questions/Free APIs

Is there a free LLM API?

AIgateway has a free tier — no credit card, no trial timer. Sign in, grab an sk-aig-... key, and call moonshot/kimi-k2.6 (frontier open-weight, 256K context, vision + tool calling) at 100 requests per day per account. Kimi K2.6 is free through April 30, 2026; the free tier continues with Kimi K2.5 after that.

How it works

Claim the key

Visit aigateway.sh and sign in with GitHub or Google. No credit card, no phone verification, no invite codes. The free tier is 100 requests per day on moonshot/kimi-k2.6 — a frontier open-weight model with 256K context, vision, and native tool calling.

Write your first call

Install pip install aigateway-py openai, point the OpenAI SDK at https://api.aigateway.sh/v1, set model="moonshot/kimi-k2.6", and you're making production-grade LLM calls for free. The 100/day quota resets on a rolling 24-hour window.

Upgrade when you outgrow it

Top up $5 (or more) for pay-as-you-go. No subscription, no auto-renew. That unlocks the full catalog — Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.4, Gemini 3.1 Pro, the image and video models, everything. Pass-through on the underlying rate plus a 5% platform fee at top-up. Your code stays the same.

Code example

Python
# pip install aigateway-py openai
# aigateway-py: sub-accounts, evals, replays, jobs, webhook verify.
# openai SDK: chat/embeddings/images/audio — drop-in compat per our SDK's own guidance.
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.aigateway.sh/v1",
    api_key="sk-aig-...",
)

r = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="moonshot/kimi-k2.6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain vector databases in two sentences."}],
)
print(r.choices[0].message.content)
Node / TypeScript
// npm i aigateway-js openai
// aigateway-js: sub-accounts, evals, replays, jobs, webhook verify.
// openai SDK: chat/embeddings/images/audio — drop-in compat.
import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.aigateway.sh/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.AIGATEWAY_KEY,
});

const r = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "moonshot/kimi-k2.6",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Explain vector databases in two sentences." }],
});
console.log(r.choices[0].message.content);

Related

FAQ

Is AIgateway's free tier really free?

Yes. 100 requests/day on Kimi K2.6 with no credit card. Kimi K2.6 is free through April 30, 2026; the free tier continues with Kimi K2.5 after.

What's the catch?

No catch. We offer the free tier because we believe developers should try the platform end-to-end before paying. Most teams upgrade when they outgrow 100 requests/day; it's a $5 minimum top-up with no subscription.

Is Kimi K2.6 actually usable for production?

Yes — Kimi K2.6 is a 1T-parameter open-weight model benchmarked at SWE-Bench 68.2 and HumanEval 92.7. It's competitive with Claude Opus 4.7 on agentic coding at ~10x the price-per-token once you're paying.

Can I build a real app on the free tier?

For prototyping and personal projects, yes. For production traffic, the 100/day limit is the bottleneck — a $5 top-up unlocks unlimited throughput at pass-through pricing with no recurring charge.

TRY IT NOW

One key, every model. Free tier, no card.

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