free-coding-models

Find the fastest free coding model in seconds
_{Ping 238 models across 25 AI Free providers in real-time}
_{Install Free API endpoints to your favorite AI coding tool:
📦 OpenCode, 🦞 OpenClaw, 💘 Crush, 🪿 Goose, 🛠 Aider, 🐉 Qwen Code, 🤲 OpenHands, ⚡ Amp, 🔮 Hermes, ▶️ Continue, 🧠 Cline, 🛠️ Xcode, π Pi, 🦘 Rovo or ♊ Gemini in one keystroke}

npm install -g free-coding-models
free-coding-models

create a free account on one of the providers

💡 Why • ⚡ Quick Start • 🟢 Providers • 🎁 Bonus Free Stuff • 🚀 Usage • ⌨️ TUI Keys • ✨ Features • 📋 Contributing • ⚖️ Licensing • 📊 Telemetry • 🛡️ Security • 📧 Support • 📄 License

_{Made with ❤️ and ☕ by Vanessa Depraute (aka Vava-Nessa)}

💡 Why this tool?

There are 238+ free coding models scattered across 25 providers. Which one is fastest right now? Which one is actually stable versus just lucky on the last ping?

This CLI pings them all in parallel, shows live latency, and calculates a live Stability Score (0-100). Average latency alone is misleading if a model randomly spikes to 6 seconds; the stability score measures true reliability by combining p95 latency (30%), jitter/variance (30%), spike rate (20%), and uptime (20%).

It then writes the model you pick directly into your coding tool's config — so you go from "which model?" to "coding" in under 10 seconds.

⚡ Quick Start

🟢 List of Free AI Providers

Create a free account on one provider below to get started:

238 coding models across 25 providers, ranked by SWE-bench Verified.

Provider	Models	Tier range	Free tier	Env var
NVIDIA NIM	46	S+ → C	40 req/min (no credit card needed)	`NVIDIA_API_KEY`
OpenRouter	25	S+ → C	Free on 🆓 50/day <$10, 1000/day ≥$10 (20 req/min)	`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`
Cloudflare Workers AI	15	S → B	Free: 10k neurons/day, text-gen 300 RPM	`CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN` + `CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID`
SambaNova	13	S+ → B	Dev tier generous quota	`SAMBANOVA_API_KEY`
Hyperbolic	13	S+ → A-	$1 free trial credits	`HYPERBOLIC_API_KEY`
Together AI	19	S+ → A-	Credits/promos vary by account (check console)	`TOGETHER_API_KEY`
Scaleway	10	S+ → B+	1M free tokens	`SCALEWAY_API_KEY`
iFlow	11	S+ → A+	Free for individuals (no req limits, 7-day key expiry)	`IFLOW_API_KEY`
Alibaba DashScope	11	S+ → A	1M free tokens per model (Singapore region, 90 days)	`DASHSCOPE_API_KEY`
Groq	8	S → B	30‑50 RPM per model (varies by model)	`GROQ_API_KEY`
Rovo Dev CLI	5	S+	5M tokens/day (beta)	CLI tool 🦘
ZAI	7	S+ → S	Free tier (generous quota)	`ZAI_API_KEY`
OpenCode Zen	7	S+ → A+	Free with OpenCode account	Zen models ✨
Google AI Studio	6	B+ → C	14.4K req/day, 30/min	`GOOGLE_API_KEY`
SiliconFlow	6	S+ → A	Free models: usually 100 RPM, varies by model	`SILICONFLOW_API_KEY`
Cerebras	4	S+ → B	Generous free tier (developer tier 10× higher limits)	`CEREBRAS_API_KEY`
Perplexity API	4	A+ → B	Tiered limits by spend (default ~50 RPM)	`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`
OVHcloud AI Endpoints	8	S → B	Free sandbox: 2 req/min/IP (no key). 400 RPM with key	`OVH_AI_ENDPOINTS_ACCESS_TOKEN`
Chutes AI	4	S → A	Free (community GPU-powered, no credit card)	`CHUTES_API_KEY`
DeepInfra	4	A- → B+	200 concurrent requests (default)	`DEEPINFRA_API_KEY`
Fireworks AI	4	S → B+	$1 credits – 10 req/min without payment	`FIREWORKS_API_KEY`
Gemini CLI	3	S+ → A+	1,000 req/day	CLI tool ♊
Hugging Face	2	S → B	Free monthly credits (~$0.10)	`HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY`
Replicate	2	A- → B	6 req/min (no payment) – up to 3,000 RPM with payment	`REPLICATE_API_TOKEN`
Mistral Codestral	1	B+	30 req/min, 2000/day	`CODESTRAL_API_KEY`

💡 One key is enough. Add more at any time with P inside the TUI.

🎁 Bonus Free Stuff

Everything free that isn't in the CLI — IDE extensions, coding agents, GitHub lists, trial credits, and more.

📚 Awesome Lists (curated by the community)

Resource	What it is
cheahjs/free-llm-api-resources (18.4k ⭐)	Comprehensive list of free LLM API providers with rate limits
mnfst/awesome-free-llm-apis (2.1k ⭐)	Permanent free LLM API tiers organized by provider
inmve/free-ai-coding (648 ⭐)	Pro-grade AI coding tools side-by-side — limits, models, CC requirements
amardeeplakshkar/awesome-free-llm-apis	Additional free LLM API resources

🖥️ AI-Powered IDEs with Free Tiers

IDE	Free tier	Credit card
Qwen Code	2,000 requests/day	No
Rovo Dev CLI	5M tokens/day (beta)	No
Gemini CLI	100–250 requests/day	No
Jules	15 tasks/day	No
AWS Kiro	50 credits/month	No
Trae	10 fast + 50 slow requests/month	No
Codeium	Unlimited forever, basic models	No
JetBrains AI Assistant	Unlimited completions + local models	No
Continue.dev	Free VS Code/JetBrains extension, local models via Ollama	No
Warp	150 credits/month (first 2 months), then 75/month	No
Amazon Q Developer	50 agentic requests/month	Required
Windsurf	25 prompt credits/month	Required
Kilo Code	Up to $25 signup credits (one-time)	Required
Tabnine	Basic completions + chat (limited)	Required
SuperMaven	Basic suggestions, 1M token context	Required

🔑 API Providers with Permanent Free Tiers

Provider	Free limits	Notable models
OpenRouter	50 req/day, 1K/day with $10 purchase	Qwen3-Coder, Llama 3.3 70B, Gemma 3
Google AI Studio	5–500 req/day (varies by model)	Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemma 3
NVIDIA NIM	40 RPM	Llama 3.3 70B, Mistral Large, Qwen3 235B
Groq	1K–14.4K req/day (model-dependent)	Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout, Kimi K2
Cerebras	30 RPM, 1M tokens/day	Qwen3-235B, Llama 3.1 70B, GPT-OSS 120B
Cohere	20 RPM, 1K/month	Command R+, Aya Expanse 32B
Mistral La Plateforme	1 req/s, 1B tokens/month	Mistral Large 3, Small 3.1
Cloudflare Workers AI	10K neurons/day	Llama 3.3 70B, QwQ 32B, 47+ models
GitHub Models	Depends on Copilot tier	GPT-4o, DeepSeek-R1, Llama 3.3
SiliconFlow	1K RPM, 50K TPM	Qwen3-8B, DeepSeek-R1, GLM-4.1V
HuggingFace	~$0.10/month credits	Llama 3.3 70B, Qwen2.5 72B

💰 Providers with Trial Credits

Provider	Credits	Duration
Hyperbolic	$1 free	Permanent
Fireworks	$1	Permanent
Nebius	$1	Permanent
SambaNova Cloud	$5	3 months
AI21	$10	3 months
Upstage	$10	3 months
NLP Cloud	$15	Permanent
Alibaba DashScope	1M tokens/model	90 days
Scaleway	1M tokens	Permanent
Modal	$5/month	Monthly
Inference.net	$1 (+ $25 on survey)	Permanent
Novita	$0.5	1 year

🎓 Free with Education/Developer Programs

Program	What you get
GitHub Student Pack	Free Copilot Pro for students (verify with .edu email)
GitHub Copilot Free	50 chat + 2,000 completions/month in VS Code
Copilot Pro for teachers/maintainers	Free Copilot Pro for open source maintainers & educators

Tier scale

Tier	SWE-bench	Best for
S+	≥ 70%	Complex refactors, real-world GitHub issues
S	60–70%	Most coding tasks, strong general use
A+/A	40–60%	Solid alternatives, targeted programming
A-/B+	30–40%	Smaller tasks, constrained infra
B/C	< 30%	Code completion, edge/minimal setups

① Install and run:

npm install -g free-coding-models
free-coding-models

On first run, you'll be prompted to enter your API key(s). You can skip providers and add more later with P.

Use ⚡️ Command Palette! with Ctrl+P.

Need to fix contrast because your terminal theme is fighting the TUI? Press G at any time to cycle Auto → Dark → Light. The switch recolors the full interface live: table, Settings, Help, Smart Recommend, Feedback, and Changelog.

② Pick a model and launch your tool:

↑↓ navigate   →   Enter to launch

The model you select is automatically written into your tool's config (📦 OpenCode, 🦞 OpenClaw, 💘 Crush, etc.) and the tool opens immediately. Done.

If the active CLI tool is missing, FCM now catches it before launch, offers a tiny Yes/No install prompt, installs the tool with its official global command, then resumes the same model launch automatically.

💡 You can also run free-coding-models --goose --tier S to pre-filter to S-tier models for Goose before the TUI even opens.

🚀 Usage

Common scenarios

# "I want the most reliable model right now"
free-coding-models --fiable

# "I want to configure Goose with an S-tier model"
free-coding-models --goose --tier S

# "I want NVIDIA's top models only"
free-coding-models --origin nvidia --tier S

# "I want the local web dashboard"
free-coding-models --web

# "Start with an elite-focused preset, then adjust filters live"
free-coding-models --premium

# "I want to script this — give me JSON"
free-coding-models --tier S --json | jq -r '.[0].modelId'

# "I want to configure OpenClaw with Groq's fastest model"
free-coding-models --openclaw --origin groq

When launching the web dashboard, free-coding-models prefers http://localhost:3333. If that port is already used by another app, it now auto-picks the next free local port and prints the exact URL to open.

Tool launcher flags

Flag	Launches
`--opencode`	📦 OpenCode CLI
`--opencode-desktop`	📦 OpenCode Desktop
`--openclaw`	🦞 OpenClaw
`--crush`	💘 Crush
`--goose`	🪿 Goose
`--aider`	🛠 Aider
`--qwen`	🐉 Qwen Code
`--openhands`	🤲 OpenHands
`--amp`	⚡ Amp
`--hermes`	🔮 Hermes
`--continue`	▶️ Continue CLI
`--cline`	🧠 Cline
`--xcode`	🛠️ Xcode Intelligence
`--pi`	π Pi
`--rovo`	🦘 Rovo Dev CLI
`--gemini`	♊ Gemini CLI

Press Z in the TUI to cycle between tools without restarting.

CLI-Only Tools

🦘 Rovo Dev CLI

Provider: Atlassian Rovo
Install: Installation Guide
Free tier: 5M tokens/day (beta, requires Atlassian account)
Model: Claude Sonnet 4 (72.7% SWE-bench)
Launch: free-coding-models --rovo or press Z until Rovo mode
Features: Jira/Confluence integration, MCP server support

♊ Gemini CLI

Provider: Google Gemini
Install: npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
Free tier: 1,000 requests/day (personal Google account, no credit card)
Models: Gemini 3 Pro (76.2% SWE-bench), Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash
Launch: free-coding-models --gemini or press Z until Gemini mode
Features: OpenAI-compatible API support, MCP server support, Google Search grounding

Note: When launching these tools via Z key or command palette, if the current mode doesn't match the tool, you'll see a confirmation alert asking to switch to the correct tool before launching.

OpenCode Zen Free Models

OpenCode Zen is a hosted AI gateway offering 8 free coding models exclusively through OpenCode CLI and OpenCode Desktop. These models are not available through other tools.

Model	Tier	SWE-bench	Context
Big Pickle	S+	72.0%	200k
MiniMax M2.5 Free	S+	80.2%	200k
MiMo V2 Pro Free	S+	78.0%	1M
MiMo V2 Omni Free	S	64.0%	128k
MiMo V2 Flash Free	S+	73.4%	256k
Nemotron 3 Super Free	A+	52.0%	128k
GPT 5 Nano	S	65.0%	128k
Trinity Large Preview Free	S	62.0%	128k

To use Zen models: sign up at opencode.ai/auth and enter your Zen API key via P (Settings). Zen models appear in the main table and auto-switch to OpenCode CLI on launch.

Tool Compatibility

When a tool mode is active (via Z), models incompatible with that tool are highlighted with a dark red background so you can instantly see which models work with your current tool.

Model Type	Compatible Tools
Regular (NVIDIA, Groq, etc.)	All tools except 🦘 Rovo and ♊ Gemini
Rovo	🦘 Rovo Dev CLI only
Gemini	♊ Gemini CLI only
OpenCode Zen	📦 OpenCode CLI and 📦 OpenCode Desktop only

→ Full flags reference

⌨️ TUI Keys

Keyboard

Key	Action
`↑↓`	Navigate models
`Enter`	Launch selected model in active tool
`Z`	Cycle target tool
`T`	Cycle tier filter
`D`	Cycle provider filter
`E`	Toggle configured-only mode
`F`	Favorite / unfavorite model
`Y`	Toggle favorites mode (`Normal filter/sort` default ↔ `Pinned + always visible`)
`X`	Clear active custom text filter
`G`	Cycle global theme (`Auto → Dark → Light`)
`Ctrl+P`	Open ⚡️ command palette (search + run actions)
`R/S/C/M/O/L/A/H/V/B/U`	Sort columns
`Shift+U`	Update to latest version (when update available)
`P`	Settings (API keys, providers, updates, theme)
`Q`	Smart Recommend overlay
`N`	Changelog
`W`	Cycle ping cadence
`I`	Feedback / bug report
`K`	Help overlay
`Ctrl+C`	Exit

Mouse

Action	Result
Click column header	Sort by that column
Click Tier header	Cycle tier filter
Click CLI Tools header	Cycle tool mode
Click model row	Move cursor to model
Double-click model row	Select and launch model
Right-click model row	Toggle favorite
Scroll wheel	Navigate table / overlays / palette
Click footer hotkey	Trigger that action
Click update banner	Install latest version and relaunch
Click command palette item	Select item (double-click to confirm)
Click recommend option	Select option (double-click to confirm)
Click outside modal	Close command palette

→ Stability score & column reference

✨ Features

Parallel pings — all 238 models tested simultaneously via native fetch
Adaptive monitoring — 2s burst for 60s → 10s normal → 30s idle
Stability score — composite 0–100 (p95 latency, jitter, spike rate, uptime)
Smart ranking — top 3 highlighted 🥇🥈🥉
Favorites — star models with F, persisted across sessions, default to normal rows, and switch display mode with Y (pinned+sticky vs normal rows)
Configured-only default — only shows providers you have keys for
Keyless latency — models ping even without an API key (show 🔑 NO KEY)
Smart Recommend — questionnaire picks the best model for your task type
⚡️ Command Palette — Ctrl+P opens a searchable action launcher for filters, sorting, overlays, and quick toggles
Install Endpoints — push a full provider catalog into any tool's config (from Settings P or ⚡️ Command Palette)
Missing tool bootstrap — detect absent CLIs, offer one-click install, then continue the selected launch automatically
Tool compatibility matrix — incompatible rows highlighted in dark red when a tool mode is active
OpenCode Zen models — 8 free models exclusive to OpenCode CLI/Desktop, powered by the Zen AI gateway
Width guardrail — shows a warning instead of a broken table in narrow terminals
Readable everywhere — semantic theme palette keeps table rows, overlays, badges, and help screens legible in dark and light terminals
Global theme switch — G cycles auto, dark, + light live without restarting
Auto-retry — timeout models keep getting retried
Aggressive update nudging — fluorescent green banner when an update is available, impossible to miss, Shift+U hotkey, command palette entry, background re-check every 5 min, mid-session updates the banner live without restarting
Last release timestamp — light pink footer shows Last release: Mar 27, 2026, 09:42 PM from npm so users know how fresh the data is

📋 Contributing

We welcome contributions — issues, PRs, new provider integrations.

Q: How accurate are the latency numbers?
A: Real round-trip times measured by your machine. Results depend on your network and provider load at that moment.

Q: Can I add a new provider?
A: Yes — see sources.js for the model catalog format.

→ Development guide · Config reference · Tool integrations

⚖️ Model Licensing & Commercial Use

Short answer: All 238 models allow commercial use of generated output (including code). You own what the models generate for you.

Output Ownership

For every model in this tool, you own the generated output — code, text, or otherwise — and can use it commercially. The licenses below govern the model weights themselves, not your generated content.

License Breakdown by Model Family

License	Models	Commercial Output
Apache 2.0	Qwen3/Qwen3.5/Qwen2.5 Coder, GPT-OSS 120B/20B, Devstral Small 2, Gemma 4, MiMo V2 Flash	✅ Unrestricted
MIT	GLM 4.5/4.6/4.7/5, MiniMax M2.1, Devstral 2	✅ Unrestricted
Modified MIT	Kimi K2/K2.5 (>100M MAU → display "Kimi K2" branding)	✅ With attribution at scale
Llama Community License	Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout/Maverick	✅ Attribution required. >700M MAU → separate Meta license
DeepSeek License	DeepSeek V3/V3.1/V3.2, R1	✅ Use restrictions on model (no military, no harm) — output is yours
NVIDIA Nemotron License	Nemotron Super/Ultra/Nano	✅ Updated Mar 2026, now near-Apache 2.0 permissive
MiniMax Model License	MiniMax M2, M2.5	✅ Royalty-free, non-exclusive. Prohibited uses policy applies to model
Proprietary (API)	Claude (Rovo), Gemini (CLI), Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Large, Codestral	✅ You own outputs per provider ToS
OpenCode Zen	Big Pickle, MiMo V2 Pro/Flash/Omni Free, GPT 5 Nano, MiniMax M2.5 Free, Nemotron 3 Super Free	✅ Per OpenCode Zen ToS

Key Points

Generated code is yours — no model claims ownership of your output
Apache 2.0 / MIT models (Qwen, GLM, GPT-OSS, MiMo, Devstral Small) are the most permissive — no strings attached
Llama requires "Built with Llama" attribution; >700M MAU needs a Meta license
DeepSeek / MiniMax have use-restriction policies (no military use) that govern the model, not your generated code
API-served models (Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) grant full output ownership under their terms of service

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a summary, not legal advice. License terms can change. Always verify the current license on the model's official page before making legal decisions.

📊 Telemetry

free-coding-models collects anonymous usage telemetry to help understand how the CLI is used and improve the product. No personal information, API keys, prompts, source code, file paths, or secrets are ever collected.

The telemetry payload is limited to anonymous product analytics such as the app version, selected tool mode, operating system, terminal family, and a random anonymous install ID stored locally on your machine. When a model is launched, telemetry can also include the selected tool, provider, model ID, model label, model tier, launch result, and a few product actions such as installing provider catalogs, saving/removing API keys, or toggling shell environment export.

Telemetry is enabled by default and can be disabled with any of the following:

Method	How
CLI flag	Run `free-coding-models --no-telemetry`
Environment variable	Set `FREE_CODING_MODELS_TELEMETRY=0` (also supports `false` or `off`)

🛡️ Security & Trust

Supply Chain

Signal	Status
npm Provenance	✅ Published with Sigstore-signed provenance
SBOM	✅ Software Bill of Materials attached to every GitHub Release
Dependencies	✅ 1 runtime dependency (`chalk`)
Lockfile	✅ `pnpm-lock.yaml` committed and tracked
Security Policy	✅ `SECURITY.md`
Code Owners	✅ `CODEOWNERS` — all changes require maintainer review
Dependabot	✅ Weekly automated dependency + GitHub Actions updates
Audit CI	✅ `npm audit` runs on every push/PR + weekly scheduled scan
License	✅ MIT

What This Tool Does

Pings public API endpoints to measure latency and check availability
Reads your API keys from .env files (only if you configure them)
Opens configuration files for editing (with your permission)
Reports anonymous usage data (no personal information — see footer)

What This Tool Does NOT Do

❌ Does not send your API keys, code, or personal data to any third party
❌ Does not install or execute arbitrary code beyond chalk (the only dependency)
❌ Does not modify any files outside its own config directory
❌ Does not require sudo, root, or elevated permissions

To report a vulnerability, see SECURITY.md.

📧 Support

GitHub Issues · Discord

📄 License

MIT © vava

Star History

Contributors

_{vava-nessa ·
erwinh22 ·
whit3rabbit ·
skylaweber ·
PhucTruong-ctrl}

_{Anonymous usage data collected to improve the tool. No personal information ever.}

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 329 Commits
.github		.github
bin		bin
docs		docs
scripts		scripts
src		src
task		task
test		test
web		web
.claude-mcp.json		.claude-mcp.json
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CODEOWNERS		CODEOWNERS
GEMINI.md		GEMINI.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
demo.gif		demo.gif
demo2.gif		demo2.gif
free-coding-models.code-workspace		free-coding-models.code-workspace
package.json		package.json
patch-openclaw-models.js		patch-openclaw-models.js
patch-openclaw.js		patch-openclaw.js
pnpm-lock.yaml		pnpm-lock.yaml
sources.js		sources.js
vite.config.js		vite.config.js

Uh oh!

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

free-coding-models

💡 Why this tool?

⚡ Quick Start

🟢 List of Free AI Providers

🎁 Bonus Free Stuff

📚 Awesome Lists (curated by the community)

🖥️ AI-Powered IDEs with Free Tiers

🔑 API Providers with Permanent Free Tiers

💰 Providers with Trial Credits

🎓 Free with Education/Developer Programs

Tier scale

🚀 Usage

Common scenarios

Tool launcher flags

CLI-Only Tools

OpenCode Zen Free Models

Tool Compatibility

⌨️ TUI Keys

Keyboard

Mouse

✨ Features

📋 Contributing

⚖️ Model Licensing & Commercial Use

Output Ownership

License Breakdown by Model Family

Key Points

📊 Telemetry

🛡️ Security & Trust

Supply Chain

What This Tool Does

What This Tool Does NOT Do

📧 Support

📄 License

Star History

About

Topics

Resources

License

Security policy

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases 136

Sponsor this project

Uh oh!

Packages 0

Uh oh!

Contributors

Uh oh!

Languages

Packages