How to Get a Free Hugging Face API Key (2026)
5 free models available — no credit card required. Get your Hugging Face API key → Test free models →
Hugging Face FreeLLM Score
Best suited for light testing or very specific narrow use cases.
What is Hugging Face?
Hugging Face Inference API — Qwen, Llama, Gemma at ~1,000 RPD.
Hugging Face Serverless Inference API provides free access to a rotating selection of open-weight models including Qwen, Llama, Gemma, and SmolLM. The free tier is rate-limited (~1,000 requests/day) and uses shared infrastructure, so latency varies. No OpenAI-compatible endpoint — uses the Hugging Face Inference API format.
- Rotating selection of open models
- ~1,000 RPD free tier
- No credit card required
- Hugging Face Inference API format
API Compatibility: Hugging Face Inference API (not OpenAI-compatible)
How to Get a Hugging Face API Key
- 1 Sign up at huggingface.co Email or Google/GitHub. No credit card.
- 2 Go to Settings → Access Tokens
- 3 Create a token (read-only is fine)
- 4 Pick a model Free models are rate-limited on shared infrastructure.
- 5 Configure client Uses Hugging Face Inference API. Not OpenAI-compatible by default.
All Free Hugging Face Models — Context Windows & Rate Limits
| Model | Context | Max Output | Modality | Rate Limit | Released | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1 | 32K | 4K | Credit-metered | — | Online | |
| Phi-3.5-mini-instruct | 128K | 4K | Credit-metered | — | Online | |
| Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.3 | 32K | 4K | Credit-metered | — | Online | |
| Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct | 131K | 4K | Credit-metered | Oct 16, 2024 | Online | |
| Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | 128K | 4K | Credit-metered | Jul 23, 2024 | Online |
Hugging Face Free Tier Limits & Pricing
Hugging Face API Setup Tutorial & Tools
Hugging Face is fully compatible with popular AI coding assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, and more. To see step-by-step API configuration instructions for your favorite tool, please visit our Global Configuration Guide →
Use Cases
What Hugging Face's free models are best for, based on aggregated model capabilities:
Limitations & Caveats
- Cold starts common — first request may take 30s+
- Models larger than 10GB may fail to load on free tier
- No SLA — shared infrastructure, availability not guaranteed
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my first Hugging Face API request so slow?
Free tier uses serverless inference with cold starts. The first request to a model loads it from disk, taking 30-60 seconds. Subsequent requests within ~15 minutes are fast. Use a keepalive ping to avoid cold starts.
Can I use the Hugging Face Inference API with OpenAI SDK?
Not directly — Hugging Face uses its own API format. However, community libraries like @huggingface/inference provide OpenAI-compatible wrappers, or you can use their hosted inference endpoints which have OpenAI-compatible URLs.
Which models are actually free on Hugging Face?
Any model with the "Inference API" tag is available for free on the serverless tier. However, rate limits apply (~1,000 RPD) and larger models (>10GB) may not load. Popular free models include Qwen, Llama, Gemma, and SmolLM.