How to Get a Free Hugging Face API Key (2026)
5 free models available — no credit card required. Get your Hugging Face API key →
Overview
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)
Quick Start Guide
- 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | 128K | 4K | ~1,000 RPD | — | Online | Details | |
| Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.3 | 32K | 4K | ~1,000 RPD | — | Online | Details | |
| Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1 | 32K | 4K | ~1,000 RPD | — | Online | Details | |
| Phi-3.5-mini-instruct | 128K | 4K | ~1,000 RPD | — | Online | Details | |
| Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct | 131K | 4K | ~1,000 RPD | — | Online | Details |
Pricing & Limits
Credit Card Not required
Free Tier Permanently free
Context Range 32K – 131K
Total Models 5 free
Rate Limits ~1,000 RPD
API Compatibility Hugging Face Inference API (not OpenAI-compatible)
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