Free AI credits and perks
API, cloud, and AI tool credits for developers, startups, and students. Every program is checked against its official page, and links go straight to the provider.
74 programs26 without a cardchecked: 2026-10-01
| # | Program ↕ | What you get | Requirements | Card ↕ | Validity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Gemini API free tier (Google AI Studio) Google · APIs and tiers |
Free Gemini 3.x Flash/Flash-Lite and 2.5 Pro/Flash/Flash-Lite with rate limits | Google account and an AI Studio API key; free-tier content may be used to improve Google products | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 2 |  OpenRouter :free models OpenRouter · APIs and tiers |
50 requests/day, or 1,000/day after a one-time $10 top-up; 20 requests/min | OpenRouter account; applies to :free model variants | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 3 |  Groq free plan Groq · APIs and tiers |
Free rate-limited access (e.g. gpt-oss-120b: 30 RPM, 1K requests/day, 200K tokens/day) | GroqCloud account | — | Ongoing | Open |
| 4 |  Mistral Free plan API credits Mistral AI · APIs and tiers |
$10/month in API credits | Mistral account on the Free plan | No card | Monthly | Open |
| 5 |  Cerebras free trial Cerebras · APIs and tiers |
$5 in credits; free-trial tier with 1M tokens/day (5 RPM) | A verified payment method is required to activate the API | Card required | Not stated | Open |
| 6 |  Cloudflare Workers AI free allocation Cloudflare · APIs and tiers |
10,000 Neurons per day | Workers Free or Paid plan | — | Daily, ongoing | Open |
| 7 |  Cohere trial API key Cohere · APIs and tiers |
1,000 API calls per month (Chat: 20 requests/min) | Cohere account; evaluation use only | No card | Monthly, ongoing | Open |
| 8 |  Hugging Face Inference Providers credits Hugging Face · APIs and tiers |
$0.10/month for free users; $2.00/month with PRO | Hugging Face account; requests routed through Hugging Face | — | Monthly | Open |
| 9 |  Z.ai free Flash models Z.ai (Zhipu) · APIs and tiers |
GLM-4.7-Flash, GLM-4.5-Flash and GLM-4.6V-Flash free for input and output | Z.ai API account | — | Ongoing | Open |
| 10 |  Alibaba Cloud Model Studio new-user quota Alibaba Cloud · APIs and tiers |
About 1M tokens per model, counted separately for each model | Singapore region (international); complete account info; real-time inference only | — | 90 days from activation | Open |
| 11 | Scaleway Generative APIs free tier Scaleway · APIs and tiers |
First 1,000,000 tokens free, plus 60 minutes of Whisper transcription | Scaleway account | — | One-time | Open |
| 12 |  AI21 Studio free trial AI21 Labs · APIs and tiers |
$10 in credits | New account | No card | 7 days | Open |
| 13 | Fireworks AI signup credits Fireworks AI · APIs and tiers |
$1 in free credits | New account | — | Not stated | Open |
| 14 | Modal Starter plan compute Modal · APIs and tiers |
$30/month in free compute | Starter plan ($0 base fee) | Card required | Monthly | Open |
| 15 |  Google Cloud free trial Google Cloud · APIs and tiers |
$300 welcome credit | New customers who have never paid for Google Cloud, Maps or Firebase | Card required | 90 days | Open |
| 16 | AWS Free Tier credits Amazon Web Services · APIs and tiers |
Up to $200 ($100 at signup plus up to $100 for exploring services) | New AWS account on the free plan; Amazon Bedrock is available | — | 6 months or until the credits are used | Open |
| 17 | Azure free account Microsoft Azure · APIs and tiers |
$200 credit | Phone number, a non-prepaid card and a Microsoft or GitHub account | Card required | 30 days | Open |
| 18 | Voyage AI free embedding tokens Voyage AI (MongoDB) · APIs and tiers |
First 200M tokens on voyage-4, voyage-code-3 and rerank models (50M on older models) | Per account; not applicable to the Batch API | — | One-time | Open |
| 19 | Deepgram signup credit Deepgram · APIs and tiers |
$200 credit for speech-to-text and TTS | New pay-as-you-go account | No card | Not stated | Open |
| 20 | AssemblyAI signup credits AssemblyAI · APIs and tiers |
$50 in credits | New account; the free tier is limited to 5 new streams per minute | No card | Not stated | Open |
| 21 | AWS Activate Founders Amazon Web Services · Startups |
Up to $5,000 (starting offer $1,000) | Self-funded, pre-Series B, founded within 10 years; AWS account on a paid plan | Card required | Per AWS promotional credit terms | Open |
| 22 | AWS Activate Portfolio Amazon Web Services · Startups |
Up to $200,000 | Organization ID from an Activate Provider (VC, accelerator or angel); pre-Series B | Card required | Per AWS promotional credit terms | Open |
| 23 | Google for Startups Cloud Program — Start Google Cloud · Startups |
Up to $2,000 | Not yet equity-funded, founded within 5 years; public website and matching email domain | Card required | 1 year | Open |
| 24 | Google for Startups Cloud Program — Scale Google Cloud · Startups |
Up to $200,000 over two years | Equity-funded startup founded within 10 years | Card required | 2 years | Open |
| 25 | Google for Startups Cloud Program — AI Google Cloud · Startups |
Up to $350,000 | AI-first funded startup with a public website | Card required | 2 years | Open |
| 26 | Microsoft for Startups Microsoft Azure · Startups |
Up to $150,000 in Azure credits, unlocked over time | Privately held software startup, not Series C or later | — | Not stated | Open |
| 27 | Cloudflare for Startups Cloudflare · Startups |
$10,000 to $350,000 depending on tier; Workers AI capped at $2.5K–$50K | Founded within 10 years, funded in the last 12 months, live product website | — | 1 year or until consumed | Open |
| 28 |  Together AI Startup Accelerator Together AI · Startups |
$15K, $30K or $50K in platform credits | Tier depends on funding raised (up to $5M, $5–10M, over $10M) | — | Not stated | Open |
| 29 | DeepInfra DeepStart DeepInfra · Startups |
1 billion free tokens (at DeepSeek V3.1 pricing) | Raised $250K–$10M and founded within 2 years | — | Not stated | Open |
| 30 | ElevenLabs Startup Grants ElevenLabs · Startups |
33 million characters for 12 months ($5,500+ value) | Fewer than 25 employees, monetized product, business email | — | 12 months | Open |
| 31 | Scaleway Startup Program Scaleway · Startups |
Up to €1,000, €9,000 or €36,000 depending on stage | Under 5 years old, under 50 employees, not yet a Scaleway client | — | 6–12 months | Open |
| 32 | OVHcloud Startup Program OVHcloud · Startups |
€10,000 (Start) or up to €100,000 (Scale) | Application and approval | — | 12 months | Open |
| 33 |  GitHub Copilot Student GitHub · Students |
Free Copilot Student plan: unlimited completions plus an AI Credits allowance | Verified student via GitHub Education | No card | Eligibility re-checked monthly | Open |
| 34 | GitHub Student Developer Pack GitHub · Students |
100+ partner offers, e.g. $100 Azure credit and Codespaces Pro | Verified student aged 13+ | No card | While a verified student | Open |
| 35 | Google AI Pro / AI Plus for students Google · Students |
1 year free (AI Pro in the US, AI Plus in 140+ markets) | College student aged 18+ verified via SheerID; renews at the paid price | Card required | 12 months; claim by 31 December 2026 | Open |
| 36 | Azure for Students Microsoft Azure · Students |
$100 credit plus 20+ free services | Full-time university student with a school email | No card | 12 months, renewable while a student | Open |
| 37 | JetBrains Student Pack JetBrains · Students |
Free licenses for all JetBrains IDEs and .NET tools | Student; non-commercial use only | No card | While a student | Open |
| 38 | Mistral Pro student discount Mistral AI · Students |
$5.99/month instead of $14.99 | Verified student at an accredited institution | Card required | Up to 12 months | Open |
| 39 | Modal academic compute credits Modal · Students |
Up to $10,000 in compute credits | Graduate students, labs and researchers (application) | — | Not stated | Open |
| 40 | Claude for Startups Anthropic · Startups |
Amount varies: free Claude API credits plus the highest rate limits | Any early-stage startup can join; credits need institutional equity funding, founding within 4 years and no prior Anthropic credits; partner VC backing may add benefits | — | Not stated | Open |
| 41 | OpenAI for Startups OpenAI · Startups |
Amount varies: free API credits, rate limit upgrades and time with solutions engineers | Backed by an OpenAI VC partner; apply with the fund's referral code, product description and funding details | — | Until credits run out, then standard billing | Open |
| 42 | NVIDIA Inception NVIDIA · Startups |
Amount varies: free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners, preferred hardware/software pricing, training | Incorporated company under 10 years old with at least one developer and a working website; free, no equity | No card | Ongoing membership | Open |
| 43 | Modal for Startups Modal · Startups |
Amount varies ("thousands" of free GPU credits), one-time grant per tier | Seed–Series A: any VC money from a Modal partner fund or over $1M from any fund; Series B+: over $30M from a partner fund | — | Not stated | Open |
| 44 | Vercel for Startups Vercel · Startups |
Up to $30,000 in credits plus Enterprise-tier access | Eligible startups (criteria not published on the page) | — | Not stated | Open |
| 45 | MongoDB for Startups MongoDB · Startups |
Amount varies by tier: Atlas credits plus Voyage AI embedding tokens | Under 7 years old, Series A or earlier, single software product, first-time participant | — | 12 months after activation | Open |
| 46 | DigitalOcean Startups (Hatch) DigitalOcean · Startups |
Amount varies; GPU credits are a separate, selectively awarded benefit | Raised $10M or less, company website and matching email; AI-native startups prioritized; no service firms | — | 12 months, no extensions | Open |
| 47 | LangChain for Startups LangChain · Startups |
Scale tier: $10K in LangSmith credits; Build tier: discounted seats | First-time customer; Scale: up to Series A ($50M) backed by a LangChain premier VC partner; Build: $25K–$10M raised | — | 1 year (2 years for Y Combinator companies) | Open |
| 48 | Alibaba Cloud AI Catalyst Program Alibaba Cloud · Startups |
Up to 2B free Model Studio tokens and up to $120K in cloud credits, plus POC coupons | Application; focus on AI video/image creation, model aggregators and content moderation | — | Not stated | Open |
| 49 | Pinecone for Startups Pinecone · Startups |
Amount varies: free Standard tier and Pro Support plus usage credits and discounts | Fewer than 100 employees, Series A or earlier | — | Not stated | Open |
| 50 | Runpod Startup Program Runpod · Startups |
Starter tier: $1,000 in credits; Growth tier: $25K bonus on a $50K commitment | Startups with real AI workloads; Growth tier for VC-backed Seed–Series B+ teams | — | Growth: 12-month agreement; Starter: not stated | Open |
| 51 | Fireworks AI Startup Program Fireworks AI · Startups |
Amount varies: credits for serverless inference, fine-tuning and GPU deployments | Private for-profit company under 5 years old, over $500K VC funding, before Series D | — | 1 year | Open |
| 52 | Nebius for Startups Nebius · Startups |
Amount varies: introductory credits and compute savings via VC partners | At least $5M from an approved VC partner, incorporated under 5 years ago, AI product, company email | — | Not stated | Open |
| 53 | ChatGPT Plus Back to School offer OpenAI · Students |
4 free months of ChatGPT Plus ($80 value) | College or graduate student at an eligible US institution, verified via SheerID; renews at $20/month | Card required | Claim by 31 October 2026; one-time | Open |
| 54 | Codex for university students OpenAI · Students |
$100 in Codex credits | University student in the US or Canada verified via SheerID; works with a ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus or Pro account | No card | One offer per student | Open |
| 55 | Perplexity Education Pro Perplexity · Students |
Perplexity Pro at a student discount (price shown at checkout) | Verified student or educator via SheerID | Card required | While eligible | Open |
| 56 | Lovable student discount Lovable · Students |
Up to 50% off Lovable Pro | Student email or student ID; learning and non-commercial use | Card required | Up to 12 months | Open |
| 57 | Zed Pro for students Zed · Students |
Zed Pro free for 1 year, including $10/month in AI token credits and unlimited edit predictions | University student aged 18+ worldwide; GitHub account older than 30 days and a university email; excludes Claude Opus/Fable and GPT Pro | — | 12 months | Open |
| 58 | Kiro for students Kiro (AWS) · Students |
1,000 credits per month free | Student at a listed eligible university, verified via SheerID; social login or AWS Builder ID | No card | 1 year | Open |
| 59 | v0 for Students Vercel · Students |
1 year of complimentary v0 access | Student email at one of the participating schools (e.g. Stanford, MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley) | — | 12 months | Open |
| 60 | AWS Cloud Credit for Research Amazon Web Services · Students |
Students: up to $5,000; faculty and staff: uncapped (Bedrock and other AWS services) | Graduate/PhD students, full-time faculty or research staff at an accredited institution; research proposal | — | Rolling review, 90–120 days | Open |
| 61 | Google Cloud research credits Google Cloud · Students |
$5,000 in research credits | Researchers and PhD students at eligible institutions in selected countries | — | Not stated | Open |
| 62 | Lambda Research Grant Lambda · Students |
Up to $5,000 in cloud credits | Qualifying researchers (application); selected work may be featured by Lambda | — | Not stated | Open |
| 63 | Gemini CLI free tier Google · APIs and tiers |
1,000 model requests per day with Google login (250/day, Flash only, with an unpaid API key) | Personal Google account (Gemini Code Assist for individuals) | No card | Daily, ongoing | Open |
| 64 | Google Agent Platform (Vertex AI) express mode Google Cloud · APIs and tiers |
Free tier within quotas without billing information | New Google Cloud user with a @gmail.com account | No card | Up to 90 days | Open |
| 65 | Jules free plan Google · APIs and tiers |
15 tasks per rolling 24 hours, 3 concurrent, Gemini 2.5 Pro | Google account | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 66 | NVIDIA NIM API endpoints (build.nvidia.com) NVIDIA · APIs and tiers |
Free access to hosted NIM API endpoints for prototyping | Free NVIDIA Developer Program membership; prototyping use | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 67 | GitHub Copilot Free GitHub · APIs and tiers |
Limited chat and agent usage; supports Copilot CLI and agent mode | GitHub account | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 68 | Cursor Hobby plan Cursor · APIs and tiers |
Free: limited Agent requests and access to Composer | Cursor account; no credit card required | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 69 | Kiro Free tier Kiro (AWS) · APIs and tiers |
50 credits per month: Claude Sonnet 4.5 and open-weight models (Qwen3 Coder Next, DeepSeek 3.2, MiniMax M2.1) | Social login or AWS Builder ID; rate limits apply | No card | Monthly, ongoing | Open |
| 70 | Amazon Q Developer Free Tier Amazon Web Services · APIs and tiers |
Limited agentic requests per month with the latest Claude models in the IDE or CLI | AWS Builder ID | No card | Monthly, ongoing | Open |
| 71 | Kilo Code free models Kilo Code · APIs and tiers |
Auto Free routing to free models via Kilo Gateway, no hosted credit required | Kilo account; free models where available | No card | Ongoing | Open |
| 72 | Exa Starter free credits Exa · APIs and tiers |
$10 in search API credits every month plus a $10 onboarding bonus | Exa account; no payment method required | No card | Monthly, ongoing | Open |
| 73 | Tavily Researcher free plan Tavily · APIs and tiers |
1,000 API credits per month for AI web search | Tavily account; no credit card required | No card | Resets on the 1st of each month | Open |
| 74 | Firecrawl Free plan Firecrawl · APIs and tiers |
1,000 credits per month (about 500 searches or 1,000 scraped pages) | Firecrawl account; no card; low rate limits, 2 concurrent requests | No card | Monthly, ongoing | Open |
Nothing found.
Separate lists
Program terms change. Check the current requirements on the provider's site before applying.
FAQ
Where can I get free AI API credits?
Standing free tiers exist at Google AI Studio (Gemini), OpenRouter, Groq, Cloudflare Workers AI, and Cohere; one-time credits come from AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, AI21, Fireworks, and others. The list is checked by hand against official pages.
How many credits can a startup get?
The largest programs are Google for Startups Cloud Program (up to $350,000 for AI startups), AWS Activate (up to $200,000 via partners), and Microsoft for Startups (up to $150,000). Terms depend on stage and funding.
Which AI services are free for students?
GitHub Copilot Student, the GitHub Student Developer Pack, Azure for Students, the JetBrains Student Pack, and a year of Google AI for students (claim by 31 December 2026).
Can I earn credits by inviting friends?
Yes — many AI services grant credits, bonus subscription time, or extra usage for referrals. See the verified list in Referral programs.