12 Free LLM APIs You Can Use Right Now (No Credit Card, Real Limits Tested)

"Free LLM API" results are full of outdated lists and tools that quietly expired. I tested 12 providers that actually work in April 2026 and documented the real limits. The Top 5 (Actually Usable) 1. Google AI Studio (Gemini) — Best Overall Free Tier Models: Gemini 2.5 Flash, Flash-Lite, Embedding Limits: 1,500 requests/day, 1M tokens/minute Credit card: No Context: 1M tokens Verdict: Most generous free tier. Enough for a small production chatbot. 2. Groq — Fastest Free API Models: Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 8B, Qwen3, Mixtral Limits: ~14,400 requests/day (8B model), lower for larger models Credit card: No Speed: 315 tokens/sec on Llama 70B — nothing else comes close Verdict: Best for latency-sensitive prototyping. 3. OpenRouter — Most Models Free Models: 11+ free models including Gemini, Llama, Qwen Limits: 20 req/min, 200 req/day per free model Credit card: No Verdict: Widest free model selection. Good for model comparison. 4. Cloudflare Workers AI — Truly Free Inference Models: Llama, Mis