Is there a free Claude API key?

Short answer: no. Anthropic doesn't offer a free tier for the Claude API. You buy credits in the Claude Console and pay per token, and the free Claude plan only covers the Claude apps. There are still a few legitimate ways to use Claude in BYOK apps for very little, or at no extra cost if you already pay for the right plan.

Option	What you get	The catch
API credits in Claude Max or Team	$100-200 a month (Max), up to $500 a month (Team)	Only with those plans; Pro and Free get none
Claude Haiku 5.5 on a few dollars of credit	Thousands of chat turns for $5	Not free, just cheap
A free key from another provider	Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter free models	It isn't Claude

1. API credits that come with Claude Max or Team

On 2026-10-29, Anthropic's pricing page listed monthly API credits "to build on the Claude Platform" with these plans:

Plan	Monthly API credits
Free	None
Pro	None
Max 5x	$100
Max 20x	$200
Team	Up to $500, pooled

The Claude Platform is the same Console that issues API keys, so if you already pay for Max you may have API money you aren't using. Sign in at platform.claude.com with the same account and check the billing page before you buy credits. If you only want API access for BYOK apps, Max is not a cheap way to get it: a few dollars of plain credit goes a long way, as the next section shows.

2. Pay a few dollars and use Haiku

Most chat in a BYOK app doesn't need the biggest model. Prices per million tokens on 2026-10-29 (prompts up to 100K tokens for Haiku):

Model	Input	Output	Cost of a typical chat turn*	Turns for $5
Claude Haiku 5.5	$0.10	$0.50	~$0.0005	~11,000
Claude Sonnet 5.5	$2	$10	~$0.009	~550
Claude Opus 5.5	$4	$20	~$0.018	~280

*2,000 tokens in, 500 out. Long conversations cost more, because apps resend the history with every message.

Two more ways to pay less: the Batch API halves the price for jobs that don't need an instant answer, and prompt caching makes repeated context (a long system prompt or document) much cheaper to resend. A good habit is Haiku as the default model in your app and Sonnet or Opus only for hard questions. New organizations start with lower rate limits, which rise automatically as you use the API. The steps to create the key are in how to get a Claude API key.

3. Use a free key from another provider

If what you want is a good model for free rather than Claude specifically, these are real free options:

• Gemini free tier: Google's Flash models and Gemini 2.5 Pro with a normal API key.
• Groq's free plan: fast open models such as gpt-oss.
• OpenRouter free models: a rotating set of open models behind one key.

There is no free Claude model on OpenRouter; Claude is billed there at Anthropic's prices.

What to avoid

• "Free Claude API key" lists and giveaways. These are leaked or stolen keys. They break Anthropic's terms, stop working without warning, and send your prompts to someone else's account.
• Sites or bots that ask for your key "to add free credits". Your key is a password to your billing; only paste it into apps you trust.
• Unofficial proxies that resell claude.ai chat access as an "API". They break Anthropic's terms and can read everything you send.

Keep paid use under control

Set a monthly spend limit on the Console's Billing page, use one key per app, and keep keys out of shared documents. More in how to get a Claude API key.