FreeLLMAPI vs LiteLLM
Both put many model providers behind one OpenAI-compatible key. They are not competing on the same axis: one is free tokens, the other is free software.
FreeLLMAPI is a free LLM API. One key routes across every provider that has a genuine free tier, a maintained catalog tracks which models are actually free this week, and the pooled free allowance currently works out to over 7.4 billion tokens a month. The router is open source and runs on your machine; the only paid thing is an optional catalog subscription.
LiteLLM is an MIT-licensed proxy you host yourself and point at your own provider accounts. It is very good at that, and it ships no inference at all: it has no free tier to offer you, because it never buys tokens. Whatever you route through it lands on a bill from OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock or whoever else holds the key you configured. That is the honest difference. LiteLLM is free to run and costs you provider money; FreeLLMAPI is free to run and costs you nothing to call.
| FreeLLMAPI | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A free LLM API: one OpenAI-compatible key routed across every provider with a genuine free tier, with a maintained catalog behind it | An open-source (MIT) LLM proxy you host yourself and bring your own provider keys to |
| Free tokens per month | Over 7.4 billion, pooled across provider free tiers | None. The software is free; every token is billed by the provider whose key you added |
| Models and providers | 600+ models across 34 providers, all on free tiers | 100+ LLMs per its docs and GitHub README, on whatever accounts you pay for |
| Hosting | You run the router; the catalog it reads is managed and kept current for you | Self-host only. There is no managed service to sign up for |
| Pricing | Router free forever. Optional Premium is $19/year or $49 once, and only keeps the catalog live | OSS free. Enterprise pricing is unpublished (request pricing) |
| Setup time | Add one free provider key and call the endpoint | Stand up the proxy, then open an account and add a billed key for every provider you want |
| Who it is for | Anyone who wants working inference at $0 without hunting free tiers by hand | Teams that already run infrastructure and already pay providers directly |
When LiteLLM is the better choice
- You already run the infrastructure. If a proxy in your own cluster, with your own observability and deploy pipeline around it, is already a solved problem, LiteLLM slots straight into it.
- You need enterprise SSO and audit trails. Access control, audit logging and the rest of the compliance surface are what the paid Enterprise edition exists for. FreeLLMAPI does not sell that.
- You want no third party in the path at all. LiteLLM is a dependency you vendor and forget. FreeLLMAPI's router is equally self-hosted, but the catalog it reads is a service, and if that is a line you would rather not cross, LiteLLM never asks you to.
- Your spend is already committed. With paid provider contracts in place, free tiers are not the problem you are solving. Budgets, per-key spend caps and fallbacks across paid models are, and that is LiteLLM's home ground.
Where the other gateways sit
For context, the same question against the two hosted gateways people usually weigh alongside these:
| Gateway | Free tier | Where it runs | Price to run in production |
|---|---|---|---|
| FreeLLMAPI | Over 7.4 billion free tokens a month, pooled across provider free tiers | Self-hosted router, managed catalog | Free forever. Optional $19/year or $49 once |
| LiteLLM | None. You pay each provider you connect | Self-host only | OSS free. Enterprise pricing unpublished |
| OpenRouter | 50/day (1,000/day after $10 spend) | Hosted; keys live on OpenRouter's servers | No card needed for the free pool |
| Portkey | Developer tier is explicitly not for production use | Hosted gateway; keys live on Portkey's side | $49/month, plus $9 per additional 100,000 requests |
The short version
Pick LiteLLM if you are routing paid providers and want the gateway itself to cost nothing. Pick FreeLLMAPI if you want the inference to cost nothing and would rather not assemble a dozen free tiers, their quotas and their weekly changes by hand. They stack fine: run LiteLLM for production spend and FreeLLMAPI for everything that does not need to spend.
Frequently asked questions
Is LiteLLM free?
The proxy is, and genuinely so: it is MIT-licensed open source you host yourself. What it does not include is inference. LiteLLM routes to providers using keys you supply, so every token is billed to your own account with that provider. There is also a paid Enterprise edition whose price LiteLLM does not publish.
How many free tokens does LiteLLM give you?
Zero, by design. It is a gateway, not a quota. FreeLLMAPI is the other way round: the routing is free and so are the tokens, because it only ever calls providers' free tiers, which currently pool to over 7.4 billion a month.
Can I use both?
Yes, and plenty of people should. If LiteLLM already fronts your paid providers, FreeLLMAPI can sit alongside it as the $0 path for development, evals, batch jobs and anything else that does not need to spend money.
Which one has more models?
LiteLLM's docs and GitHub README quote 100+ LLMs, across any account you are willing to pay for. FreeLLMAPI tracks 600+ models across 34 providers, all of them on free tiers. The two counts are not measuring the same thing: one is integration breadth, the other is what you can call for nothing today.
LiteLLM details checked 26 August 2026 against litellm.ai and docs.litellm.ai. Pricing and provider counts change; check the source before relying on either.