The free tier is most easily misunderstood as having "25+ free models", which sounds like a lot, but they all share a quota of 50 requests per day, which can be used up quickly with just a little testing. If you actually want to use it for work, you still need to pay for more.
View Change History
2026-09-21Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-20Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
Show the remaining verification history (23 more)▼
2026-09-19Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-18Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-17Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-16Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-15Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-14Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-13Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-12Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-11Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-10Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-09Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-09-08Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-27Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-22Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-14Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-09Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-07 22:05Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-07 21:49:33Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-06 12:12:37Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-05 22:36:22Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-03 03:43:21Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-08-03 03:34:37Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
2026-07-31Daily auto-check logged — see the Chinese version for details
Continuously re-checked, every fact dated
Has a free plan
What Is This
One account, 400+ models. Automatic price routing and failover across 70+ providers.
Free Version Limitations
More than 25 free models, 4 free providers, daily limit of 50 requests, community support (Checked on openrouter.ai/pricing as of 2026-07-31)
Available Models And Quantity
Model
Free quota
Calculate Time Window
Description
25+ free models (provided by each vendor)
50 requests Daily
Resets daily
The list of free models is subject to change based on the supplier's policy, and the actual number of available models is determined by the official website at the time.
Free Usage Limit
Features
Free quota
Description
Number of free models
25+ items
From 4 free providers
Daily request limit
50 times
This is the main limitation of the free tier
Paid model access
No
Requires pre-paid points
Auto Price Comparison Route
Available
When the same model is available from multiple suppliers, it will automatically choose the cheaper or available one.
Best for: Those who want to use GPT, Claude, Gemini, and open-source models at the same time without subscribing to multiple monthly fees.
API pay-as-you-go (usage-based)
No monthly fee, no minimum consumption. A 5.5% platform handling fee is charged when purchasing points, and the model itself is billed at the original price of each supplier. It supports 500+ models, 80+ suppliers (updated on 2026-08-22: the scale has grown compared to previous records). It supports credit cards and cryptocurrencies (as of 2026-07-31, according to the official website openrouter.ai/pricing). BYOK (bring your own key) quota: within US$25,000 list price inference per month is free of handling fees, and 5% is charged for excess amounts.
Which Model
400+ models, 70+ providers, switchable at will
Usage Quota
Based on the prepaid points, deductions are made according to usage, with no monthly fee and no minimum consumption.
Max Reading Time
Depends on the selected model
This Plan Includes
400+ models in a single API
Automatic price comparison routing (choosing the cheapest or fastest provider)
Supplier outage automatic rerouting
Usage analysis
Credit card and cryptocurrency payment
Not Included
Platform fee discount
Dedicated rate limit
SLA and Dedicated Support
What Sets Us Apart
The biggest difference from a subscription model is **no monthly fee**. If you only use high-end models occasionally in a month, pay-per-use is usually more cost-effective than paying a US$20 monthly fee; however, note that a 5.5% platform fee will be added when topping up.
Best for: Teams or companies with large usage requirements that need customized pricing and service guarantees
API pay-as-you-go (usage-based)
Negotiable platform fee discounts, dedicated rate limits, SLA, and shared Slack channel; BYOK (bring your own key) quota: within US$200,000 list price per month for inference, no handling fee, 5% charge for excess (this is for BYOK Limits, not general usage) (Checked on 2026-07-31 from official website openrouter.ai/pricing)
Which Model
Same as Pay-as-you-go, and also customizable configuration available
Usage Quota
Monthly list price up to US$200,000 is exempt from handling fees, with a 5% charge on the excess amount.
Max Reading Time
Depends on the selected model
This Plan Includes
Platform fee discounts are negotiable
Dedicated rate limit
SLA Service Guarantee
Shared Slack support channel
What Sets Us Apart
It's only cost-effective for large-scale usage. For individuals and small teams, Pay-as-you-go is sufficient.
The world's most widely used AI assistant, handling conversation, search, image generation, and voice all in one place
FreeNT$0/month, open to everyone. The official site lists the free-tier limits one by one: limited access to GPT-5.5 Instant, limited messages and uploads, limited and slower image generation, limited deep research, limited memory and context, limited Codex, limited ChatGPT Work desktop app. The only place the official site gives concrete numbers is the plan comparison table: free-tier GPT Instant total context window 27K (Go/Plus 54K, Pro 128K); free-tier single-input cap about 12 pages of text (Go/Plus about 40 pages, Pro about 250 pages); the context window for reasoning models is marked depends on the situation for the free tier (Go/Plus 256K, Pro 400K). Response time on the free tier is marked as limited by system resources and service conditions; only paid plans are fast. Chat history is unlimited on the free tier. Whether content is used for model training can be opted out of. The official site has never published a concrete messages-per-day figure, and this site does not fill in an estimate. (Read directly from chatgpt.com/zh-Hant/pricing over a Taiwan connection on 2026-08-09)
Long-form writing and document quality are its strengths, with the paid version including the Claude Code engineering tool
FreeThe quota is calculated based on a rolling 5-hour usage window (not simply resetting at a fixed number every day), and general conversations can be used for around 10-20 times, excluding Claude Code.
Google has the deepest ecosystem integration of AI, with a generous free version and frequent discounts for student plans.
FreeNT$0/month, free to anyone with a Google account. Model available: Gemini 3.6 Flash; the official site states plainly that access to 3.1 Pro may vary, meaning free-tier access to Pro fluctuates and is not guaranteed. Features included on the free tier: image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas, Gems, Gemini Notebook (research and writing), the Google Flow creative studio, plus limited usage of Nano Banana Pro. Cloud storage 15 GB (shared across Gmail/Drive/Photos). How the quota is counted and when it resets, in the official footnote's own words: the Gemini app measures usage limits by compute, which depends on prompt complexity, the features you use and conversation length; usage resets every 5 hours, up to a weekly usage cap. In other words the free tier is not a fixed number of messages per day but a compute allowance that resets every 5 hours plus an overall weekly cap; long conversations, Deep Research and image generation burn through it faster than plain chat. When the quota runs out you can buy AI credits. The official site does not publish the specific compute figure for the free tier. (Read directly from gemini.google/subscriptions over a Taiwan connection on 2026-08-09)
Model aggregator: does not develop models itself, but aggregates 400+ models under one API/account, allowing for automatic selection of the cheapest or fastest provider, and automatic switching to other providers if a single provider goes down. The reason for the partial zh_support label is: the platform interface is primarily in English, but can directly call Chinese-ability-strong models; the interface localization degree requires manual verification. Whether the daily limit of 50 times for the free quota includes all free models also requires verification.
Related Guide：OpenRouter Free Models Are Capped at 50 Requests a Day — Here Is How to Get 1,000 (2026 Setup Guide)
OpenRouter documents three hard ceilings on free models: 20 requests per minute, 50 per day, and 1,000 per day once you have purchased US$10 in credits all time. This guide walks through signup to first request, the exact condition that lifts the daily cap, how to set per-key spend limits, and what 402, 429, 404 and 503 each mean. Last checked 2026-08-26.
Looking for OpenRouter deals, discounts or promo codes? We check the official site automatically every day, review changes by hand, and date-stamp every entry.
