What this offer provides
OpenRouter's official limits documentation defines free usage limits for model variants whose ID ends in ':free': 20 requests per minute, and 50 requests per day for accounts that purchased less than 10 credits (1000 requests per day at 10 or more credits).
Quick facts
Free mechanism:free variants: 20 req/min; 50 req/day (under 10 credits purchased) or 1000 req/day (10+ credits)
ValidityOngoing free usage limits; caps can change
AccessOpenRouter account; daily caps depend on lifetime credit purchases
Last verified2026-09-07
How to use it
Call models with :free variant IDs through the OpenRouter API within the free usage limits
Prerequisites
- OpenRouter account
- API key from the OpenRouter dashboard
Steps
- Create an OpenRouter account and generate an API key
- Send chat completion requests to model IDs ending in :free and observe the published per-day request caps
curl
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions --header 'Authorization: Bearer ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data '{"model":"inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-fin:free","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'Official sources
Official docs table: 'Credits purchased (all time) | Requests per minute | Requests per day; Less than 10 | 20 | 50; At least 10 | 20 | 1000', applied to 'a free model variant (with an ID ending in :free)'. The official GET /api/v1/models catalog currently lists 18 model IDs ending in :free (e.g. inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-fin:free).