Kimchi
New third-party, OpenAI-compatible inference layer for open-source models (Kimi, MiniMax, Nemotron) with reported free credits and no card.
- Free credit
- $50
- Credit window
- 30 days
- Card required
- No
Kimchi scores 5/10 for free value in LLM. The main constraint: Reported free monthly credits (figures vary widely across sources, roughly $50 to $250 — verify current limits on the site). No credit card required.
Free value score
5.0 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
Models
7 free · 7 totalLimits may be stale — last re-verified outside this section's freshness window.
| Model | Family | AA | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| minimax-m3 | MiniMax | 44.4 | free |
| kimi-k2.6 | Kimi | 42.8 | free |
| kimi-k2.5 | Kimi | 38.1 | free |
| minimax-m2.7 | MiniMax | 38.1 | free |
| nemotron-3-ultra-fp4 | Nemotron | 37.8 | free |
| minimax-m2.5 | MiniMax | — | free |
| nemotron-3-super-fp4 | Nemotron | — | free |
What you get
OpenAI-compatible API
No card required to start
Models: Kimi, MiniMax, Nemotron
Reported free credits (verify current limits)
Gotchas
- $250 one-time signup bonus
Early Adopter Program grants a $250 one-time bonus on signup that does not regenerate once consumed.
- $250 bonus needs program invite
The $250 one-time bonus is exclusive to Kimchi coding-agent users via the invite/apply-based Early Adopter Program, so the full bonus is approval-gated even though the base $50/mo free tier is open to anyone.
Sources
-
"$250 one time bonus - exclusive for Kimchi coding agent users$50/mo in free credits each month after"
https://kimchi.dev/earlyadopters -
"No credit card required ... Requests rejected when credits run out — wait for next month or upgrade ... Dynamic rate limits (infrastructure protection)"
https://kimchi.dev/pricing -
"Kimi K2.6 lands at #4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (54) behind only Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI (all 57)"
https://artificialanalysis.ai/articles/kimi-k2-6-the-new-leading-open-weights-model -
"kimi-k2.6 reasoning 262k context $4.50/1M output tokens ... minimax-m2.7 execution 197k context $1.20/1M output tokens ... nemotron-3-super-fp4 execution 1M context $0.75/1M output tokens"
https://kimchi.dev/