Best Free LLM APIs for Your Projects 2025

Are you looking to build the next groundbreaking application powered by artificial intelligence? Accessing powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) is the first step, but the cost can often be a barrier. Fortunately, several top-tier AI platforms offer free APIs that allow you to experiment, prototype, and even launch your projects without an initial investment. This guide will walk you through some of the best free LLM APIs available today, showing you exactly how to get started.

1. Cohere: The All-in-One Platform for Secure AI

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First on our list is Cohere, which presents itself as an all-in-one platform designed for private and secure AI applications. It’s tailored for the modern enterprise, offering cutting-edge multilingual models and advanced retrieval capabilities.

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Cohere is pretty much an all-in-one platform for private and secure AI. They do have a free tier when it comes to the API.

This means you can start using their powerful models by obtaining a free API key. The platform is built to be highly customizable for various use cases and industries.

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Cohere boasts features like seamless integration, allowing you to add AI functionalities to your workflows with intuitive low-code solutions. You can also perform advanced fine-tuning to train models on your proprietary data, enhancing accuracy and performance.

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To get started, simply navigate to their website and click “Try the playground.” The platform makes it easy to create an account, offering options to sign up with Google or GitHub.

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Once you’ve completed the quick registration process, you’ll land on your dashboard. From there, you can navigate to the “API Keys” section. Here, you’ll find a free Trial Key ready to be integrated into your applications. You also have the option to get a production key for more extensive use.

2. Llama: Meta’s Open-Source Powerhouse

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Next up is Llama, the widely recognized family of open-source AI models developed by Meta. Being open-source gives developers immense flexibility to fine-tune, distill, and deploy these models anywhere they need.

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The platform offers a collection of models, including the latest versions like Llama 3.1, Llama 3.2, and Llama 3.3. You can request access to download the models directly from their website.

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For those who prefer a straightforward API integration, a fantastic resource is OpenRouter. This platform acts as an aggregator, providing API access to a vast range of models, including free versions of Llama.

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[OpenRouter page for the “Meta: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct (free) " model.]

On OpenRouter, you can find models like “Meta: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct (free)” and instantly create an API key. The platform provides clear documentation and code samples to help you integrate the API into your project.

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Here is a sample Python code snippet from OpenRouter demonstrating how to use the API:

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
  base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
  api_key="<YOUR_OPENROUTER_API_KEY>",
)

completion = client.chat.completions.create(
  extra_headers={
    "HTTP-Referer": "<YOUR_SITE_URL>", # Optional, for including your app on openrouter.ai rankings.
    "X-Title": "<YOUR_SITE_NAME>", # Optional, for including your app on openrouter.ai rankings.
  },
  extra_body={},
  model="meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free",
  messages=[
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "What is the meaning of life?"
    },
  ],
)
print(completion.choices[0].message.content)

3. Google Vertex AI: Enterprise-Grade AI on the Cloud

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For developers looking for a robust, enterprise-grade solution, Google’s Vertex AI Platform is an excellent choice. It’s a fully-managed, unified AI development environment that allows you to build and deploy generative AI applications quickly.

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It’s a fully-managed, unified AI development platform for building and using generative AI.

While not a single LLM, Vertex AI provides access to a huge catalog of models. New customers can often get up to $300 in free credits, making it a great way to explore its capabilities.

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The platform features over 160 generative AI models and tools. You can choose from first-party models like Gemini and Imagen 3, third-party models like Anthropic’s Claude, and other open models such as Gemma and Llama 3.2. This extensive library, known as the Model Garden, ensures you can find the perfect tool for any task.

4. Google AI Studio: The Direct Path to Gemini APIs

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Finally, for direct and easy access to Google’s latest models, there’s Google AI Studio. This is the go-to place for developers who want to quickly get an API key and start building with the Gemini family of models.

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The studio offers access to a variety of models, including Gemini 2.0 Flash, Flash-Lite Preview, and even experimental versions. You can also explore the Gemma family of models.

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Getting an API key is incredibly simple. A prominent “Get API key” button on the left sidebar takes you directly to the key management page.

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On this page, you can quickly test the Gemini API with a provided curl command. To get your own key, you just need to create one within an existing Google Cloud project.

curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-1.5-flash:generateContent?key=GEMINI_API_KEY" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -X POST \
    -d '{
          "contents": [{
            "parts":[{"text": "Explain how AI works"}]
          }]
        }'

Once you generate the key, you’re ready to integrate the power of Gemini into your applications, with a generous free-of-charge plan for getting started.