freellmapi
by tashfeenahmed
FreeLLMAPI is a self-hosted gateway that combines the free tiers of many AI providers behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. It routes each request to an available model and switches provider when one hits its rate limit.
- Stars
- 42.4k
- Licence
- MIT
- Runs on
- A small server
- Setup
- Moderate
- Language
- TypeScript
- Age
- 188 days
What you can do with it
- Add your free API keys from several AI providers and use them all through one /v1 endpoint
- Connect coding agents and OpenAI-compatible apps to free models for chat, embeddings, images and audio
- Add a custom endpoint such as a local Ollama or vLLM server and track usage against free-tier limits
Could replace
- OpenRouter
Our suggestion based on what it does, not a feature-by-feature comparison.
Make money with it
Freelancers could use it to build and demo AI chatbots or automations for clients at near-zero model cost during development.
An idea, not financial advice. Check the licence before charging for anything built on it.
Ways a business could use it
- Prototype AI features in a product without paying for model usage during development
- Run low-volume internal tools such as drafting or summarising using free-tier models instead of a paid API plan
Can you use it commercially?
Free to use, change and sell, including in paid products. Keep the copyright notice.
Not legal advice. Read the project's licence file before building a product on it.
Getting it running
Run it with Docker Compose or a desktop app download, then add your provider keys in the web interface.
Follow the official instructions in the project README.
Things to check
- The project says it is for personal experimentation only, so it is not suited to production use
- Combining many free accounts may breach some providers' terms of service
- Free-tier quotas and models change often and can disappear without notice
- Faster catalogue updates need a paid premium plan ($19/yr)
- Needs you to sign up for and manage keys with each provider
- Fetches its model catalogue from an external service
Who's talking about it
- Max Quimby (DEV Community): The Agent Bill of Materials Is on GitHub Right Now Featured in a roundup
Checked 27 Oct 2026. Summary drafted by AI from the project's README.
