---
title: "Free inference glossary"
description: "Definitions for free API offer types, verification levels, prompt privacy, value estimates, and other terms used by Free Inferencing."
canonical_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/glossary/"
md_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/glossary.md"
last_updated: "2026-08-21"
---

# The terms behind the audit

> "Free," "private," and "verified" hide material differences. These definitions govern every catalog record.

## Free-access classifications

- **Always-free quota:** A recurring or indefinite no-cost API allowance.
- **Free model routes:** Named model IDs currently priced at zero inside a changing catalog.
- **Monthly credits:** A dollar-like allowance that refreshes on a published schedule.
- **Research / development access:** No-cost hosted inference limited to evaluation, research, or prototyping.
- **Experimental access:** Free while a public preview or experiment remains active.
- **Community capacity:** Volunteer, donated, or shared compute without guaranteed throughput.
- **User pays:** Each end user authenticates and consumes that user's own allowance.
- **Trial or promotion:** A one-time credit, fixed window, or limited campaign.

## Evidence and verification

- **Live catalog:** An official models endpoint was queried without credentials; this does not prove an authenticated generation.
- **Live call:** A credential-free inference request succeeded; this does not prove authenticated billing behavior.
- **Official current:** Current first-party documentation directly supports the claim.
- **Dashboard only:** A decisive value exists only after sign-in.
- **Watchlist:** A possible free offer still missing decisive verification.

## Privacy, pricing, and APIs

- **Private prompts:** Reviewed terms exclude training and avoid retention beyond short-term operations, subject to recorded exceptions.
- **Partially private prompts:** Protections exist, but retention, improvement, access, routing, or plan conditions remain.
- **Not private prompts:** Reviewed free-tier terms permit training or broader content reuse.
- **Equivalent paid value:** What the published free allowance would cost at documented paid rates; it is not cash or guaranteed savings.
- **BYOK:** Bring your own key; the gateway may be free while the upstream provider bills the user.
- **Hosted inference API:** A remotely callable interface where the provider runs the model compute.
- **Model ID:** The machine-readable identifier sent to an inference API.

## How to use these definitions

Read an offer label as a boundary on the evidence, not as a general endorsement. “Always-free quota” says the documented allowance recurs or lacks a fixed trial expiry; it does not promise uptime, latency, production rights, model quality, or access from every account and region. “Current offer” includes finite and conditional access when it is genuinely usable, so pair it with the narrower free-access classification before comparing providers.

Keep privacy and value separate from availability. A zero-price route can retain or reuse content, and a conservatively private service can still have a small or operationally awkward quota. Equivalent paid value normalizes a measurable allowance using published prices, but it cannot price unbounded community capacity, research access without a transferable commercial rate, or a quota whose decisive unit is missing. “Not quantifiable” preserves that uncertainty instead of assigning a speculative number.

When terms conflict, prefer the source that most specifically governs the API product, plan, region, model route, and account type being evaluated. A company privacy policy may not settle developer prompt handling; a marketing page may not override billing documentation; and a model catalog may prove an advertised route without proving an authenticated zero-balance request. Follow the provider record's sources and snapshot date, then use the corrections process when newer first-party evidence changes the classification.

## Sitemap

See the full [semantic sitemap](/sitemap.md) for every page and markdown mirror.