Free Tier
Try the gateway without credits. Free tier restricts to cheap, fast models with daily request limits.
Limits
| Tier | Daily limit |
|---|---|
| Anonymous (no auth) | 5 req/day |
| Authenticated (zero credits) | 20 req/day |
| Paid (any credits) | Unlimited |
Credits change the daily cap only. The per-minute limit is set by how you authenticate, not by your balance. See Rate Limiting.
Allowed models
Free tier requests can use:
| Model | Provider |
|---|---|
openai/gpt-4o-mini | OpenAI |
anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | Anthropic |
groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant | Groq |
google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite | |
deepseek/deepseek-chat | DeepSeek |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash | DeepSeek |
Blocked models
These models require credits:
- OpenAI reasoning: o1, o3, o4 (all variants)
- OpenAI flagship: gpt-4o, gpt-4, gpt-5 (gpt-4o-mini is allowed)
- Anthropic flagship: claude-opus, claude-sonnet (haiku is allowed)
- Google flagship: gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-2.5-ultra
- xAI flagship: grok-2, grok-3
Requesting a blocked model without credits returns 402:
{
"error": {
"message": "Model \"gpt-4o\" requires credits. Free-tier models: openai/gpt-4o-mini, groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant, google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite, anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5-20251001, deepseek/deepseek-chat, deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash. Add credits or pick a free-tier model.",
"type": "insufficient_funds",
"code": "free_tier_limit"
}
}Response headers
When a request is rejected for free-tier reasons (402), the response reports your quota:
X-Free-Tier-Remaining: 3
X-Free-Tier-Limit: 5