Add an AI Feature Without Burning Cash
Every founder wants an AI feature until they see the invoice. The trick is to prototype free, pay for speed only when latency hurts, and reach for startup credits only when real users show up.
Prototype on GitHub Models
GitHub Models gives rate-limited access to 40+ frontier models — GPT-4o, GPT-5, DeepSeek-R1, Llama 3.3 — with nothing but a GitHub account. OpenRouter exposes 30+ models at 20 requests a minute free. Both are perfect for clicking through an idea before you commit to a provider.
Pay for speed, not for tokens
Groq's free tier is 14,400 requests a day at low latency — great for chat and classification. Cerebras throws in 1 million tokens a day at 2,100 tokens a second on Wafer-Scale hardware. Together AI gives $5 in free credits on signup, enough for several million tokens across 50+ open models. Cloudflare Workers AI runs 50+ models at the edge with 10,000 free neurons a day, no card needed.
When you're shipping to real users
Anthropic's Claude for Startups offers up to $25,000 in API credits, and OpenAI Startup Credits run $5,000 to $50,000+. Both are free to apply for and remove the ceiling once you have traffic. For voice, Deepgram's $200 free credits cover speech-to-text, and ElevenLabs gives 10,000 characters a month of text-to-speech free.
Relevant Deals
Anthropic Claude for Startups
AI & LLM$25K Claude API credits —€†open to all early-stage startups, priority rate limits included
Anthropic Startup Program offers up to $25,000 in Claude API credits for early-stage startups. Open to any startup with or without VC backing. Provides priority rate limits, community access, and resources. VC-backed companies or accelerator alumni may qualify for additional benefits.
Cerebras Inference
AI & LLM1M free tokens/day at 2,100 tok/s —€†fastest LLM inference available on cutting-edge hardware
Cerebras provides ultra-fast LLM inference using Wafer-Scale Engine hardware. Free tier includes 1 million tokens per day at 2,100 tokens/second speed. Access to cutting-edge models optimized for Cerebras hardware. No credit card required.
Cloudflare Workers AI
AI & LLM10K free neurons/day on Cloudflare's global edge —€†~200 LLM requests daily with no credit card
Global edge inference platform with 10,000 free neurons per day (resets daily —€†~200 LLM requests). 50+ open-source models including Llama 3.3, Mistral Small, Qwen, Stable Diffusion XL, Whisper. No credit card needed. Runs on 300+ global data centers.
Deepgram
AI & LLM$200 free credits for speech AI —€†real-time transcription and TTS without upfront cost
Real-time speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and audio intelligence API with $200 free credits.
ElevenLabs
AI & LLM10K free characters/month for TTS —€†generate professional voiceovers at no cost
AI voice synthesis and text-to-speech API with 10,000 free characters per month and 29 languages.
GitHub Models
AI & LLMFree frontier model APIs with just a GitHub account —€†GPT-4o, DeepSeek-R1, Llama 3.3 at zero cost
Free rate-limited API access to 40+ frontier models including GPT-4o, GPT-5, DeepSeek-R1, Llama 3.3 70B, and Mistral. Requires only a GitHub account. OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://models.github.ai. Prototyping only per ToS.
Groq
AI & LLMFastest LLM inference at 30 RPM free —€†no credit card, 240 tok/s on Llama 3
Ultra-fast LLM inference API with free tier supporting 30 requests/min and 14,400 requests/day. No credit card required.
OpenAI Startup Credits
AI & LLM$5K-$50K OpenAI API credits —€†access GPT-4/5 for qualifying startups through application
OpenAI offers startup credits ranging from $5,000 to $50,000+ for qualifying startups. Access to GPT-4, GPT-5, and other cutting-edge models. Requires application and typically targets venture-backed or high-potential startups. Credits can be used for API access and model experimentation.
OpenRouter
AI & LLMFree access to 30+ LLMs via one API —€†compare GPT-4, Claude, Gemini from a single endpoint
Unified API for 30+ LLMs including free models with 20 requests per minute rate limit.
Together AI
AI & LLM$5 free credits = several million tokens —€†access 50+ open models including Llama 3.3 70B
Together AI offers $5 in free credits on signup. Access to 50+ open-source models including Llama 3.3 70B, Mixtral 8x7B, and many others. At Together AI's pricing, $5 covers several million tokens. No credit card required for the free credits.