ($15/mo): Increased cloud quota + unlimited local models
- AI Ultimate ($25/mo): Maximum cloud quota + advanced features
Tabnine
Models: Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, Llama 3.3 70B, proprietary models
- Free tier with limited features
- Basic AI code completions and chat (limited)
- Local processing available
- Context heavily limited in free tier
- 600+ programming languages supported
- Pro ($12/mo): Enhanced AI completions and chat
- Enterprise ($39/user/mo): Multiple LLMs, private deployment, on-premises and air-gapped options
Bolt.new
Models: Unspecified models
- $1 credit/mo = ~100K tokens (reduced Mar 2026)
- Specific model not publicly specified
- Credit card required
- $20/mo: 20M tokens/month
- $200/mo: 200M tokens/month
Lovable
Models: Unspecified models
- 5 daily credits, max 30 per month (free)
- Models not publicly enumerated
- Credit card required
- Pro ($25/mo): 150 credits/month (5 daily credits)
- Teams ($30/mo): Higher limits (undisclosed)
v0.dev
Models: Proprietary models (not frontier)
- $5 in credits/month limit
- Uses proprietary models with varied routing
- Credit card required
- GPT-6 / Claude 5.5 access requires v0 Premium subscription
Additional 2026 AI Chat Platforms
General-purpose chat interfaces with free tiers.
| Platform | Free Model | Key Capabilities | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | GPT-6.1 Sol | Sora 3, DALL-E 3, GPT Store | ~20 msgs/5hr |
| Gemini | gemini 3.8 Flash | 2M Context, 20 Deep Research/mo | Research quota |
| Claude | Claude Sonnet 5.5 / Haiku 5.5 | Technical reasoning | ~30 msgs/5h |
| Grok | Grok 4.2 | Aurora 2 images, voice | 15 msgs/12hr |
| Mistral Le Chat | Mistral Medium 3 | Structured output | Fewer integrations |
CLI Coding Tools
Command-line tools for AI-assisted coding in your terminal.
CLI Tools with Pro-Grade Models
Gemini CLI
Models: gemini 3.8 Flash, gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash
- gemini 3.8 Flash is the default high-throughput model (1,500 req/day on AI Studio free tier)
- gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite provides ultra low-latency CLI completions
- 1,500 requests/day for gemini 3.8 Flash / Gemini 3 Flash
- No credit card required for free tier
- MCP server support, Google Search grounding
- Install:
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
Rovo Dev CLI
[!IMPORTANT]
Enterprise SaaS Add-on: Rovo Dev CLI is tied directly to paid Atlassian Cloud (Jira/Confluence) organizations. There is no open, standalone free tier for independent developers without an active paid Atlassian Cloud organization.
Models: Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra (Ultra)
- Requires active paid Atlassian Cloud organization (Jira/Confluence)
- Organization quota: 5M tokens/day allocation for active subscriptions
- Token limits reset at midnight UTC
- Deep Jira & Confluence issue/doc integration and native MCP server support
- Pro ($19.99/user/mo): 100 tasks/day, 5x higher limits
- Ultra: 300 tasks/day, 20x higher limits, priority access to latest models (GPT-6 Astra)
Warp
Models: GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, gemini 3.8 Flash
- 150 AI credits/month (first 2 months), then 75 AI credits/month
- No credit card required for basic signup
- AI-powered terminal with code generation
- Build ($20/mo): 1,500 AI credits/month
- Bring Your Own API Key (BYOK) option available
OpenCode
167k+ GitHub stars • 850+ contributors • 6.5M monthly users • Apache 2.0
Models: 75+ providers via BYOK — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, AWS Bedrock, Azure, OpenRouter, local Ollama
- MIT/Apache 2.0 licensed — fork, customize, self-host
- Five agent modes (Tab-switchable): Build (full tools), Plan (read-only), Debug, Review, Docs
- LSP-driven self-correction — auto-spawns Language Server Protocol servers and feeds compiler diagnostics back to the model
- Multi-agent support: up to 10 parallel agents per workspace
- Local inference via Ollama: $0 — no data leaves your machine
OpenCode Go (recommended for getting started): Subscription bundle of curated open-weight models
- $5 first month, then $10/mo (beta)
- Models included: GLM-5.1, Kimi K2.5, MiniMax M2.5, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Qwen3.7 Max, MiMo-V2.5-Pro
- Usage limits: $12/5h, $30/week, $60/month
- "Use balance" option falls back to your Zen credits when limits are hit
OpenCode Zen: Pay-per-request credits (PAYG from $20)
Install: curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash • brew install opencode • npm install -g opencode-ai
GitHub Copilot
Models: Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, Gemini Flash, Grok Code Fast 1 (Free tier); Claude Opus 5.5 & GPT-6 Astra available in Pro/Pro+/Max/Business/Enterprise only
- MAJOR: Usage-based billing effective Jun 1, 2026 — premium request units (PRUs) replaced by GitHub AI Credits (token-based)
- 50 agent mode or chat requests + 2,000 completions/month (Free tier)
- Agent Mode with autonomous multi-step coding
- No credit card required for Free
- Free Copilot Pro for students/educators (GitHub Student Pack)
- Code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included on all plans and do not consume AI Credits
- Pro ($10/mo): $15 monthly AI Credits + unlimited completions + cloud agent
- Pro+ ($39/mo): $70 monthly AI Credits + 1,500 premium req equivalent + Opus 5.5 & GPT-6 Astra access
- Max ($100/mo) — NEW Jun 2026: $200 monthly AI Credits + Priority access to new models + 2.9x Pro+ usage
- Business ($19/user/mo): 1,900 monthly AI Credits ($19) + unlimited completions (summer promo ended Sep 1, 2026)
- Enterprise ($39/user/mo): 3,900 monthly AI Credits ($39) + unlimited completions
Plans Details | Usage-Based Billing Announcement (Apr 27, 2026)
Jules
Model: gemini 3.8 Flash / Gemini 3 Pro (upgraded from 2.5 Pro)
- 15 tasks/day free tier
- 3 concurrent tasks
- Rolling 24-hour window reset
- Pro ($19.99/mo): 100 tasks/day, 5x higher limits
- Ultra (via Google AI Ultra): 300 tasks/day, 20x higher limits, 60 concurrent tasks, priority access to latest models
Amazon Q Developer
Amazon's generative AI-powered assistant for software development (evolved from Amazon CodeWhisperer).
Models: Claude 3.5 Sonnet & AWS Bedrock foundation models
- Free Tier: 50 chat interactions and code transformations per month with an AWS Builder ID (no credit card required)
- Code completion, explanation, refactoring, and test generation in the IDE
- Supported IDEs: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and AWS Cloud9
- Terminal integration via AWS CLI and macOS terminal
- Pro Tier ($19/user/mo): Higher usage quotas, enterprise user management, and custom code reference tracking
Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan
Xiaomi's subscription plan for AI coding scenarios — bundled access to MiMo flagship models Compatible with OpenCode, OpenClaw, Claude Code, and other mainstream toolchains
Models: MiMo-V2.5-Pro, MiMo-V2.5, MiMo-V2.5-TTS, MiMo-V2-Omni
- No context-length multiplier — same rate for 10K or 500K context (big deal for agentic workflows)
- 1:2 credit ratio for Pro vs Omni models (consumed in parallel, not independently)
- Night discount: 0.8x consumption (00:00–08:00 Beijing Time)
Monthly Pricing:
| Tier | Price (USD) | Price (CNY) | Monthly Credits | ~Tasks/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $6/mo | ¥39/mo | 60M | ~120 medium-complexity |
| Standard | $16/mo | ¥99/mo | 200M | ~400 |
| Pro | $50/mo | ¥329/mo | 700M | ~1,400 |
| Max | $100/mo | ¥659/mo | 3B Credits | ~6,000 tasks (corrected from 82B typo; 2.5B–3.5B range) |
API Pricing (permanent schedule announced May 27, 2026):
| Model | Input (per 1M) | Output (per 1M) | Cache Hit (per 1M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiMo V2.5 Pro | $1.00 | $3.00 | $0.20 |
| MiMo V2.5 Standard | $0.20 | $0.60 | $0.002 |
Claude Code
Models: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (default high-velocity coding), Claude Opus 5.5 (architectural refactoring), Claude Haiku 5.5
- Free tier available with limited usage
- Pro ($20/mo): Sonnet 5.5 access with extended usage + Opus 5.5 access
- Max 5x ($100/mo): ~225 messages/5 hours
- Max 20x ($200/mo): ~900 messages/5 hours
- Extended thinking modes: "think" (~4K tokens), "megathink" (~10K), "ultrathink" (~32K)
OpenAI Codex CLI
Models: GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra (with up to 8x faster token generation via Codex Ultrafast)
- Free with ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo): 30–150 messages/5 hours with GPT-6.1 Sol
- ChatGPT Pro ($200/mo): 300–1,500 messages/5 hours with GPT-6 Astra
- Pay-as-you-go API: $2.00/$10 per million tokens (GPT-6.1 Sol input/output)
- First model with session "compaction" for multi-million token deep sessions
agent-qa
Models: OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible endpoints, Gemini, and local models
- Self-hosted QA CLI and dashboard with no agent-qa usage cap
- No credit card required when paired with local models
- Bring your own model/provider; provider costs and rate limits apply
- MCP server and skills for Claude Code and Codex
- Install:
npm install -D agent-qa && npx agent-qa init
Documentation | License | Last verified: 2026-08-16
API Providers for AI Coding Tools
These services provide API access to coding-optimized models for tools like Cursor, Continue.dev, Cline, etc.
OpenRouter
- 50 requests/day free tier (1,000/day with $10+ credits)
- Qwen3-Coder-480B, Qwen3-30B-A3B, Qwen3-235B-A22B, Gemini Flash
- OpenAI-compatible API
Cerebras
- 1.5M tokens/day free tier (expanded Feb 2026)
- 30 req/min, 8,192 token context
- Models: Qwen3.6-Plus-480B, Llama 3.1 70B
- Ultra-fast: 2,400 t/s (Qwen3.6)
- OpenAI-compatible API (works with Cursor, Continue.dev, Cline, RooCode, etc.)
Paid Tiers Comparison
AI-Powered IDEs - Paid Plans
| IDE | Entry Tier | Credits/Requests | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Pro ($20/mo) | $20/mo credit pool | Unlimited completions, Auto mode |
| Trae | Lite ($3/mo) / Pro ($10/mo) | $5 / $20 basic usage + bonus | SOLO mode, 5-tier token system |
| Windsurf | Pro ($20/mo) | Standard quota (daily/weekly) | Multi-provider, Claude Sonnet 5.5 / Opus 5.5, Max $200 tier |
| Qoder | Pro ($30/mo) | 2,000 credits | Quest Mode, Experts Mode |
| Codeium | Pro ($10/mo) | Unlimited | Claude Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6 access |
CLI Tools - Paid Plans
| Tool | Entry Tier | Credits/Requests | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Pro ($20/mo) | ~225 messages/5h | Sonnet 5.5 + Opus 5.5 |
| Warp | Build ($20/mo) | 1,500 credits/month | BYOK available |
| GitHub Copilot | Pro ($10/mo) | $15 monthly AI Credits | Usage-based token billing since Jun 1, 2026 |
| OpenCode | Go ($10/mo) | $12/5h, $30/wk, $60/mo | Apache 2.0, 75+ providers, BYOK |
| Amazon Q Developer | Pro ($19/mo) | Enterprise limits & admin | Bedrock models, IDE & AWS CLI |
| Xiaomi MiMo | Lite ($6/mo) | 60M credits | OpenCode/Claude Code compatible |
Local Models
Running open-weight frontier models locally provides unlimited coding assistance without API costs.
Notable Local Models (2026):
- Qwen3.6-Plus-480B (71.2% SWE, ~150GB VRAM)
- Gemma 4 [verify] (Google, Apache 2.0, fully open-source flagship)
- GLM-5.1 / GLM-5V-Turbo [verify] (Zhipu MoE-based SOTA coders)
- Devstral 2 (24B, Apache 2.0, agent-optimized)
- DeepSeek Coder V4 (lite version ~18GB)
free-coding-models CLI
Find the fastest free coding model in seconds. Ping 271 models across 25 providers in real-time.
npm install -g free-coding-models
free-coding-models
Features
- Parallel pings — all 271 models tested simultaneously
- Stability Score (0-100) — composite score from p95 latency, jitter, spike rate, uptime
- Smart ranking — top 3 highlighted 🥇🥈🥉
- Favorites — star models with
F, persisted across sessions - Tool Integration — auto-configure OpenCode, Goose, Aider, Continue, Cline, etc.
- OpenCode Zen Models — Curated free models (MiniMax M2.5 Free, MiMo V2, etc.)
Quick Usage
# Most reliable model right now
free-coding-models --reliable
# Configure Goose with S-tier model
free-coding-models --goose --tier S
# NVIDIA top models only
free-coding-models --origin nvidia --tier S
# JSON output for scripting
free-coding-models --tier S --json | jq -r '.[0].modelId'
Tool Launcher Flags
| Flag | Launches |
|---|---|
--opencode |
📦 OpenCode CLI |
--openclaw |
🦞 OpenClaw |
--goose |
🪿 Goose |
--aider |
🛠 Aider |
--qwen |
🐉 Qwen Code |
--continue |
▶️ Continue CLI |
--cline |
🧠 Cline |
--gemini |
♊ Gemini CLI |
--rovo |
🦘 Rovo Dev CLI |
| And 8 more... |
Tier Scale
| Tier | SWE-bench | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| S+ | ≥75% | Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| S | 65-75% | Qwen3.6-Plus (71.2%), gemini 3.8 Flash, DeepSeek-V4-Flash |
| A+/A | 40–60% | Solid alternatives |
| A-/B+ | 30–40% | Smaller tasks |
| B/C | < 30% | Code completion |
License Summary
All 271 models allow commercial use of generated output. You own what the models generate.
| License | Models | Commercial |
|---|---|---|
| Apache 2.0 | Qwen3/Qwen2.5 Coder, GPT-OSS 120B/20B, Devstral Small 2, Gemma 4, MiMo V2 Flash | ✅ Unrestricted |
| MIT | GLM 4.5/4.6/4.7/5, MiniMax M2.1, Devstral 2 | ✅ Unrestricted |
| Llama Community License | Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout/Maverick | ✅ Attribution required. >700M MAU → separate Meta license |
| DeepSeek License | DeepSeek V3/V3.1/V3.2, R1 | ✅ Use restrictions on model (no military, no harm) — output is yours |
| NVIDIA Nemotron License | Nemotron Super/Ultra/Nano | ✅ Updated Mar 2026, now near-Apache 2.0 permissive |
| MiniMax Model License | MiniMax M2, M2.5 | ✅ Royalty-free, non-exclusive. Prohibited uses policy applies to model |
| Proprietary (API) | Claude (Rovo), Gemini (CLI), Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Large, Codestral | ✅ You own outputs per provider ToS |
| OpenCode Zen | MiMo V2 Pro/Flash/Omni Free, MiniMax M2.5 Free, Nemotron 3 Super Free | ✅ Per OpenCode Zen ToS |
Key Points:
- Generated code is yours — no model claims ownership of your output
- Apache 2.0 / MIT models (Qwen, GLM, GPT-OSS, MiMo, Devstral Small) are the most permissive — no strings attached
- Llama requires "Built with Llama" attribution; >700M MAU needs a Meta license
- DeepSeek / MiniMax have use-restriction policies (no military use) that govern the model, not your generated code
- API-served models (Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) grant full output ownership under their terms of service
⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a summary, not legal advice. License terms can change. Always verify the current license on the model's official page before making legal decisions.
Comparison Notes
- Goal: Compare AI coding tools by their access to pro-grade models and free tier limits.
- What qualifies a model as "pro-grade"? Models must achieve ≥60% on SWE-bench Verified / Pro or leading agentic benchmarks (Terminal-Bench 4.0, DeepSWE v1.1), demonstrating real-world software engineering capability. Current qualifying October 2026 models: Claude Opus 5.5 (Flagship Enterprise reasoning, multi-hour sandboxing & prompt-injection defense), GPT-6 Astra (Autonomous Agentic Flagship / Computer Operator), GPT-6.1 Sol (matches Astra on DeepSWE v1.1, leads OSWorld 2.0 & Terminal-Bench Science), Claude Sonnet 5.5 (70.6% Terminal-Bench 4.0, 55.5% CursorBench 4.0, 30% fewer tokens/task), Gemini 4 Argon (Frontier Long-Horizon with 1M output tokens), gemini 3.8 Flash (84.2% CharXiv), and Qwen3.6-Plus (71.2%).
[verify]tag: Indicates information needs verification from official sources. Pricing, limits, and model availability change frequently.- Different limit types: Tools use various quota systems - requests, tokens, credits, chats - making direct comparison challenging. Check documentation for specifics.
- Real-world usage: Actual consumption varies dramatically based on coding style, task complexity, and tool implementation.
Education & Student Programs
| Program | What You Get | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Student Pack | Free Copilot Pro for students | Verify with .edu email |
| GitHub Copilot Free | 50 chat + 2,000 completions/month | VS Code users |
| Copilot Pro for Teachers/Maintainers | Free Copilot Pro | Open source maintainers & educators |
Additional 2026 AI Tools
Agentic Workflow Platforms
Visual orchestration tools for building autonomous AI agents without coding.
| Platform | Free Tier | Best For | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make (Integromat) | 1,000 ops/month | Visual builders | Drag-and-drop AI Agents, 3,000+ app integrations |
| n8n | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Technical teams | Self-hosted RAG systems, private data automation |
| Gumloop | 2,000 credits/month | No-code agents | Natural-language builder, "Gummie" troubleshooting agent |
| Relay.app | Generous free plan | Beginners | Simple agentic workflows |
| Activepieces | 1,000 tasks/month | Open-source | Flat pricing, self-hostable |
| Podium | Entry-level tiers | Sales/communication | 24/7 lead response AI agents |
Data Visualization & Analysis
AI-powered tools for conversational data analysis and narrative visualization.
| Tool | Function | Free Tier Detail | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Julius | Chat-with-data | Upload spreadsheets, generate instant visualizations | |
| Anomaly AI | AI Dashboards | Generate interactive dashboards from natural language | |
| Flourish | Data Storytelling | No-code interactive maps, "scrollytelling" features | |
| Datawrapper | Publishing | Publish-ready charts in seconds, journalism-focused | |
| Looker Studio | Marketing Data | Seamless Google Analytics/Ads integration | |
| Power BI Desktop | Microsoft reports | Copilot recommendations, local report building | |
| AI for Database | Natural language DB queries | Freemium - free tier available | Connect any DB (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB) and query in plain English — no SQL needed, with self-refreshing dashboards and workflow automation |
Creative & Multimedia Tools
Professional-grade content creation with generous free tiers.
| Tool | Output | Free Tier | Key Capability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veo | Video | Basic Free | Cinematic clips with realistic motion and sound |
| Sora 3 (via ChatGPT) | Video | Limited free tier | Deep ChatGPT integration, high-quality video |
| DALL-E 3 (via ChatGPT) | Image | Limited free tier | High-detail image generation |
| Synthesia | Video Avatars | Free individual plan | "Video Agents" in 120+ languages |
| 1 More Shot | Music Videos | Free plan | Advanced lip-sync, frame-by-frame control |
| Leonardo.Ai | Images | 150 tokens/day (~8–15 images) | Commercial use allowed |
| Recraft AI | Vector/SVG | 30 credits/day | Infinitely scalable icons and logos |
| Ideogram | Images | 10-20 prompts/day | Perfect text rendering, "Magic Prompt" |
| Suno AI | Music | 50 credits/day (~10 tracks) | Complete songs with vocals and instruments |
| ElevenLabs | Voice | Basic Free | Realistic voice cloning |
| Canva AI | Design | Robust free tier | AI design assets, brochures, short videos |
| PhotoGenerAI | Image | Free credits, no sign-up | AI photo generation & editing in the browser |
Productivity & Research Tools
| Tool | Function | Free Tier Detail | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | Writing | 100 AI prompts/month | Rewrites and tone detection |
| LanguageTool | Grammar | 10,000 characters/text | 25+ languages, open-source |
| Fathom | Meetings | Forever Free | Records/transcribes Zoom/Teams, auto-sync to CRM |
| NotebookLM | Research | Free | Audio Overview podcasts, grounded in your documents |
| Humata | PDF Analysis | 60 pages/month | Clickable source citations |
| QuillBot | Rewriting | 125 words/time | Fluency & Standard modes |
| DeepL | Translation | Basic Free | Incognito sensitive mode |
Vertical AI (Specialized Domains)
Medical AI:
| Tool | Pricing | Key Value |
|---|---|---|
| iatroX | Free | Adaptive Q-Bank, NICE/BNF clinical reference |
| DxGPT | Free | Diagnostic assistant (500K+ users, 6K doctors) |
| OpenEvidence | Free (US verified) | Evidence-grounded search, ambient note generation |
Legal AI:
| Tool | Pricing | Key Value |
|---|---|---|
| DocLegal.Ai | $10/month | Clause suggestion, risk detection |
| Doculex.ai | Varies | Case-data-driven drafting from medical records |
| Spellbook | 7-day trial | In-editor contract analysis |
| Harvey AI | Enterprise | Regulatory matters, high security |
Marketing & SEO Tools
| Tool | Function |
|---|---|
| Wellows | AI Visibility Score tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity |
| Google SGE Labs | See how AI Overviews interpret target keywords |
| NeuronWriter | AI content scoring |
| Surfer SEO | Content optimization |
| Jasper | AI copywriting with brand voice |
| Writesonic | Scalable copywriting |
Open Source & Local Tools
| Tool | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Open WebUI | Local Chat Interface | ChatGPT-like experience running entirely offline with Ollama |
| Whisper (OpenAI) | Speech-to-Text | Most accurate open-source transcription |
| Piper | Text-to-Speech | High-quality offline audio generation |
| ComfyUI | Image Generation | Node-based interface for Stable Diffusion |
| Zed | AI IDE | 50 AI prompts/month, native performance, high speed |
| Void IDE | Agent-first IDE | Multi-agent frontend/backend/testing |
⚡ Realtime & Streaming APIs
Low-latency APIs for voice assistants, live coding copilots, trading tools, and realtime chat.
Streaming LLM APIs
| Provider | Latency | Best For | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groq Streaming | ~50-150ms (0.4ms/token) | Live coding, chat | 14.4K req/day |
| OpenAI Realtime API | Low | Voice assistants, agents | No free tier (pay-per-use only, trial credits new accounts) |
| Gemini Live API | Low | Multimodal streaming | Dynamic caps (varies by prompt complexity) |
| Cerebras | 2,400 tok/sec (Qwen3.6) | Batch + streaming | 1.5M tokens/day |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | Edge | Global low-latency | 10K neurons/day |
Speech Streaming APIs
| Provider | Type | Latency | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deepgram | STT streaming | ~300ms | $200 credits |
| AssemblyAI Streaming | Realtime STT | ~400ms | 50 hours/month |
| Groq Whisper | STT fast | ~200ms | 2,000 req/day |
| ElevenLabs Streaming | TTS streaming | ~100ms | 10K chars/month |
| OpenAI Realtime | STT + LLM + TTS | ~200ms | Limited |
Best for:
- Trading bots: Groq streaming (fastest)
- Voice assistants: OpenAI Realtime API (end-to-end)
- Live captions: AssemblyAI or Deepgram
- Realtime chat: Gemini Live API
🎙️ Speech Models
Speech-to-text and text-to-speech models comparison.
Speech-to-Text (STT)
| Model | Provider | Accuracy | Speed | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whisper Large v3 | OpenAI/Groq/Local | Excellent | Fast | 2,000 req/day (Groq) | General purpose, local |
| Deepgram Nova | Deepgram | Superior | Very Fast | $200 credits | Production, enterprise |
| AssemblyAI | AssemblyAI | Excellent | Fast | 50 hours/month | Streaming, diarization |
| Whisper API | OpenAI | Excellent | Medium | Pay-per-use | Reliable, consistent |
| Google Speech | Google Cloud | Good | Fast | 60 min/month | Google ecosystem |
| Whisper (local) | OpenAI/Ollama | Excellent | GPU-dependent | Unlimited offline | Privacy, cost control |
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
| Model | Provider | Quality | Speed | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs | 🏆 Best | Fast | 10K chars/month | Voice cloning, pro voice |
| OpenAI TTS | OpenAI | Excellent | Fast | Pay-per-use | Reliable, cheap |
| Piper | Local | Good | Very Fast | Unlimited offline | Privacy, self-hosted |
| Bark | Suno/Local | Good | Medium | Free (local) | Expressive, local |
| Google TTS | Google Cloud | Good | Fast | 1M chars/month | Google ecosystem |
| WhisperSpeech | Local | Good | Fast | Unlimited | Whisper-based TTS |
All-in-One Voice APIs
| API | Input | Output | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Realtime | Audio | Audio | ~200ms | Voice agents |
| Deepgram Voice | Audio | Text/Audio | ~300ms | Voice bots |
| AssemblyAI LeMUR | Audio | LLM response | ~1s | Voice RAG |
🎨 Image Generation Models
Comparison of image generation models and APIs.
| Model | Provider | Quality | Speed | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLUX.2 | Black Forest Labs | 🏆 Excellent | Fast | Local/Replicate | High quality, open |
| DALL-E 3 | OpenAI | 🏆 Best | Medium | ChatGPT Plus / Free tier | High-detail illustration |
| Ideogram 2.0 | Ideogram | Excellent | Fast | 20 prompts/day | Text in images |
| Recraft V4 | Recraft | Excellent | Fast | 30 credits/day | Vector/SVG output |
| Stable Diffusion XL | Stability AI | Good | Fast | Local/DreamStudio | Flexibility, local |
| Midjourney v6 | Midjourney | 🏆 Excellent | Slow | None (paid only) | Artistic, Discord |
| Leonardo.ai | Leonardo | Very Good | Fast | 150 tokens/day | Commercial use, gaming |
| Adobe Firefly | Adobe | Good | Fast | 25 credits/month | Safe, commercial |
| Imagen 3 | Excellent | Medium | Vertex AI trial | Photorealistic | |
| DiffusionBee | Local | Good | Fast | Local unlimited | Easy setup, open-source |
| ComfyUI | Local | Good | Fast | Local unlimited | Advanced, node-based |
Free Image Model APIs
| Provider | Model | Free Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replicate | FLUX.1-schnell | Free tier | Fast inference |
| Pollinations | Various | Unlimited | No signup |
| HuggingFace | SDXL/FLUX | $0.10 credits | Inference API |
| Leonardo | Phoenix | 150 tokens/day | Commercial OK |
🎬 Video Generation APIs
Text-to-video and image-to-video generation. Hot area in 2026.
| Model | Provider | Quality | Duration | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veo 3 | 🏆 Excellent | 1080p, 60s clips | Limited preview | Cinematic, realistic | |
| Sora 3 | OpenAI | 🏆 Excellent | 120s | ChatGPT Plus | High quality, physics |
| Runway Gen-3 | Runway | Excellent | 10 seconds | 3 free credits | Creative, filmmaking |
| Pika 3.0 | Pika | Very Good | 3-5 seconds | Free tier | Lip-sync improved |
| Luma Dream Machine | Luma | Very Good | 5 seconds | 30 generations/mo | Fast, realistic |
| Kling | Kuaishou | Excellent | 2-10 minutes | Limited | Long-form, Chinese |
| Hailuo AI | MiniMax | Good | 6 seconds | Free tier | Character consistency |
| Stable Video Diffusion | Stability | Good | 4 seconds | Local | Open, flexible |
Video API Pricing (approximate)
| Provider | Cost per video | Generation time |
|---|---|---|
| Runway | ~$0.20-0.50 | 1-5 min |
| Pika | ~$0.10-0.30 | 30s-2 min |
| Luma | ~$0.30-0.60 | 2-5 min |
| Kling | ~$0.05-0.20 | 1-10 min |
🌐 AI Browser Automation
Tools for AI agents to control browsers - web scraping, form filling, testing.
| Tool | Type | Pricing | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browserbase | Managed browsers | $5 free tier | Production agents |
| Steel.dev | Browser API | Free tier | AI-native browser control |
| Stagehand | AI browser framework | Open source | Next-gen Playwright |
| Playwright | Browser automation | Free | Reliable, well-documented |
| Puppeteer | Chrome automation | Free | Chrome-specific |
| Selenium | Cross-browser | Free | Legacy support |
| Scrapy | Web scraping | Free | Data extraction |
AI-Native Browser Tools
| Tool | AI Integration | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Stagehand | Natural language commands | AI agents controlling browsers |
| Browserbase | Session recording for AI | Training agent trajectories |
| Steel.dev | Built for LLM agents | Agent-native browser API |
Stack Recommendation:
- AI agents: Stagehand + Browserbase
- Web scraping: Playwright + Scrapy
- Testing: Playwright + AI assertions
💾 Cheap Vector DB Hosting
Production-ready vector storage without high costs.
| Provider | Type | Free Tier | Paid | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase Vector | Postgres + pgvector | 500MB | $25/mo starter | Full-stack apps |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres | 500MB | $19/mo | Serverless, branching |
| Railway | Managed Postgres | $5 credits | Usage-based | Easy deployment |
| PlanetScale | MySQL + vectors | 5GB | $39/mo | Scale, branching |
| Chroma Cloud | Vector-native | Free tier | Usage-based | Pure vector workloads |
| Qdrant Cloud | Vector DB | 1GB | $25/mo | High performance |
| Pinecone | Managed vector | 2GB | $70/mo | Production, no ops |
| Weaviate Cloud | Vector DB | 5M vectors | $25/mo | Hybrid search |
| LanceDB | Embedded/Cloud | Free | Cloud beta | Multimodal |
Self-Hosted (Free Forever)
| Database | Best For | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChromaDB | Prototyping | Simple, Python-native |
| Qdrant | Production | Rust-based, fast |
| Milvus | Enterprise | Scalable, complex |
| pgvector | Postgres apps | Just add extension |
| LanceDB | Embedded | No server needed |
Recommendation by Stage:
- MVP: ChromaDB (local) → Supabase (hosted)
- Production: Qdrant Cloud or Pinecone
- Enterprise: Milvus or Weaviate
🏛️ Common AI Architecture Patterns
Proven patterns for building AI applications.
1. 🤖 Chatbot Architecture
User → Chat UI → LLM API → Response
↓
Context Memory (Redis/Postgres)
Stack:
- Frontend: Next.js + Vercel AI SDK
- Backend: FastAPI + OpenRouter
- Memory: Upstash Redis or Supabase
2. 📚 RAG Architecture (Document Q&A)
Documents → Chunking → Embeddings → Vector DB
↓
User Query → Embedding → Similarity Search → LLM → Response
Stack:
- Framework: LlamaIndex or LangChain
- Embeddings: BGE-Large or Jina v3
- Vector DB: ChromaDB (dev) → Pinecone (prod)
- LLM: Claude Sonnet 5.5 or GPT-6.1 Sol
3. 🎯 Agent Architecture
User Request → Agent Controller → Tool 1 (Search)
→ Tool 2 (Code exec)
→ Tool 3 (API call)
↓
Synthesize → Response
Stack:
- Framework: LangGraph, AutoGen, or CrewAI
- Tools: Function calling with Claude 5.5 / GPT-6.1
- Memory: Vector DB + State management
- Monitoring: LangSmith or Arize
4. 🔄 Multi-Model Routing Architecture
User Request → Router (classify intent)
↓
┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
↓ ↓ ↓
Cheap Model Medium Model Expensive Model
(GPT-6 Luna) (Claude Sonnet 5.5) (Claude Opus 5.5 / GPT-6 Astra)
↓ ↓ ↓
Simple Q&A Complex task Hard reasoning
Implementation:
- Router: Fine-tuned classifier or LLM-based
- Cost optimization: Route 80% to cheap models
- Fallback: Escalate if cheap model fails
5. ⚡ Realtime Streaming Architecture
Audio Input → STT → LLM → TTS → Audio Output
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Deepgram Groq Claude ElevenLabs
Stack:
- STT: Deepgram or Whisper Streaming
- LLM: Groq for speed or OpenAI Realtime
- TTS: ElevenLabs or OpenAI TTS
- Latency target: <500ms end-to-end
6. 🖼️ Multimodal Pipeline Architecture
Image Input → Vision LLM → Structured Output
↓
Database / Action
Stack:
- Vision: GPT-6.1 Sol Vision, Claude Sonnet 5.5, or gemini 3.8 Flash
- Structured output: Instructor + Pydantic
- Storage: Postgres JSONB or MongoDB
7. 🎨 Creative Generation Pipeline
Text Prompt → LLM Enhancement → Image Gen → Upscaling
↓
Video Gen (optional)
Stack:
- Enhancement: GPT-4 or Claude
- Image: FLUX or DALL-E 3
- Upscale: Upscayl or Magnific
- Video: Runway or Pika
💵 Model Price Comparison (per 1M Tokens)
API pricing for budget planning. Sorted by input cost.
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | Cache Hit | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MiniMax M2.5 | MiniMax | $0.08 | $0.12 | - | Bulk generation |
| DeepSeek V4 | DeepSeek | $0.28 | $0.55 | $0.03 🎯 | Coding, cached |
| gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.25 | $0.75 | $0.05 🎯 | High throughput, 1M+ context | |
| GPT-6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.30 | $1.20 | - | Efficient lightweight reasoning |
| GLM 4.9 Air | ZAI | $0.35 | $0.75 | - | Chinese/English |
| Qwen3-Coder | Alibaba | ~$0.60 | ~$1.20 | - | Strong agent tasks |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Anthropic | $1.00 | $5.00 | $0.10 | High-velocity lightweight tasks |
| MiMo V2.5 Pro | Xiaomi | $1.00 | $3.00 | $0.20 | Long-horizon agents, flat up to 1M ctx |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $2.00 | $10.00 | $0.20 | Flagship coding, 30% fewer tokens/task |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | OpenAI | $2.00 | $10.00 | $0.10 | Workhorse agent, near-Astra coding |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | $0.50 | Enterprise reasoning, secure sandboxing |
| GPT-6 Astra | OpenAI | $10.00 | $50.00 | $1.00 | Autonomous computer operator & frontier |
| Gemini 4 Argon | Frontier | Frontier | - | 1M output token long-horizon (Preview) |
💡 Pro tip: DeepSeek's 90% cache discount makes it cheapest for repetitive tasks with long prompts.
⚠️ October 2026 Generation Note: Claude Sonnet 5.5 lowered rates to $2.00/$10.00 ($0.20 cache read) with 30% lower token usage per task. GPT-6.1 Sol provides near-Astra capabilities at $2.00/$10.00 ($0.10 cache read). Claude Haiku 5.5 is rolling out to replace Haiku 4.5. Claude Opus 5.5 ($5/$25) and GPT-6 Astra ($10/$50) represent the top enterprise and autonomous tiers.
🎯 Best Models by Use Case
Don't just use SWE-bench - match models to your specific task.
💻 Coding & Software Engineering
| Model | Why | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | 70.6% Terminal-Bench 4.0, 55.5% CursorBench, 30% fewer tokens/task | Claude Code / Various |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | Matches Astra on DeepSWE v1.1 at $2/$10, leading agentic performance | ChatGPT Plus/Pro / API |
| Qwen3.6-Plus | 71.2% SWE-bench, Chinese + English, agent-optimized | 2,000 req/day |
| DeepSeek V4 | Near-frontier performance at 1/10th cost | DeepSeek API |
🧠 Complex Reasoning & Analysis
| Model | Why | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Flagship enterprise reasoning, secure sandboxing, prompt-injection defense | Claude Code Pro / Bedrock |
| GPT-6 Astra | Flagship computer operator, long-horizon autonomous planning | ChatGPT Pro / API |
| Gemini 4 Argon | Frontier long-horizon reasoning with 1M output tokens | Fairwind Trusted Testers (Preview) |
| DeepSeek R1 | Specialized reasoning model, math/logic | DeepSeek API |
| MiMo V2.5 Pro | Long-horizon agents (1K+ tool calls), flat rate up to 1M context | Xiaomi Token Plan ($6-$100/mo) |
💰 Cheap Bulk Generation
| Model | Why | Cost per 1M |
|---|---|---|
| gemini 3.8 Flash / Flash-Lite | Primary high-throughput, low-latency models on Google AI Studio ($0.25/$0.75) | 1,500 RPD free |
| GPT-6 Luna | High-efficiency lightweight OpenAI model ($0.30/$1.20) | API |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 80.2% SWE-bench, dirt cheap | $0.08/$0.12 |
| GLM 4.5 Air | Good quality, extremely cheap | ~$0.40/$0.80 |
🤖 Agents & Autonomous Tasks
| Model | Why | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Best tool use, 70.6% Terminal-Bench 4.0, adaptive thinking | Various |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | Leads OSWorld 2.0 & Terminal-Bench Science, 24+ hour deep sessions | ChatGPT Plus/Pro / API |
| Qwen3.6-Plus | Built for agentic workflows | 2,000 req/day |
| MiniMax M2.5 (OpenCode) | 80.2% SWE-bench, agent-optimized | Zen Free tier |
👁️ Vision & Multimodal
| Model | Why | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| gemini 3.8 Flash Vision | Leads CharXiv chart reasoning at 84.2%, 1M+ multimodal context | Google AI Studio (1,500 RPD) |
| Claude 5.5 Vision | Exceptional technical diagram, UI, and document analysis | Claude Free / API |
| GPT-4o | Fast multimodal generation and OCR | ChatGPT Free |
| Qwen2.5 VL | Strong open vision model | Various |
🔊 Audio & Speech
| Model | Provider | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Whisper Large v3 | Groq / Local | 2,000 req/day or unlimited local |
| ElevenLabs | ElevenLabs | Basic free tier |
| Piper | Local | Free, offline TTS |
⏱️ Rate Limit Comparison
Critical for scaling applications. Plan your architecture.
| Provider | RPM | TPM | Daily | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groq | 30 | Medium | 14,400 | High-throughput apps |
| Cerebras | 30 | 60,000 | 1.5M tokens | Batch processing |
| Gemini Studio | 15 | High | 1,500 | Prototyping |
| OpenRouter | 20 | Medium | 50-1,000 | Flexible routing |
| Cloudflare | 300 | 10K neurons | 10K neurons | Edge deployment |
| Groq (varies) | 30-50 | 6K-30K | 1K-14.4K | Model-dependent |
Scaling Strategy by Use Case
| App Type | Recommended Stack |
|---|---|
| Document QA / Study App | Cerebras (Qwen3.6-Plus) + Groq |
| AI Reel Generator | gemini 3.8 Flash (video) + Groq (audio) |
| Trading AI | Groq + local Qwen3.6-Plus |
| Chatbot | OpenRouter + gemini 3.8 Flash (cheap) |
| Code Review Bot | DeepSeek V4 (cheap) + Claude Sonnet 5.5 (quality) |
✅ Commercial Use Summary
Quick reference for legal safety.
| Provider | Commercial Use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | ✅ Yes | All models |
| Groq | ✅ Yes | All models |
| Gemini API | ✅ Yes | Per Google ToS |
| Cohere | ❌ Non-commercial (evaluation only) | Trial API keys strictly prohibit production/revenue use |
| Claude (API) | ✅ Yes | Per Anthropic ToS |
| OpenCode Zen | ✅ Yes | Per Zen ToS |
| DeepSeek | ✅ Yes | No military use restriction |
| Qwen/Alibaba | ✅ Yes | Apache 2.0 models |
| Ollama Local | ✅ Yes | Fully offline |
⚠️ Always verify current ToS - licenses can change.
🧩 RAG Stack Tools
Build document Q&A and semantic search systems.
Orchestration Frameworks
| Tool | Best For | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| LlamaIndex | Production RAG | Open source |
| LangChain | Flexibility | Open source |
| Haystack | Enterprise | Open source |
| Vercel AI SDK | Edge RAG | Free tier |
Vector Databases
| Database | Type | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChromaDB | Local | Unlimited | Prototyping, small apps |
| LanceDB | Local/Serverless | Generous | Multimodal, embeddings |
| Weaviate | Cloud/Local | 5M vectors | Production scale |
| Supabase Vector | Postgres | 500MB | Full-stack apps |
| Pinecone | Managed | 2GB (1 pod) | Production, no ops |
| Qdrant | Local/Cloud | 1GB cloud | High performance |
RAG Evaluation
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| RAGAS | Evaluate retrieval quality |
| LlamaIndex Evals | Built-in RAG metrics |
| Arize Phoenix | Observability |
🔢 Best Free Embedding APIs
Essential for RAG - don't overlook these.
| Embedding | Provider | Dimensions | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| text-embedding-3-small | OpenAI | 1536 | 200K tokens/day | General purpose |
| Jina Embeddings v3 | Jina AI | 1024 | 1M tokens/day | Multilingual |
| BGE-Large-EN-v1.5 | HuggingFace/Local | 1024 | Free | High quality retrieval |
| E5-Mistral-7B | Various | 4096 | Varies | Best accuracy |
| Nomic Embed v1.5 | Nomic | 768 | Free tier | Long context (8K) |
| GTE-Large | Alibaba | 1024 | DashScope free | Chinese + English |
Self-Hosted (Free Forever)
| Model | Size | Speed | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| BGE-Small | 33M | Fast | Good |
| MiniLM-L6 | 22M | Very Fast | Basic |
| Nomic Embed | 137M | Fast | Excellent |
🖥️ AI Hosting & GPU Providers
Scale beyond free tiers.
| Provider | Type | Pricing | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modal | Serverless GPU | $5-30/month credits | Batch inference |
| RunPod | GPU Cloud | $0.20-0.50/hr | Training, fine-tuning |
| Vast.ai | Spot GPUs | Cheap spot prices | Budget inference |
| Lambda Labs | GPU Cloud | ~$0.60/hr A100 | Stable workloads |
| Beam.cloud | Serverless | Per request | Spiky traffic |
| Baseten | Model serving | $30 credits | Production models |
| Replicate | Model hosting | 6 req/min free | Quick deployment |
Serverless Inference (Pay-per-use)
| Platform | Cold Start | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Modal | Fast | Python functions |
| Beam | Fast | ML models |
| Replicate | Medium | Pre-built models |
| HuggingFace Inference | Medium | HF ecosystem |
📊 AI Evaluation Tools
Benchmark your models before production.
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Promptfoo | Prompt testing, red-teaming | Open source |
| LangSmith | Tracing, evals | 5K traces/month |
| RAGAS | RAG evaluation | Open source |
| DeepEval | LLM unit testing | Open source |
| Arize Phoenix | Observability | Generous free tier |
| Weights & Biases | Experiment tracking | Academic free |
📐 Structured Output Tools
Force LLMs to return valid JSON/schemas.
| Tool | Approach | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor | Pydantic validation | Python apps |
| Guidance | Constrained generation | Complex schemas |
| Outlines | Regex/constrained | Fast inference |
| JSONformer | Structure-aware decoding | Local models |
| Zod + Vercel AI SDK | TypeScript validation | Web apps |
🏷️ Legend
Quick reference for badges used in this guide.
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🟢 | No credit card required |
| 💳 | Credit card required |
| ⚡ | Fast inference (low latency) |
| 🧠 | Strong reasoning capabilities |
| 💻 | Coding optimized |
| 📦 | Open source / self-hostable |
| 🔒 | Privacy focused / local |
| 🤖 | Agentic capabilities |
| 🎯 | Best value / cheap |
| 🌐 | Multilingual support |
[verify] |
Needs verification from official source |
Contributing
If you spot an error, missing source link, or have updated quota/model information, please open an issue or pull request with a source.
No affiliation with any vendor. All trademarks belong to their owners. Information is for research; accuracy not guaranteed; limits/pricing change frequently.
Related Resources
- cheahjs/free-llm-api-resources (18.4k ⭐) - Comprehensive free LLM API list
- mnfst/awesome-free-llm-apis (2.1k ⭐) - Permanent free LLM API tiers
- inmve/free-ai-coding (648 ⭐) - Pro-grade AI coding tools comparison
- Coding with AI - Practical techniques for coding with LLMs
- nowork-studio/awesome-ai-startups - A curated list of bootstrapped, pre-seed, and angel-funded AI products built by independent founders
Research Methodology
This list was compiled and verified using:
- Gemini - For research and discovering new/additional AI tools
- Perplexity - For verifying information accuracy and checking if data is current
- Community repos - All referenced repositories above were used as reference sources
License
MIT © ShaikhWarsi
Last updated: October 5, 2026 • PRs/issues welcome