I checked which Al APIs are actually free without a credit card

Description and use

The author analyzed AI API free plans, distinguishing recurring quotas, one‑time credits, and trials, and built FreeTierScout to document them.

Problem

Developers often misinterpret "free" plans for AI APIs, leading to unexpected costs or limited usage.

Outcome

The author clarified that "free" plans vary widely and that a recurring free quota is often more valuable for long‑term hobby projects than a large one‑time credit.

Workflow

• 1. Reviewed pricing pages of multiple AI API providers. 2. Identified the type of free offer (recurring quota, one‑time credit, trial, limited features). 3. Recorded specific limits, reset behavior, and card requirements. 4. Compiled findings into a searchable resource (FreeTierScout).

Evidence

Groq is one of the cleaner examples because it has a real free API plan.

Cloudflare Workers AI also has recurring free usage.

OpenRouter is a bit different because the value of its free plan is mostly access to a pool of free models.

AssemblyAI was one of the more surprising ones. You can sign up without a credit card and the free tier currently includes up to 185 hours of prerecorded transcription and up to 333 hours of streaming transcription.

New accounts currently get $200 in free credit and no credit card is required to start. The credit also does not expire, which is useful.

NVIDIA also gives developers access to free serverless inference through its API catalog.

I stopped thinking of free plans as one category. There are really a few different things hiding behind the same word.