“Bansos AI” — Indonesian slang for free AI access (bansos = government social aid, repurposed here for free stuff). Because believe it or not, in a world where everything seems paid, there are still providers offering genuinely free, permanent access — no credit card required. This article is based on my personal experience plus research from various sources, so take it as opinion, not an ad.
Every limit in this article can change at any time — that’s the built-in risk of using free tiers. Always check each provider’s official docs before relying on one.
Main Recommendations (What I Actually Use) #
⚡ Freebuff #
My go-to. You get 6 sessions per day, each session lasts 1 hour, and every session has unlimited tokens. Sessions reset every 24 hours. For the Indonesia region, Deepseek-4-flash-0731 and Mimo-2.5 are currently available. You need to use their desktop app or CLI — and honestly, that’s more than enough. Bonus: it can even read Claude skills.
Pros: unlimited tokens per session makes long work sessions (refactoring, debugging, research) effortless — no per-prompt quota anxiety. Cons: requires installing the desktop/CLI, and models are limited by region.
🧘 Opencode Zen/Free #
Some models are free to use, but with a daily limit. In my experience, deepseek-4-flash is capped at around 90M tokens per day — pretty generous. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out how to grab an API key directly from their site, so I use OmniRouter (a fork of 9router) as the middleman.
🔀 OpenRouter #
A gateway to 20+ free models from various providers behind a single API key, no credit card needed. The downsides: it’s slow (especially during peak hours) and has daily token limits. Grab an API key from their site, then use it right away since the endpoint is OpenAI-compatible:
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
}'Pros: one key for many models; switching models is just changing the slug. Cons: limited speed and quota (~50 requests/day, up to ~1,000/day with a $10 top-up).
☁️ Ollama Cloud #
A few free models available; sometimes a bit slow, but fine for trying open-source models without owning a GPU. Grab an API key from their site.
🟢 NVIDIA NIM #
People say it’s decent — the API runs on NVIDIA’s own infrastructure, with ~1,000 free requests/day for Nemotron and Llama variants. I haven’t tried it myself, so it’s on my “supposedly good” list.
Research Bonus: Permanent Free Tiers Worth Trying #
From my research (OpenRouter blog, GitHub, and official docs) — providers with permanent free tiers, no credit card:
| Provider | Standout models | Approximate free limits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Studio | Gemini Flash / Flash-Lite | ~5–15 RPM, 20–1,500 req/day, context up to 1M tokens | Multimodal (text, image, audio). But prompts may be used for training outside EU/UK/EEA |
| Groq | Llama 3.3 70B, Mixtral | 30 RPM, ~1,000 req/day | Fastest (~320 tokens/sec), OpenAI-compatible, no training |
| Cerebras | Llama 3.3 70B | 30 RPM, ~1M tokens/day | Big token volume, great for batch processing |
| Mistral | Codestral, Mistral Small/Large | ~1 billion tokens/month (Experiment tier) | Requires opting into data training. Codestral is great for coding |
| GitHub Models | GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, Llama, Phi | 15 RPM, 150–1,000 req/day | Free with a GitHub account; includes a playground for prompt testing |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | 20+ models | ~10,000 “neurons”/day | Great for edge deployment |
| Cohere | Command R+ | ~100 req/day | Non-commercial use only |
| Hugging Face | 100K+ open-source models | Community rate limits | A paradise for exploring OSS models |
Trial Credits (one-time, for evaluation) #
Besides permanent free tiers, some providers offer trial credits — good for testing, not for ongoing use:
- DeepSeek — 10M free tokens; R1 excels at reasoning/math
- Baseten — $30 credit (the most generous; card required after it runs out)
- Fireworks — $1 credit
- AI21 — $10 credit for the Jamba family
- SambaNova — $5 credit for Llama 3.1 405B (credit card required at signup)
- Nebius — $1 credit
What I Don’t Recommend #
I deliberately don’t recommend providers with occasional free promos, like Kiro, MiMo, and similar. The reason is simple: their free access is only Monday–Thursday and unpredictable, so you can’t rely on it for regular work. Real “bansos” is consistently free, not a once-in-a-while treat.
Tips & Tricks #
- Never depend on a single provider. Free tiers can get throttled out of nowhere or have their limits changed. Keep 2–3 providers plus a failover.
- Read the data training policy. Some free tiers (Google outside EU/UK/EEA, Mistral Experiment) use your prompts for training. Don’t send proprietary code or secrets to such providers — this ties right into the habit of storing secrets in encrypted
.envfiles. - Check the context window on the free endpoint, not the model’s headline number. Free tiers sometimes serve shorter context.
- Match the provider to the task. Coding → Mistral Codestral / Freebuff. Casual chat → Gemini / Groq. Batch → Cerebras.
- Use OpenRouter to experiment with models first, then move to the direct provider if you need full quota.
- Watch out for IP blocking — many free tiers block VPNs/datacenter IPs. If you get locked out, try from a different network.
FAQ #
Is it safe to use free tiers for sensitive data? Depends on the provider’s policy. Providers with no-training policies (OpenRouter, Groq, Cerebras) are relatively safer. For truly confidential data, the ideal option is running a local model with Ollama — unlimited and private, as long as you have the hardware.
Why are free tiers so slow? Because it’s shared usage. Providers prioritize paying customers, so during peak hours you get the leftovers. That’s the price of “free.”
Can I use them in production? Technically yes, but there’s no SLA and limits can change at any moment. Fine for side projects and prototypes; for anything important, have a fallback or upgrade.
What’s the difference between a free tier and trial credit? Free tier = permanently free (with daily usage caps). Trial credit = one-time balance that runs out within days/weeks. Free tiers for ongoing use, trial credits for evaluating specific models.
Why not just cover free ChatGPT/Claude? This article focuses on what you can use via API/CLI for developer workflows — not just chatting on a website. For casual chat, each provider’s official web option is still valid, just outside this article’s scope.
Wrapping Up #
The bottom line: free access exists — you just need to know where to look and understand the limits. Start with one provider (my suggestion: Freebuff or OpenRouter), learn its limits, then add more as backups. And re-check limits before you get comfortable — because in the free tier world, the only constant is change 😄
Found another free provider that’s missing from this list? Drop it in the comments and I’ll update the article 🚀
