Many newbie programmers, developers and game developers are using LLMs right now to assist themselves, but sometimes they’re poor, so they gotta resort to a free API. But free… is free as in free issues xD!!! (is it funny, prob not)

This guide will list the APIs that has the requirements satisfy my needs, and probably your needs too!

Requirements:

  • Good free plan
  • Has reasoning configuration, if there’s none, HARD PASS
  • Has reasonable limits that people can handle
  • Good selection of models
  • Dev-friendly
  • Good stability

1. Nvidia NIM

Nvidia NIM, honestly in my experience is one of the largest LLM API ever. It’s free, you don’t need to verify with your credit card or some kind of ID. If you’re a partner, dude, YOU WILL HIT HARDER!!

Free tier limits for Nvidia NIM is actually generous, 40 RPM, 1M context. That’s it, that’s pretty good.

The model selection is very large too, you got:

The only large complaints that I imagine is the models can 410, which means it’s GONE forever, and some models not having resoning configuration.

Verdict: Holy shit!

2. Kilo Code

Kilo Code is my personal favourite, not only you get free plan, but you’ll also get pay-as-you-go optionally. The models may not be as good as Nvidia NIM’s, but they have reasoning configuration on all of their models

Free tier limits are also very close to Nvidia NIM too, so I don’t need to explain. Because I’m lazy as f*ck.

Model selection include:

  • Their own Auto models
  • GPT-OSS (with safeguard) models
  • Nvidia Nemotron models, includes the flagship 3 Ultra
  • Cohere models

Bonus: you can also install Kilo Code on your IDE of choice too, which for absolute noobs is a BIG WIN!

Verdict: Holy shit!

3. OpenCode Zen

No need to f*cking explain. If you’ve used OpenCode, you already know the deal. OpenCode Zen is integrated directly into OpenCode, so getting started is basically stupidly easy.

The model selection is pretty damn good too, and the whole thing is designed around actually using LLMs for coding rather than just throwing a chatbot at you.

The biggest annoyance is the rate limit. It’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, but if you’re doing a lot of generation in a short period, you’re going to notice it.

For someone already using OpenCode, though, it’s extremely convenient because there’s basically no complicated setup ritual.

Verdict: Noice

4. Google Gemini

If you’re already using their APIs or their Antigravity agentic coding software, it’s nice.

The model selections are Google-only, that’s expected. Which includes:

  • Their own closed-source Gemini models
  • Their own open-source Gemma models
  • Nano Banana

The biggest piece of crap I encountered with Gemini is the ratelimit on the models, that’s annoying as f*ck.

Verdict: eh

Final thoughts: don’t trust benchmarks