Free Variant - Free Model Access

The :free variant allows you to access free versions of models on OpenRouter.

Usage

Append :free to the ID of a model that has a free entry. :free is a catalog variant, so the free version appears as its own entry in the models API with its own pricing, context length, and endpoints, and only models that list one support it:

{
  "model": "meta-llama/llama-3.2-3b-instruct:free"
}

Details

Free variants provide access to models without cost, but may have different rate limits or availability compared to paid versions.

Free Models Router - Learn how to use the Free Models Router in the Chat Playground for zero-cost inference