Cohere is the most underrated free AI API for RAG developers. A single free trial key — no credit card, no expiry — unlocks Embed v3 (top-of-MTEB...

Groq, Cerebras, and Google Gemini all offer free AI APIs — but they’re fast in completely different ways. Cerebras hits 2,100 tokens/s on 8B models,...

Cerebras no longer has a no-card free tier: new accounts get of credit expiring in 30 days, and must add a payment method. Groq measured 527 tok/s and still needs no card.

We benchmarked Mistral free tier in August 2026: 0.43s to first token and 167 tok/s, second only to Groq. OpenAI-SDK compatible, no credit card.

GitHub Models was fully retired on July 30, 2026 — the API now returns 410. Here are the free AI APIs we benchmarked as replacements, with real speed numbers.

The free Workers plan gives 10,000 neurons a day across 82 models. Converted into real usage that is about 15-25 text generations, or roughly 230 FLUX images - one shared budget, no card, hard-stops instead of billing.

We benchmarked 10 free AI APIs in August 2026. Groq wins at 527 tok/s, Gemini takes 34s to start, and four popular picks now require a credit card.

We tested OpenRouter against NVIDIA direct on the identical model: OpenRouter was faster on both first token and generation. 300+ models, one key, no card.

Guides still promise 5M free DeepSeek tokens. We checked a real account in August 2026: granted_balance 0.00 and 402 Insufficient Balance. Here is where to get DeepSeek models free instead.

We benchmarked every free Groq model in August 2026: gpt-oss-120b at ~525 tok/s, real rate limits from the API headers, and what you can actually build on the free tier.