| 1 |  OpenAI Codex Enterprise Credit PromoOfficial OpenAI promo reportedly offering API credits for qualifying Codex use cases via an application form. | ~$1,000 one-time credit pool | 9.4/10 |
| 2 |  BasetenUsage-based platform for hosting open-weight LLMs and custom models, with $30 in free credits for new workspaces and no platform fee. | $30 one-time credit cap | 8.0/10 |
| 3 |  BTL RuntimeOpenAI-compatible inference gateway from Bad Theory Labs with a $5 signup credit and 346 public model slugs. Its public btl-2 slug currently maps to one Google AI Studio Gemma route rather than a published multi-provider auto-router. | Finite signup credit | 7.2/10 |
| 4 |  Vercel AI GatewayVercel's AI Gateway routes a single OpenAI-compatible key to models from many providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, etc.) with a recurring monthly free credit. | Free credit ends permanently after first credit purchase | 6.7/10 |
| 5 |  SambaNova CloudSambaNova Cloud offers very fast inference on Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen and other open models, with free signup credits and community-earnable additional credits. | $5 one-time signup credit | 6.3/10 |
| 6 |  DeepSeek PlatformFirst-party API for DeepSeek's V3.2 chat and R1 reasoning models, with a finite signup credit and no credit card. | 5M token one-time credit | 6.2/10 |
| 7 |  Nscale Serverless InferenceEU-sovereign AI cloud offering serverless open-model inference with free signup credits and no credit card. | $5 one-time signup credit | 6.0/10 |
| 8 |  Novita AINovita AI hosts 100+ open models behind an OpenAI-compatible API and grants new users a small free credit plus separate time-boxed sandbox credits, no card required. | $1 signup credit (one-time) | 5.6/10 |
| 9 |  AI21 StudioAI21 Studio gives new accounts a $10 trial credit (no card) good for three months to use the Jamba family of long-context hybrid SSM-Transformer models. | $10 trial credit (one-time) | 5.5/10 |
| 10 |  GMI CloudGMI Cloud is an NVIDIA-partner inference cloud offering serverless open-model inference and H100/H200 GPUs, with free starter credits for new accounts. | $5 starter credit (one-time) | 5.4/10 |
| 11 |  b.aiThird-party OpenAI-compatible aggregator with a reported large free-credit signup bonus. | ~500k credits, one-time | 5.2/10 |
| 12 |  KimchiNew third-party, OpenAI-compatible inference layer for open-source models (Kimi, MiniMax, Nemotron) with reported free credits and no card. | $250 one-time signup bonus | 5.0/10 |
| 13 |  HyperbolicHyperbolic provides discounted on-demand inference on open models and GPU rentals, granting a small free inference credit after phone verification. | $1 one-time credit | 4.9/10 |
| 14 |  Alibaba Cloud Model StudioInternational (Singapore) Qwen API access via Model Studio with a per-model free token grant, OpenAI-compatible. | 90-day expiry after activation | 4.7/10 |
| 15 |  Sarvam AIIndia's sovereign full-stack AI platform offering speech-to-text, text-to-speech, translation, and LLM/chat APIs across 22 Indian languages. | Rs.100 (~$1.20) one-time credit | 4.5/10 |
| 16 |  Hugging Face InferenceModel access through Hugging Face ecosystem and providers. | Card required for pay-as-you-go beyond credits | 4.0/10 |
| 17 |  Anthropic Startup ProgramSelected early-stage startups receive Anthropic (Claude) API credits, priority rate limits, and resources, awarded on a rolling basis. | Startup approval required | 10.0/10 |
| 18 |  Google for Startups Cloud ProgramVC-backed AI startups can get up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits over 2 years, covering Gemini and Gemma models in Vertex AI. | VC-funded startups only (seed–Series A) | 9.8/10 |
| 19 |  OpenAI Codex for Open SourceReported free ChatGPT Pro and Codex credits for maintainers of public open-source projects, applied via an official OpenAI form. | 6-month access window | 9.7/10 |
| 20 |  Together AI Startup AcceleratorSelection-based program giving startups up to $50k in Together AI platform credits for open-model inference, fine-tuning, and dedicated endpoints. | Funded startup gate | 9.2/10 |
| 21 |  OpenAI for StartupsOpenAI offers early-stage startups API credits, typically accessed via a referral code from a partner VC or accelerator. | VC referral code required | 8.9/10 |
| 22 |  Azure for StudentsFull-time university students get $100 in Azure credit yearly (renewable) with no credit card, usable on Azure OpenAI and 1,700+ Foundry models. | Full-time university students only | 8.8/10 |
| 23 |  Claude for Education — Student Builder CreditsAnthropic offers students building projects with Claude the chance to apply for funding in the form of API credits, alongside campus programs. | Students only | 8.3/10 |
| 24 |  Anthropic Hackathon Claude CreditsAnthropic sponsors university/community hackathons that hand participants Claude API credits to build during the event. | Hackathon participants only | 8.1/10 |
