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OpenRouter free tier limits

Each line below was read on the official page linked next to it, on the date shown. A line older than 30 days says “not verified” instead of the old value.

OpenRouter, Inc. · Free tier

Free allowance

50requests a day

20 requests a minute

Free tier· openrouter.ai

Free variants of many models (ids ending in “:free”), with account-wide request limits.

  • No card needed
  • Works with OpenAI code
  • Accepts images
  • Training: your setting
Free allowance
20 req/min · 50 req/day

1,000 req/day once the account has bought at least 10 credits.

Requests / min
20

All free model variants together.

Requests / day
50

1,000/day once the account has bought at least 10 credits.

Tokens / min
Not published

The limits page counts requests, not tokens.

Tokens / day
Not published

The limits page counts requests, not tokens.

Card to start
Not required

The 50 req/day ceiling applies to accounts that bought fewer than 10 credits, so no purchase is needed.

Trains on your data
Your setting

An account setting decides whether requests may be routed to providers that train on your data, with a separate switch for free models.

Commercial use
Not verified
OpenAI SDK
Yes
Image input
Yes

Several free variants list image input; see the free model list.

Where it is offered
Not verified

10 of 12 cells above were read on the provider’s own page in the last 30 days (oldest check: ). Each check mark opens that page. The other 2 say “not verified” instead of repeating a number from someone else’s article.

Free variants right now

A sample of OpenRouter free model variants
ModelContextMax outputInputToolsIn catalogue since
Apodex: Apodex 1.1 Miniapodex/apodex-1.1-mini:free262K236KtextYes
Cohere: North Mini Codecohere/north-mini-code:free256K64KtextYes
Dots Studio: Dots3-Note Previewdots-studio/dots-3-note-preview:free512K461Kimage, textYes
Google: Gemma 4 26B A4Bgoogle/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it:free262K33Kimage, text, videoYes
Google: Gemma 4 31Bgoogle/gemma-4-31b-it:free262K33Kimage, text, videoYes
inclusionAI: Ling 3.0 Flash Santeinclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-sante:free262K33KtextYes
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6Bliquid/lfm-2.5-2.6b:free66K8KtextYes
NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano Omninvidia/nemotron-3-nano-omni-30b-a3b-reasoning:free256K66Kaudio, image, text, videoYes

Collected from the OpenRouter models API · copy shipped with this build, not a live reading

All 22 zero-price models

What the numbers mean in practice

OpenRouter is a router: the free variants are served by upstream providers, and the daily ceiling counts all “:free” requests of the account together. Fifty requests a day is enough to evaluate models, not to run a service; buying 10 credits once raises the ceiling to 1,000 a day.

Free variants come and go. Do not hard-code a single “:free” id in an app without a fallback, and check the privacy settings: the switch that allows routing to providers that may train on your data is separate for free models.

Getting a OpenRouter key

  1. Create an OpenRouter account.
  2. Open “Keys” and create a key.
  3. Store it in the OPENROUTER_API_KEY environment variable.
  4. Pick a model whose id ends in “:free”.

These steps are a summary of the provider’s console and were not re-walked with a new account; the screens may differ. Open the OpenRouter console.

Test the key with one request

Language
base_url
https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
model
openrouter/free
key from
$OPENROUTER_API_KEY
import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"],
)

reply = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="openrouter/free",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Reply with the word: ok"}],
)
print(reply.choices[0].message.content)
Endpoint read on · openrouter.ai

The key is read from an environment variable on your machine. This site has no field for keys and never asks for one.

OpenRouter against the others

Questions and answers

What are the OpenRouter free tier limits?

Free tier: 20 req/min · 50 req/day. Requests per minute: 20. Requests per day: 50. Read on the official page on 3 Oct 2026.

Does OpenRouter require a credit card?

Not required. The 50 req/day ceiling applies to accounts that bought fewer than 10 credits, so no purchase is needed.

Does OpenRouter train on data sent to the free tier?

Your setting. An account setting decides whether requests may be routed to providers that train on your data, with a separate switch for free models.

Can I use the OpenRouter free tier commercially?

not verified on an official page.

Is OpenRouter compatible with the OpenAI SDK?

Yes. Set the base URL to https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 and the model to an id such as openrouter/free.

Related pages