Until that says 
18 you don’t pay a dime Answer from N781VP on reddit.com
18 you don’t pay a dime Answer from N781VP on reddit.comOpenAI
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.
OpenAI Developer Community
community.openai.com › api
How to use credit grants in API platform - API - OpenAI Developer Community
3 weeks ago - Hi guys! I have 10$ grant in API. But my balance is now -0.01$. How to switch to credit grant usage. Liek it says available and says 10$ but I can’t switch to using it. Can anyone help
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.
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Until that says $18/$18 you don’t pay a dime
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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.
Architjn
architjn.com › blog › free-openai-api-credits-how-to-get-and-use
Free OpenAI API Credits: Get & Use Guide
March 24, 2025 - However, using these advanced AI models comes at a cost—especially for organizations relying heavily on API calls. To make AI more accessible, OpenAI has launched a free token program, allowing organizations to receive up to 11 million free tokens per day for sharing their prompts and completions. This guide dives deep into OpenAI's free API credit program, explaining:
Klamp
klamp.ai › blog › open-ai-credits-what-they-are-and-how-to-use-them
OpenAI Credits: What They Are and How to Use Them
These credits are provided to help new users familiarize themselves with the platform and test its capabilities before committing to a paid plan. Paid Credits: After using up your free credits, you can purchase additional credits. OpenAI provides different pricing plans based on your usage needs. You can buy credits on a pay-as-you-go basis or opt for a subscription plan that includes a certain number of credits per month. 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.
Ramp
ramp.com › rewards › openai
Access up to $2500 in OpenAI API credits
Start hiring internationally with $1,500 in Deel credits! ... Ramp customers now save up to 50% every time they ship with UPS. ... Startups can receive up to $2,500 in OpenAI API credits to explore the possibilities of building on top of the OpenAI platform.
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. Has anyone ...
GetMagical
getmagical.com › blog › how-to-buy-openai-credits
How to Buy OpenAI Credits: 5 Steps
Once you generate your API key, you'll input the character string OpenAI provides to grant your applications access. Then, your application can interact with OpenAI and use your pre-purchased credits to tap into the platform’s capabilities.
OpenAI
openai.com › form › researcher-access-program
Researcher Access Program application | OpenAI
Credits are valid for a period of 12 months and they can be applied towards any of our publicly available models. Please note that applications are reviewed once every 3 months (in March, June, September, and December).
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 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.
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:
YouTube
youtube.com › parametriccamp
How to Add Credits to your OpenAI Account - Fun with AI - YouTube
In this video, I explain the recent changes to the OpenAI billing model, and how to add credits to your OpenAI Developer account.📝Series playlist: https://w...
Published March 25, 2024 Views 3K
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.
Reddit
reddit.com › r › OpenAI › comments › 17pefmt › what_are_credit_grants_on_the_usage_page_w
What are credit grants on the Usage page? : r/OpenAI
We cannot provide a description for this page right now
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!
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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.
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Openrouter has a lot of free models you can try out.