29 Free AI Models on OpenRouter (March 2026) – No Credit Card, GPT-4 Level
You don't need to spend a dime to access powerful AI models in 2026. OpenRouter offers 29 completely free models from providers like Google, Meta, Mistral, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and more—with no credit card required.
These aren't toy models either. NVIDIA's Nemotron 3 Super offers 262K token context with a hybrid Mamba-Transformer architecture, OpenAI's GPT-OSS 120B is their first open-weight model under Apache 2.0, and Llama 3.3 70B still matches GPT-4 level performance. Since our February review, five models left the free tier (including Gemini 2.0 Flash Exp, which was deprecated) while ten new models were added — including MiniMax M2.5 for office productivity and Google's mobile-optimized Gemma 3n family.
🏆 Top Picks by Use Case
Best Free for Coding
Mistral's 123B coding model. Modified MIT license. Agentic features for multi-file projects.
Best for Long Documents
NVIDIA's 120B hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE with 262K context. Multi-token prediction for fast generation.
Best Overall Free
Meta's flagship open model. Excellent general performance across all tasks.
📋 All Free Models on OpenRouter
| Model | Provider | Context | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE (12B active). 262K context, multi-token prediction, open weights. | NVIDIA | 262K | AI Agents |
| Qwen3-Next 80B 80B model (3B active MoE). Optimized for RAG, tool use, and agentic workflows. No thinking traces. | Qwen | 262K | Agents / RAG |
| Devstral 2 123B dense coding model. Agentic features, multi-file orchestration, MIT license. | Mistral | 262K | Coding |
| Qwen3-Coder 480B MoE code generation model with strong reasoning and tool use. | Qwen | 262K | Coding |
| MiMo-V2-Flash 309B MoE with hybrid thinking. #1 open-source on SWE-bench. Matches Claude Sonnet 4.5 on coding. | Xiaomi | 262K | Coding |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 30B MoE for agentic AI. Fully open weights and recipes. 256K context. | NVIDIA | 256K | AI Agents |
| Step 3.5 Flash 196B MoE (11B active). Strong general reasoning at speed. 256K context. | StepFun | 256K | General |
| MiniMax M2.5 Office productivity model. Generates and operates Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. | MiniMax | 197K | Productivity |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 May 2025 update to DeepSeek R1. Strong reasoning and math. | DeepSeek | 164K | Reasoning |
| Llama 3.3 70B Flagship Llama model. GPT-4 level performance, open source. | Meta | 65K | General |
| Hermes 3 405B Fine-tuned Llama 3.1 405B with improved instruction following. | Nous | 131K | General |
| GPT-OSS 120B 117B MoE (5.1B active). Apache 2.0 license. Fits on single H100. Tool use and structured output. | OpenAI | 131K | General |
| GPT-OSS 20B 21B MoE (3.6B active). Runs on consumer GPU with 16GB. Apache 2.0 license. | OpenAI | 131K | Edge / Self-host |
| GLM-4.5-Air MoE flagship model with hybrid thinking and non-thinking modes. Strong multilingual. | Z.AI | 131K | Multilingual |
| Gemma 3 27B Multimodal model supporting vision-language input. Strong multilingual in 140+ languages. | 131K | Multimodal | |
| Arcee Trinity Large Reasoning model with 131K context. Strong function calling and multi-step workflows. | Arcee AI | 131K | Reasoning |
| Arcee Trinity Mini 26B MoE (3B active, 128 experts). Fast inference with 131K context. | Arcee AI | 131K | Fast |
| Llama 3.2 3B Compact Llama model for lightweight tasks. 131K context, open source. | Meta | 131K | Edge / Fast |
| Nemotron Nano 12B V2 VL 12B multimodal model. Hybrid Transformer-Mamba architecture for video and document understanding. | NVIDIA | 128K | Multimodal |
| Nemotron Nano 9B V2 Unified reasoning model with controllable thinking traces. Open weights. | NVIDIA | 128K | Reasoning |
| Mistral Small 3.1 Upgraded Mistral Small 24B with extended 128K context. | Mistral | 128K | General |
| Qwen3 4B Small but capable Qwen model. Good for lightweight inference and edge deployment. | Qwen | 41K | Edge / Fast |
| Dolphin Mistral 24B Uncensored Mistral 24B fine-tune by Cognitive Computations. Venice edition. | Venice | 33K | Uncensored |
| Gemma 3 12B Mid-size Gemma 3 with multimodal support and strong multilingual. | 33K | Multimodal | |
| Gemma 3 4B Compact Gemma model. Great for prototyping and lightweight tasks. | 33K | Edge / Fast | |
| LFM2.5-1.2B Thinking Compact 1.2B reasoning model from Liquid AI with thinking capabilities. | LiquidAI | 33K | Reasoning |
| LFM2.5-1.2B Instruct Instruction-tuned 1.2B model from Liquid AI. Designed for edge deployment. | LiquidAI | 33K | Chat |
| Gemma 3n E4B Mobile-optimized multimodal model. Text, vision, and audio. MatFormer architecture. | 8K | Mobile | |
| Gemma 3n E2B Ultra-compact mobile model. Per-layer embedding caching for fast inference on device. | 8K | Mobile |
🚀 How to Use Free Models
- 1 Create OpenRouter Account
Visit openrouter.ai and sign up. No credit card needed for free models.
- 2 Generate API Key
Go to your dashboard and create an API key.
- 3 Use Free Model IDs
Append
:freeto model names, e.g.,mistralai/devstral-2512:free
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-d '{"model": "meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free", ...}' ⚠️ Free Tier Limitations
Rate Limits
Free models have lower rate limits than paid versions. Fine for development and personal projects.
Queue Priority
During peak times, free requests may be queued behind paid requests.
Data Logging
Some free models log prompts for training. Check model cards for details.
Availability
Free tiers can change. Models may become paid or be retired.
🤔 Why Are These Models Free?
Free AI models aren't charity—each provider has strategic reasons for offering them. Understanding these motivations helps you make informed decisions about which models to trust.
Gemma Open Models
Why free: Google's Gemma family (3 27B, 12B, 4B, and the new Gemma 3n) are open-weight models available for free on OpenRouter. The Gemini 2.0 Flash Exp free tier was deprecated in February 2026, but Gemma models remain fully accessible.
The catch: Gemma models are open weights under Google's permissive license, so no prompt logging when self-hosted. On OpenRouter's free tier, standard rate limits apply (20 req/min, 200 req/day). Gemma 3n models have only 8K context, limiting use for longer documents.
New in March: Gemma 3n (E4B and E2B) are mobile-optimized multimodal models using the MatFormer architecture with Per-Layer Embedding caching — designed for on-device inference with text, vision, and audio support.
Llama Open Source Models
Why free: Meta releases Llama models as "open source" to build an ecosystem around their technology. The models are free for research and commercial use—but with strings attached.
The catch: Llama's license has a 700 million monthly user threshold—beyond that, you need a commercial license. You must display "Built with Llama" branding, and the license restricts certain use cases (controlled substances, critical infrastructure).
Controversy: The Open Source Initiative and Free Software Foundation don't recognize Llama as truly open source due to its restrictive acceptable use policy and lack of training data disclosure.
Experiment Plan
Why free: Mistral offers an "Experiment" plan—all you need is a verified phone number, no credit card. It's designed to let developers evaluate their models before committing to paid tiers.
The catch: API requests on the Experiment plan may be used to train Mistral's models. Rate limits are restrictive and not suitable for production workloads.
Upgrade path: The "Scale" plan offers higher limits with pay-per-use billing and no data training on your prompts.
⚠️ Privacy Considerations
Why free/cheap: DeepSeek offers extremely competitive pricing ($0.55 per million input tokens) and unlimited free queries through their chatbot—making it one of the most accessible models.
The catch: DeepSeek's servers are in China. Every prompt can be used to train models, there's no opt-out, and Chinese law requires cooperation with government data requests. Security researchers found hard-coded encryption keys and unencrypted data transmission.
Regulatory actions: Italy banned DeepSeek in early 2025. The U.S. considered a nationwide ban. Multiple countries have prohibited its use in government systems.
GPT-OSS Open-Weight Models
Why free: In a historic shift, OpenAI released GPT-OSS-120B and GPT-OSS-20B under the Apache 2.0 license—their first open-weight models since GPT-2. This came after their market share dropped from 50% to 25% due to competition from DeepSeek and Llama.
Technical specs: The 120B model uses mixture-of-experts (MoE) with 4-bit quantization (MXFP4), fitting on a single H100 GPU. The 20B model runs on consumer hardware with just 16GB memory. Performance is near-parity with OpenAI o4-mini on reasoning benchmarks.
The catch: While the Apache 2.0 license is permissive, commercial use is subject to OpenAI's gpt-oss usage policy. No training data disclosure, and the models lack multimodal capabilities.
| Provider | Data Training | Data Location | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes (experimental) | US/Global | Proprietary API | |
| Meta | No (open weights) | Self-hosted | Llama License |
| Mistral | Yes (free tier) | EU | Apache 2.0 / Proprietary |
| DeepSeek | Yes (no opt-out) | China | MIT (model) / Proprietary (API) |
| OpenAI | No (open weights) | Self-hosted | Apache 2.0 + Usage Policy |
| NVIDIA | No (open weights) | US/Global | NVIDIA Open License |
| Xiaomi | May log (free tier) | China | Apache 2.0 |
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Last updated: March 22, 2026 • Data sourced from OpenRouter API and provider announcements