Buyer's guide
Best Free LLM API: four free and trial options
Choose Groq for recurring free GPT-OSS 120B access at 30 RPM, or Cerebras for $5 in trial credits valid for 30 days and a Developer-tier advertised model speed of ~3,000 tokens/s.
| Need | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest listed token cost | Groq / OpenRouter | $0 input / $0 output per 1M tokens within Groq Free and OpenRouter free-variant quotas.129 |
| Highest published model speed | Cerebras | ~3,000 vs ~500 tokens/s for GPT-OSS 120B on Cerebras’s Developer listing and Groq’s model listing, respectively (vendor-reported, 2026).510 |
| Workers integration | Cloudflare Workers AI | 10,000 Neurons/day shared across Workers AI models in the included allowance.7 |
| Time-limited trial | Cerebras | $5 in trial credits for 30 days to try shared inference; a verified payment method is required.4 |
Capabilities and serving conditions
Free allowances and trials have different limits
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| Provider | Reference API or model | Included allowance | Published request ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groq1 | GPT-OSS 120BFree tier | 1K requests/day and 200K tokens/day, with an 8K tokens/minute limit.1 | 30 RPM GPT-OSS 120B Free plan |
| OpenRouter3 | :free variantsFree tier | 50 free requests/day by default; eligible accounts receive 1,000/day.3 | 20 RPM Account-wide free-variant limit |
| Cloudflare Workers AI8 | @cf/openai/gpt-oss-120bFree tier | 10,000 Neurons/day shared across models; this is a compute allowance, not a token or request count.7 | 300 RPM Default text-generation limit |
| Cerebras4 | GPT-OSS 120BTime-limited trial | A one-time $5 credit balance that expires after 30 days.4 | 5 RPM GPT-OSS 120B Free Trial |
Published GPT-OSS 120B speed figures
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Pricing
Pricing
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| Provider | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | How the allowance applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groq1 | $0.00 | $0.00 | Zero token charges within the selected free model’s quotas. |
| OpenRouter29 | $0.00 | $0.00 | Zero token charges for an available :free variant within account quotas. |
| Cloudflare Workers AI67 | $0.35 | $0.75 | The shared daily Neurons allowance covers eligible usage; the rates describe metered usage before that allowance. |
| Cerebras45 | $0.35 | $0.75 | Metered usage reduces trial credits; new cash payment is not required while valid trial credit remains. |
Options, strengths and limitations
What each option is for
Groq
A direct API for experimenting with GPT-OSS 120B under a recurring free quota.
- Input / 1M tokens
- $0.00
- Output / 1M tokens
- $0.00
- Published request ceiling
- 30 RPM
Strengths
- Minute and daily quotas are published for the selected model, so a prototype can budget requests and tokens separately.
Limitations
- The first request or token limit reached stops further usage; spare daily capacity does not raise the minute limit.
Sources:1
OpenRouter
A model-discovery option for applications that switch among available free variants.
- Input / 1M tokens
- $0.00
- Output / 1M tokens
- $0.00
- Published request ceiling
- 20 RPM
Strengths
- One API integration accesses the available free-model catalog without buying credits for the base free allowance.
Limitations
- Free variants have account-wide quotas and no contractual SLA; the catalog can change.
Cloudflare Workers AI
An option for applications that run inference from Workers or through the Workers AI REST API.
- Input / 1M tokens
- $0.35
- Output / 1M tokens
- $0.75
- Published request ceiling
- 300 RPM
Strengths
- The included daily compute budget can be used across Workers AI models instead of maintaining a separate trial credit balance.
Limitations
- The Free plan stops serving once the daily compute allowance is exhausted; Paid plans bill usage above the allowance.
Cerebras
A bounded trial of shared inference before moving to purchased credits.
- Input / 1M tokens
- $0.35
- Output / 1M tokens
- $0.75
- Published request ceiling
- 5 RPM
Strengths
- Trial credit can be used across public Shared Inference models, rather than being reserved for one demo model.
Limitations
- A verified payment method is required to activate the trial; API access stops when the trial expires or its credit runs out.
Buyer's guide
How the options are ordered
- Recurring free-access programs precede the time-limited trial.
- The order groups direct model access, free-model selection and Workers integration; it is not an output-speed ranking.
Methodology
Methodology and sources
Groq and Cerebras reference GPT-OSS 120B; OpenRouter uses available :free variants, and Cloudflare uses @cf/openai/gpt-oss-120b. The speed row compares only Groq’s model listing with Cerebras’s Developer listing: vendor-reported figures, not measured free-tier performance or a common test setup. Cloudflare’s free eligibility follows its allowance rules and paid-only model list. Neurons are shared compute units; the published RPM ceilings apply to the plan/model scopes in the matrix. OpenRouter’s higher daily allowance uses lifetime purchased credits: the published 10-credit threshold currently has a one-credit grace, granting it from 9 credits.
The chart values 1,000 input and 100 billed output tokens before free allowances or trial credits; billed output includes reasoning. They are metered usage values, not invoices or guaranteed request counts. Taxes, retries and discounts are omitted. Novita AI compiled this free-access guide from public sources without running an account workload.
- Groq · Free Plan Rate Limits console.groq.com · Checked 2026-10-16
- OpenRouter · Free Plan and Billing openrouter.ai · Checked 2026-10-16
- OpenRouter · Free-Variant Limits openrouter.ai · Checked 2026-10-16
- Cerebras · Trial Terms and Limits inference-docs.cerebras.ai · Checked 2026-10-16
- Cerebras · Developer Token Pricing www.cerebras.ai · Checked 2026-10-16
- Cloudflare · GPT-OSS 120B developers.cloudflare.com · Checked 2026-10-16
- Cloudflare · Workers AI Pricing developers.cloudflare.com · Checked 2026-10-16
- Cloudflare · Workers AI Limits developers.cloudflare.com · Checked 2026-10-16
- OpenRouter · Free Models Router openrouter.ai · Checked 2026-10-16
- Groq · Published Model Speeds console.groq.com · Checked 2026-10-16
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