---
title: "OpenRouter free inference"
description: "25 model routes currently listed at zero price. See verified limits, model IDs, privacy terms, and primary sources for OpenRouter."
canonical_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/provider/openrouter/"
md_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/provider/openrouter.md"
last_updated: "2026-09-19"
---

# OpenRouter

> 25 model routes currently listed at zero price.

## Classification

- **Directory:** Current
- **Free access:** Free model routes
- **Status:** Available now
- **Confidence:** High
- **Payment card:** No
- **Account:** Required
- **Equivalent paid value:** Up to $2,812.60/mo
- **API endpoint:** `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1`

## Models mentioned

- `inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-vl:free`
- `nex-agi/nex-n2.5-mini:free`
- `nex-agi/nex-n2.5-pro:free`
- `inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-sante:free`
- `inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-fin:free`
- `dots-studio/dots-3-note-preview:free`
- `liquid/lfm-2.5-2.6b:free`
- `nvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning:free`
- `thinkingmachines/inkling-small:free`
- `poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free`
- `thinkingmachines/inkling:free`
- `poolside/laguna-xs-2.1:free`
- `cohere/north-mini-code:free`
- `nvidia/nemotron-3.5-content-safety:free`
- `nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b:free`
- `nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-omni-30b-a3b-reasoning:free`
- `google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it:free`
- `google/gemma-4-31b-it:free`
- `google/lyria-3-pro-preview`
- `google/lyria-3-clip-preview`
- `nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b:free`
- `qwen/qwen3.8-27b:free`
- `deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731:free`
- `z-ai/glm-5.2:free`
- `openrouter/free`

## Limits and terms

```yaml
requests_per_minute: 20
requests_per_day_without_purchase: 50
requests_per_day_after_10_usd_credit_purchase: 1000
scope: Total across free-model requests; failed requests count.
```

## What happens to your prompts?

**Partially private.** OpenRouter defaults are protective, but the selected upstream model provider and optional logging or data-sharing controls determine end-to-end handling.

Privacy is audited separately from price. Review the current governing terms before sending sensitive or regulated data.

## Data governance and agreements

```yaml
data_governance:
  review_status: reviewed
  plan_scope: OpenRouter API and chat; downstream handling varies by selected
    model endpoint and account privacy controls.
  prompt_retention: OpenRouter does not retain prompts or responses by default.
    Optional private logging retains content for at least three months and
    possibly longer until deletion is requested; some processing and cache
    features have separate retention.
  response_retention: Same policy as prompts.
  ordinary_logging: Request metadata such as model, token counts, timestamps,
    cost, and latency is retained without prompt or response content.
  model_training: OpenRouter does not train on inputs or outputs by default. A
    separate opt-in permits product improvement; downstream model providers may
    retain or train unless endpoint policy controls exclude them.
  product_improvement: Optional input/output sharing is off by default and
    provides a usage discount when enabled. Anonymous prompt categorization may
    occur under a zero-data-retention arrangement.
  human_or_operator_access: Privately logged content is visible to the account
    owner or organization admins; OpenRouter says it does not access that
    content except where feature terms, operations, security, troubleshooting,
    or law require.
  subprocessors_and_routing: Requests are sent to the selected or automatically
    routed model provider, whose own endpoint-specific policy applies.
    Zero-data-retention routing can be enforced.
  deletion_controls: Account owners may request deletion of privately logged
    prompt and response content; retention for optional features is documented
    separately.
  caveat: Privacy depends on both OpenRouter settings and the final model
    endpoint. OpenRouter conservatively treats an unknown provider policy as
    retaining and training on data.
agreements:
  terms_of_service: https://openrouter.ai/terms/
  privacy_policy: https://openrouter.ai/privacy/
```

## Eligibility

```yaml
account_required: true
payment_method_required: false
```

## API compatibility and modalities

- **Compatibility:** OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Completions, OpenAI Models
- **Modalities:** Text generation, Safety


## Before you build with OpenRouter

### Read the classification narrowly

This record describes the bounded offer supported by evidence on 2026-09-19; it does not guarantee permanence, production suitability, uptime, latency, model quality, or access from every account and region. “Free model routes” should be interpreted together with the Current directory placement, High confidence, No payment-card status, and the plan-specific sources below.

### Resolve the live model route

The snapshot records 25 model IDs. Match the exact ID against the provider's current catalog before using it in code because zero-price routes, aliases, context limits, and feature support can rotate while an older documentation page remains online.

### Match the quota to the workload shape

Translate the allowance into peak requests per minute, input and output tokens, concurrency, retries, and every daily or monthly ceiling that applies to the intended account. The first limit reached by the workload is the practical ceiling. A large token pool can still fail interactive bursts, and a high request limit can still fail long-context work. Include tool calls and retry traffic, test the largest realistic payload, and treat research, experimental, and community access as conditional on their eligibility and fair-use terms.

### Preserve billing and privacy boundaries

The recorded payment-card requirement is No, and account access is required. Confirm both in the live signup flow, set provider-side budgets when charges are possible, and observe the balance or usage fields after a complete request. The prompt-handling classification is **Partially private** because OpenRouter defaults are protective, but the selected upstream model provider and optional logging or data-sharing controls determine end-to-end handling. Re-read the terms for the exact route and plan before sending sensitive, regulated, or proprietary content.

### Follow the evidence, then re-check it

This record links 11 first-party sources covering the offer, catalog, limits, pricing, terms, privacy, or adoption evidence available to the audit. Prefer the newest and most specific governing document or live catalog when sources disagree. A dated finding can become stale even when the page remains online, so retain the source and snapshot that supported the decision and submit a correction when a provider changes a material term.

### Plan fallback without policy drift

A fallback should preserve modality, context length, streaming, structured output, tools, safety controls, and data terms, not only API syntax. Decide which errors may retry, cap retry storms, and prevent an exhausted free route from silently switching to a billable model. Rotating aliases and free pools can change behavior without changing the endpoint, so retain the response model field and test at least one substitute route before the primary offer becomes unavailable.

### Monitor the offer as a dependency

Capture the model ID, response model, rate-limit headers, usage fields, latency, HTTP status, and provider request identifier. Watch authorization failure, quota exhaustion, catalog removal, policy revision, and balance movement as separate failure modes. Re-check the live catalog and governing sources on a schedule proportionate to the workload's importance, and keep an owner and exit path for any production dependency on volatile free capacity.

### Test one complete request before scaling

Start with the smallest permitted request using the exact credential, model ID, endpoint, region, and account type intended for deployment. Record the status, headers, usage fields, response model, latency, and dashboard balance movement. Then exercise an invalid model, quota exhaustion, or rate limit so failure is explicit and cannot silently switch to a paid route. Validate streaming, structured output, and tool calls separately because a free model can expose fewer features than its paid counterpart. Keep a budget ceiling outside the application whenever billing is possible, and do not send sensitive data until the observed route matches the reviewed agreement.

## Primary sources

- [OpenRouter FAQ](https://openrouter.ai/docs/faq): Official Docs
- [Models endpoint](https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models): Live Catalog
- [Free Models Router](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/routing/routers/free-router): Official Docs
- [Updates to Our Free Tier](https://openrouter.ai/blog/announcements/updates-to-our-free-tier-sustaining-accessible-ai-for-everyone/): Announcement
- [Terms of Service](https://openrouter.ai/terms/): Official Terms
- [Privacy Policy](https://openrouter.ai/privacy/): Official Privacy
- [Data Collection](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/privacy/data-collection): Official Docs
- [Zero Data Retention](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/features/zdr): Official Docs
- [Input and Output Logging](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/features/input-output-logging): Official Docs
- [OpenRouter API rate limits (free model usage)](https://openrouter.ai/docs/api-reference/limits): Official Docs
- [OpenRouter usage and ecosystem metrics](https://openrouter.ai/): Official Product

## Sitemap

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