Free AI Credits & Perks

Free AI credits are sign-up bonuses, free API tiers, and credit grants that let you use AI models without paying. This page lists websites that currently give them away, grouped by who they're for:

General developers, free API tiers and trial credits anyone can claim.
Students, perks unlocked with verified academic status.
Startups, large cloud and model credit programs you apply for.

Every entry links straight to the official signup or application page. Amounts and rate limits change often, so treat the figures as a starting point and confirm on the provider's site.

Last reviewed: June 2026

General free tiers For students For startups FAQ

Sauna AI Editor's pick

$100 in credits

Sauna is an AI assistant that runs tasks for you across your connected apps. New accounts get $100 in credits on signup, no card needed, with access to current flagship models.

Models: Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Sonnet 4.6, GPT-5.5, and other current models.
How to claim: sign up with email, then connect Gmail or Slack when prompted. Connecting Slack grants more credits than Gmail.
Limits: generous enough for real day-to-day use, not a handful of messages.

Claim $100 in credits No card · email + Gmail or Slack

Kiro Pro Editor's pick

1,000 credits/mo · 12 months

Kiro is Amazon's AI coding IDE. Verified students get Kiro Pro free for a full year, with 1,000 credits every month and no card required.

What it does: spec-to-code, agent mode, and full autonomous builds inside the editor.
Offer: 1,000 Kiro Pro credits per month for 12 months.
How to claim: verify your student status at kiro.dev/students. Zero card required.

Get Kiro Pro free No card · student verification

ChatGPT Pro via Codex for OSS Editor's pick

6 months free · ~$1,200

OpenAI's Codex for Open Source program gives approved developers six months of ChatGPT Pro free, the tier that normally costs $200/month. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis while supplies last.

What you get: ChatGPT Pro with the Codex coding agent, plus API credits from OpenAI's open-source fund.
Who qualifies: developers and maintainers with an active GitHub profile and a few public repositories.
How to apply: submit the form and authenticate with GitHub so OpenAI can verify your projects.

Apply via Codex for OSS Active GitHub + public repos

Notion Business + Notion AI Editor's pick

30-day Business trial

Notion's Business trial is one of the better short-term AI perks right now: a 30-day way to test premium models inside a real workspace before paying. At review time, the trial exposed Claude Opus 4.8 alongside other frontier-model options inside Notion AI.

Models: Claude Opus 4.8, plus access to other major AI model options available through Notion AI during the trial.
What you get: Notion AI in docs and databases, research mode, meeting notes, connected workspace search, and agent-style workflows.
Watch for: model availability, AI limits, agent credits, and payment requirements can change, so confirm the current trial terms before relying on it.

Check Notion Business trial 30 days · premium model access

General free tiers & API credits Anyone

Free for any developer on signup. Some need a phone number to verify, and a few ask for a card to lift rate limits.

Google AI Studio (Gemini)

Free tier

Free Gemini API access: roughly 15 requests/min and 1,500 requests/day on Flash models, lower limits on Pro.

Note: free-tier prompts may be used to improve Google's models.

No cardOpen

Groq (GroqCloud)

Free tier

Generous free inference on open models (Llama, Mixtral): ~30 req/min and up to 14,400 req/day. Add a card for 10x limits.

Good for: fast prototyping on open-source LLMs.

No cardOpen

Together AI

$25 credit

$25 in free trial credits on signup, across 100+ open-source models. A $5 deposit unlocks premium models and higher limits.

Good for: trying many open models in one place.

No cardOpen

Mistral AI

Free tier

"Experiment" tier with free API access to open and proprietary models (incl. Codestral), roughly 1 req/sec. Le Chat has a free web tier too.

Note: requires phone verification; free prompts may train models.

No cardOpen

Cohere

Free tier

Free trial API keys with up to 1,000 calls/month across Chat, Embed, and Rerank. Capped at 20 req/min, non-commercial use.

Good for: evaluating embeddings and reranking.

No cardOpen

Fireworks AI

$1 credit

$1 in trial credits auto-applied on signup, enough to query dozens of open models. No-card accounts capped at 10 req/min.

Good for: quick test runs on hosted open models.

No cardOpen

Hugging Face

Free tier

Free CPU Spaces hosting, plus ZeroGPU access (~5 min/day of shared GPU on free accounts). Community GPU grants on request.

Good for: hosting demos and light GPU runs.

No cardOpen

Anthropic (Claude API)

~$5 credit

About $5 in free trial credits on account verification, usable across the Claude model family.

Note: requires email and phone verification.

No cardOpen

OpenAI

Free signup

Free account and API keys, but signup credits are inconsistent and many new accounts get $0. Calling current models needs a $5 minimum top-up.

Always free: Moderation API and limited Whisper endpoints.

Card to use modelsOpen

Replicate

Free runs

Limited free runs on public models marked "Try for Free". Pay-as-you-go after the early playground generations.

Good for: image and media model demos.

No card to startOpen

Perplexity (Sonar API)

$5 / mo

Perplexity Pro subscribers ($20/mo) get a recurring $5 monthly credit toward the Sonar API.

Note: requires a Pro subscription.

Pro requiredOpen

For students .edu / ID

Unlocked with verified academic status, usually a school email or a student ID uploaded through a verifier like SheerID.

GitHub Student Developer Pack

$1,500+ value

Bundle of free developer tools, including free GitHub Copilot, $100 Azure for Students credit, and $200 DigitalOcean credit.

Eligible: verified students aged 13+ in a degree program.

School emailOpen

Perplexity Education Pro

Free month+

One free month of Perplexity Pro (incl. $5 Sonar API credit). Referrals stack up to 24 free months, then a discounted $10/mo plan.

Eligible: students and educators verified via SheerID.

SheerIDOpen

Google for Education

Free tier

Free Workspace for Education plus academic programs that distribute Vertex AI / Cloud research credits to eligible classes and researchers.

Eligible: verified students, educators, and researchers.

School emailOpen

Mistral Student Plan

$5.99 / mo

Mistral Pro chat at $5.99/month for verified students, down from the standard $14.99/month.

Eligible: verified students.

Student verifyOpen

For startups Apply

Larger credit grants you apply for with company details. Self-serve tiers are smaller; investor-backed tiers unlock the big numbers.

Microsoft for Startups

Up to $150k

Up to $150k Azure credits (usable on Azure OpenAI) plus $2,500 direct OpenAI credits. Self-serve starts at $1,000.

Eligible: pre-Series B, software startups under 10 years old.

ApplyOpen

AWS Activate

Up to $200k

Up to $5k self-funded, up to $200k for VC/accelerator-backed startups. Credits work on Amazon Bedrock (Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Mistral).

Eligible: pre-Series B, founded in the last 10 years.

ApplyOpen

Google for Startups Cloud

Up to $350k

Up to $350k in Google Cloud credits over two years. The Scale AI tier adds $10k in dedicated Anthropic (Claude) credits via Vertex AI.

Eligible: AI-native, pre-seed to Series A, under 5 years old.

ApplyOpen

NVIDIA Inception

Up to $100k

Up to $100k DGX Cloud credits, NIM inference access, 30% DGX discount, and free Deep Learning Institute courses. No equity taken.

Eligible: AI-native startups at any funding stage.

Free to joinOpen

Anthropic for Startups

$25k–$100k

Anthology Fund gives up to $25k in Claude credits; the VC partner program offers $100k+ via investor referral.

Eligible: pre-seed to Series A, investor-backed.

ApplyOpen

OpenAI for Startups

$2.5k–$50k

$2,500 in OpenAI credits via partner VC portfolios; selected OpenAI Grove cohorts can receive up to $50k in direct credits.

Eligible: VC-portfolio companies or Grove applicants.

ReferralOpen

Together AI for Startups

$15k–$50k

$15k to $50k in Together AI credits for serverless open-source model inference.

Eligible: qualifying early-stage, AI-native startups.

ApplyOpen

FAQ

Can I get free OpenAI credits?

Sometimes. OpenAI has historically given $5 to $18 in automatic signup credits, but it's inconsistent and many new accounts start at $0. Creating an account and API keys is free, but calling current models needs a $5 minimum top-up. The Moderation API and limited Whisper endpoints stay free.

Which AI tools are actually 100% free?

Several have genuine free tiers with no card required to start:

Google AI Studio (Gemini), free daily request quota.
Groq, generous free inference on open models.
Cohere, 1,000 free API calls/month.
Hugging Face, free hosting and limited shared GPU.

What's the best free AI credit for students?

The GitHub Student Developer Pack is the strongest single bundle: free GitHub Copilot plus Azure and DigitalOcean credits. Pair it with Perplexity Education Pro for free Pro months.

How do startups get the largest AI credits?

The biggest grants (AWS Activate, Microsoft for Startups, Google for Startups) scale with investor backing. Self-serve tiers give a few thousand dollars; being in a partner VC, accelerator, or incubator network unlocks the $100k+ tiers.

Do free AI tiers use my data?

Some do. Free tiers like Google AI Studio and Mistral's Experiment tier may use your prompts to improve their models. Adding a valid payment method usually switches you to private, zero-data-retention endpoints. Check each provider's policy before sending sensitive data.

Credit amounts, rate limits, and eligibility change frequently and vary by region. This list is for general information only, not an endorsement. Always confirm the current offer and terms on the provider's official site before relying on it.