[image] junmagic.ai:
Just signed up yesterday. Got 
18 before?
Yes, it is not only $5. It used to be $18, our internal data showed that people were able to make ~750 API calls with the $5 which was enough to get a feel for how to use the API (which is the whole goal of free trial c… Answer from logankilpatrick on community.openai.com
18 before?
Yes, it is not only $5. It used to be $18, our internal data showed that people were able to make ~750 API calls with the $5 which was enough to get a feel for how to use the API (which is the whole goal of free trial c… Answer from logankilpatrick on community.openai.comArchitjn
architjn.com › blog › free-openai-api-credits-how-to-get-and-use
Free OpenAI API Credits: Get & Use Guide
March 24, 2025 - OpenAI's free API credit program is a golden opportunity for businesses and research institutions, offering significant cost savings while contributing to AI model refinement.
Videos
Ramp
ramp.com › rewards › openai
Access up to $2500 in OpenAI API credits
Create a new account with Indeed and receive a $300 Sponsored Job credit. ... Receive 50% off on Amazon Business Prime. ... Ramp customers get 20% off of their first year of AngelList Stack. ... Save 15% on your first year of Google Workspace. ... Perplexity Enterprise Pro is the most powerful AI-research assistant for your team. ... Receive 30% off your first contract with Drata. ... Sign up today to receive $350 in free credits.
OpenAI
platform.openai.com › settings › organization › billing › credit-grants
Credit Grants
Explore developer resources, tutorials, API docs, and dynamic examples to get the most out of OpenAI's platform.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/n8n › how can i benefit from the free api credits from openai?
r/n8n on Reddit: How can I benefit from the free API credits from OpenAI?
April 21, 2025 -
Hey guys - I know that there was (sometime ago) the possibility of getting your hands on some free credits for OpenAI api. I want to start working with n8n and I'm quite strapped for cash now.
I haven't seen any kind of new offers on the OpenAI chat and I was wondering if the promos are off the table or are available in some dark corner of the internet?
Thanks!
EDIT: Thank you all for your great inputs!
Top answer 1 of 10
13
If you're trying to explore AI + n8n without spending much (or anything), here's what actually works right now: OpenAI still provides free tokens if you enable "share data for training" in your settings. Just make sure your account has a positive balance — even a small one — or the tokens won’t apply. OpenRouter has a bunch of models you can use without an API key. You can send HTTP requests directly from n8n. Models like LLaMA, DeepSeek, MythoMax, and others are available for free. Gemini API from Google gives free access to Gemini Flash (2.5). You can use it with an API key via Google AI Studio — generous daily limits and solid speed. Hugging Face offers some free inference credits if you're on a Pro plan. Not huge, but good enough for testing out flows. With this stack, you can already build working automations and demos without needing any paid API plans.
2 of 10
9
Openrouter has a lot of free models you can try out.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/openai › what are credit grants on the usage page?
r/OpenAI on Reddit: What are credit grants on the Usage page?
November 6, 2023 -
I don't remember seeing this. I guess its display is part of the new rollouts today?
What are credit grants? Does this mean I have $18 worth of free credits before I start paying? I did ask ChatGPT and it gave me info, but I'm just unclear how this works into what I actually pay monthly.
Top answer 1 of 2
2
Until that says $18/$18 you don’t pay a dime
2 of 2
1
While I haven't found anything to explain exactly what they are, how they're calculated, etc., they are absolutely *not* a one time thing for me. I continue to get them every month, and they expire in 2025. Mine has grown every month. I'm sure there's a rationale here, to basically incentivize me to continue using the API until I'm using enough that it's obvious I am not merely running some experiments but actively using it commercially. I initially thought it was like "rollover minutes" on a cell plan (where if you're paying for X minutes a month, and use 0.5x, you get 0.5x that "rolls over" to the next month). That seemed to make sense, but it's continued even when I've had to pay for extra API calls on months I was using it more heavily. The total "credit grant" amount has continued to increase as well. I feel like there's probably a point that they stop doing this, but as a "pre-money" startup, I've accepted it with gratitude.
OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › t › prepaid-credits-vs-credit-grants › 692785
Prepaid Credits vs Credit Grants - Community - OpenAI Developer Community
March 21, 2024 - Two days ago I received an email that my API access will be cutoff next week if I don’t purchase pre-paid credits. I currently have a significant amount in credit grants, can those be used? As you can imagine I do not want to purchase credits, until I’ve used up my free credits.
OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › api › feedback
Regarding the free credits? - Feedback - OpenAI Developer Community
December 3, 2023 - I have seen tuitorials and other discussions talking about some initial free credits on generating the secret key but I have not recieved anything and keep on getting the error:
OpenAI
openai.com › form › researcher-access-program
Researcher Access Program application | OpenAI
apply for API credits through this program(opens in a new window).
Klamp
klamp.ai › blog › open-ai-credits-what-they-are-and-how-to-use-them
How to generate your own Openai API key & add credits Blogs | Klamp.ai
Promotions and Grants: Occasionally, OpenAI runs promotions or offers grants that provide free credits to users, particularly for research, educational purposes, or non-profit projects.
OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › api
Issue with Receiving Free Credit on OpenAI Account - API - OpenAI Developer Community
March 20, 2024 - I created an OpenAI account but did not receive the $5 free credit. The phone number I used is clean, meaning it is not associated with any other account. I am 100% certain of this. Additionally, the email address I used…
GetMagical
getmagical.com › blog › how-to-buy-openai-credits
How to Buy OpenAI Credits: 5 Steps
Step 4: Add credits. Add credits through the billing page. The minimum purchase for OpenAI API credits starts at $5, with higher limits depending on your OpenAI trust tier. The trust tier grants users different access levels and usage based on various factors determined by OpenAI.
OpenAI Help Center
help.openai.com › en › articles › 10139500-researcher-access-program-faq
Researcher Access Program FAQ | OpenAI Help Center
If you want to request an additional grant, you can submit a new application through the portal and include details about the progress in your research. You can learn more about our rate limits and submit a request for a rate-limit increase here. If your account is on the Free/Explore tier, you will need to register a valid payment method to upgrade your account and become eligible for rate-limit increases. Your actual API usage will be deducted from your API credits, so there would be no cost to you whatsoever, apart from a temporary $5 hold on the payment card, in order to verify it.
FastGPTPlus
fastgptplus.com › en › posts › gpt-5-2-api-credit-grants
GPT-5.2 API Credit Grants: Complete Guide to Free OpenAI Credits in 2025 | FastGPTPlus
1 week ago - Get up to $5,500+ in free GPT-5.2 API credits through OpenAI's official programs. Complete guide to Researcher Access Program ($1,000), Data-Sharing Program (11M tokens/day), startup credits, and cost-effective alternatives.
Smapply
openai.smapply.org
OpenAI
OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. In service of that mission, we sometimes provide grants (in the form of monetary compensation or API credits, depending on the program) to support strategic initiatives and research.
OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › api
What is the deal with my credit grants vs monthly bill? - API - OpenAI Developer Community
January 22, 2024 - I know OpenAI wants me to refer billing questions to its documentation, but for the life of me I cannot understand what this means (see screenshot). I’ve either spent $21 or $1.30. Which is it? The past two months appare…
OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › api
Does ChatGPT still giving free 18$ credits for new users - API - OpenAI Developer Community
July 8, 2023 - I recently created a new account on ChatGPT for the sake of getting, 18$ free credits to try the features of ChatGPT API, but didn’t get the credits. I wants to inquire that, is ChatGPT still giving free credits to thei…