Stop Paying For AI...Do This Instead!

Today, we're going to be looking at this new trend in GitHub that gives you a list of free APIs so that you can learn and build with AI free forever. So what this does, it breaks down all of the latest free providers. And then you get a full list of everything that you can use for free. So for example, we have a look at OpenRouter.

And you're wondering, OK, what models could I use for free with OpenRouter? Well, there's actually a list of all of them right here, which is super useful. So for example, if we go to this model right here, it actually links directly to it inside OpenRouter, which is super useful. So for example, we can go to Hermes.

And there's a few ways you could use this free model. But the main point is you could plug it into your agents. You could plug it into free cloud code. You could use the API.

You could even, for example, start using it directly inside the chat here. So the great thing about this is a lot of people, they don't have the resources. Or they're using a lot of tasks with their agents. They want to keep the costs down.

This is a great way to just reduce that. So if you have a look at this model, you might be wondering, OK, well, how do you start using it? Well, number one, you can go inside the playground here. And you can start typing and talking directly to it.

Or what you can actually do is you could plug this into your agent operating system as well. So if we have a look at this model, Hermes 3, 4, 5b-instruct, if we go inside Hermes and we type Hermes model inside the terminal here, we can switch the model provider to OpenRouter, plug in your API key, and then you can select the free APIs you want to use, as you can see right here. So we've got three different free APIs that we've already plugged in to OpenRouter. Or what we can actually do is we can enter a custom model name, grab the details of that model, plug it in here, and now the default model has been changed.

So now next time we use Hermes, the model is changed to the free one. And we can go from there. Pretty amazing stuff. So you can use this model directly on OpenRouter.

You can use the API key inside your coding model. So the other thing that you could do, for example, is you could go inside Free Cloud Code. So we've got Free Cloud Code plugged in here. And we could use a free API directly with Free Cloud Code inside our agent factory.

We've currently got a free local model called Agents A1. But we could actually switch the API to Hermes or whatever we want to use as well, previously. One thing to note, just want to be 100% transparent with you, is that you see here, it says Hermes 3 and 4 models are not agentic. So if you are using models that are free like this, just make sure that you select an agentic one that's designed for tool use.

Otherwise, the model won't work that well. So for example, A1 itself is designed for agents. It's a free local model you can use. It's pretty fast and easy to apply.

And it can build pretty nice stuff, as you can see right here. But the main point here is there's many different ways up the mountain to use free APIs. And you've got an awesome setup where you can switch between them. So there's a bunch of others on here.

So for example, OpenRouter, each one of these will link directly to the free model. And then there's different setups. So for example, you've got OpenRouter. You've got Google AI Studio with a list of free APIs.

We have, for example, NVIDIA, Mistral. And these are all free providers. Now on top of that, we've also got broken down here is providers with trials. So these are kind of like ones where you can just test out, see what you think.

Pretty reasonable to test out. And then from there, you can always cancel later if you want to. There's three different tiers here. So you've got three tiers with the cloud APIs.

You have the trials that we talked about a minute ago. And then we also have local models. So for example, I've shown you A1 before. We can build stuff with these local models.

And they're pretty decent. I've tested out loads of different local models inside our GoldieBench leaderboard. So far, Quable is winning out of all of them. But Agents A1 was pretty decent when we tested it as well.

It can build some cool stuff. And you can see everything that we've created on the website, too. So if we go back to the local engine over here, we've got Agents A1 ready to go. We can see the stuff that we've built.

We can check out our workspace. We have everything saved there, so we don't lose anything. We can preview, open it, or download the HTML. And then also, we can use it inside the chat.

So it's kind of like using chat GPT, but with three local models that are ready to go whenever we need them. So if we say, OK, build our landing page for an AI community called the AI Profit Boarding, that will start thinking locally and coding it out. And then once it's finished thinking locally, we can preview it. Now, the good thing about local models versus using an API, so for example, you saw Hermes earlier, which is an API.

When you're using an API, if you're working offline, then you can't use it. If you don't have Wi-Fi, you can't use it. If you're on a plane, you can't use it. But with local models, you can.

And also, a big difference between the cloud API and the local is that with local, your data stays on your computer. Whereas, for example, if you're using a cloud API, your data will go to the cloud. And now you can see it's coding out directly for us whilst I'm talking to you. And it's pretty simple and easy.

It took a couple of minutes just to warm up and respond, which is pretty normal for local models, especially depending on the setup. So I'm running this on a Mac. Another good tip is that you can run MLX, which is a free open source project. And you can run local models with MLX and get even faster and better outputs.

So for example, if we look at some of the recent models that came out that we've tested, Gemma 4 on MLX now responds 90% faster. And you can run that with Alarma too, which means you can build out more stuff and you can build it out faster. But you still get the benefit of a free local model. Now also, if you're wondering, OK, how can you, is there a way you can automatically root between them?

What I've seen recently is you can use something called OmniRoot. Now when you use OmniRoot, what that means is it has a list of all of these model providers, like you saw with the GitHub we looked at a second ago. But with OmniRoot, basically you get a local endpoint. Then it automatically roots the tools you already use across 90 different free providers.

So for example, if we go back in the AgentOS here and we go down to the OmniRoot section, this can basically code for us. We can, again, see everything that we've built inside our workspace here. And we just chat with it here, and it roots automatically. Now the good thing about that is, for example, if you're using a cloud API, like for example Hermes before, if that gets rate limited, then you're kind of stuck unless you can quickly switch to another one.

And it takes time to switch to a different model or to reload the model or to change the API settings. Whereas with OmniRoot, you get one local endpoint, and then it automatically switches and falls back to different models, depending on what's rate limited and what you can keep on using, which is even better. So that's kind of like a way to automate the free models that we talked about before. Now you can also use something called OpenRooter colon free.

And that way, it's one API key, but there's dozens of free models behind it. So what this does, you give it one key, then it has a router, and then it switches automatically to the most relevant best model. So if we go to OpenRooter here, and we type in free models router, this is the model that I'm talking about. And again, you can use it inside the chat.

You could plug it into free cloud code. You could get an API key and then give it to Hermes. However you want to do it. And you see the top models here.

So for example, like GPT-OSS, Nemetron 3 Nano, Nemetron 3 Super, Nemetron 3 9BV2, all pretty good options. Now also, we were talking about agent, agentic free models before as well. And that's important to note, because the thing to note here is like, as you saw in the warning on Hermes before, if you're using Hermes and some other different models, they're not agentic. They're not designed to be used with AI agents like Hermes or, for example, OpenCore, because they can't call tools.

So what you can do instead is you can use an agentic API that's still free, for example, like Nemetron 3 Ultra. And if you look at the descriptions of these free models, you'll know which ones are agentic. So you see how that says Nemetron 3 Super is designed for complex multi-agent applications? That would be a more relevant, better model for AI agents.

So depending on what you're doing and what you're working on, you would switch between them. Now also, what's pretty cool with OmniRoot is that depending on the task, you can actually set the type of coding you want to do. And that will automatically change the routing strategy. So let's say, for example, you were doing coding.

Well, you can set the setting auto forward slash coding. And that will automatically use the best models for code generation, because each model has different strengths and weaknesses. And this way, you can automatically switch between them based on the task you're doing. So if you're offline, for example, you could also switch between those as well.

And the main point is you have many options, probably more options than you realize when it comes to free models. And there's many different ways you've made the most of them. So for me personally, I like to use OmniRoot. Our local engine is pretty good.

We can use free local models inside Hermes agent as well. So for example, we have Agents A1, which is a local model. And we've plugged that into Hermes. So if we have agentic coding tasks, we can use Hermes locally for free as well.

And if you want to get our full system with all of this set up, plus token minimization strategies too, so that not only can you use free models, but you don't get rate limited, then you can check out our agent operating system inside the AI Profitable Boardroom. Link in the comments description or go to theaiprofitableboardroom.com. If you're wondering what was that GitHub before, it's called Free LLM API Resources. And this is the full list that you can get with all the details of each free model.

So hope to see you inside the AI Profitable Boardroom. This is my community for learning, growing, and scaling with AI automation. Inside the community, I personally answer all the questions with video tutorials every day. Inside the classroom, you can get all of our new daily trainings that are free, and you can learn from.

And we update this daily with new tutorials, new guides, et cetera. Inside the agent OS, you can get the full system here. You can see when it was last updated. So we update it daily, and you can get the zip file to install it with your agents, plus a video tutorial.

And every time something new and useful comes out, like, for example, I was mentioning before, MLX is now 90% faster with Jemma 4. You can see a full video tutorial and step-by-step guide on exactly how to use it. Inside the calendar, you can jump a weekly coaching call, share your screen, et cetera. And inside the map, you can meet people in your local area who are building with AI agents like you.

So feel free to get that. Link in the comments description.