AI and automation4 min read
Free LLM APIs in 2026: six services and their real limits
A free LLM API lets you build a chatbot or automation prototype without a token bill. A Habr author ran six services through real requests: Token Harbor, WoAiToken, Unikey, God Router, ABCRelay and Z.ai. Here is how they compare on models, limits and starting balance.
How the test was done
The method is simple and repeatable: confirm that model routes actually respond; count how many credits or dollars a request costs; load the service with a burst of requests per minute and time the answers. That is how any external API should be checked before it enters a product.
That is how we start chatbots and agents: a prototype on a free model to validate the scenario, then a provider chosen by request cost and data requirements. Saving money at the validation stage is right; saving on production is not.
Six services and what is free in each
A summary of the test results.
- Token Harbor: a fully free tier without top-up; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Flash, MiMo V2.5; 20 requests per minute passed without errors; the quota resets every 7 days.
- WoAiToken: 5 dollars to start plus a daily bonus; free pools free-chat, free-code, free-fast; paid GPT and Claude groups.
- Unikey: 5000 starting credits; GPT-6, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi; 80 requests used about 116 credits; Gemini answered in 1.8 seconds, Qwen in 23.
- God Router: 80 dollars on the balance and an explicit limit of 8 requests per minute; the working free model is glm-5.3-free.
- ABCRelay: 2 dollars to start, the whole GPT 5.5–6 line, 60 requests per minute confirmed; 86 requests cost 0.0072 dollars.
- Z.ai: free glm-4.5-flash and glm-4.7-flash without top-up; the catch is they are missing from the /models catalogue.
What to choose
For lasting free access the author singles out Z.ai and Token Harbor: no payment threshold and models fit for chatbots and classification. God Router is convenient for its predictable limit. The other four are a way to try paid models on a starting balance, but a product will have to pay for them.
That is enough for a prototype. For a working integration count differently: request cost at real load, latency, data handling terms and what happens when a service changes limits without notice. An abstraction layer over the model lets you switch providers by configuration rather than rewriting.
Summary
Free APIs cover the idea-validation stage. Z.ai and Token Harbor suit longer use, the rest suit tests on a starting balance. A product needs a contract, limits and a backup provider.
Sources
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