Is there a free OpenAI API key?

Short answer: no. OpenAI's API has no free tier; it is pay-as-you-go, and OpenAI says you need a positive balance to use its models. But "free OpenAI API key" searches usually come from people who want GPT models for little or no money, and there are real ways to do that. Here is what works in October 2026.

Option	What you get	The catch
Complimentary tokens for data sharing	Up to 2.5 million tokens a day on small GPT models (more on higher tiers)	Only some organizations qualify; your prompts are used to improve OpenAI's models
gpt-oss on Groq's free plan	OpenAI's open-weight gpt-oss models, free	Not GPT-6; daily token limits
gpt-oss on your own computer	Unlimited and private	Needs a computer with enough memory
$5 of credit on gpt-6-luna	Roughly 11,000 chat turns	Not free, just very cheap

1. Complimentary daily tokens for sharing data

OpenAI gives some organizations free daily tokens on API traffic they agree to share with OpenAI. To check, sign in at platform.openai.com, open the organization's data controls (data sharing) settings and look for the offer "You're eligible for free daily usage on traffic shared with OpenAI". If it isn't there, your organization doesn't qualify right now. An organization owner turns sharing on, for the whole organization or only for chosen projects.

Daily allowances on 2026-10-29, shared across each group of models:

Your usage tier	Large models (gpt-6-astra, gpt-6.1-sol, gpt-6-luna, gpt-5.6-sol and older GPT-5 models)	Small models (gpt-5.6-terra, gpt-5.6-luna, gpt-5.4-mini, gpt-5.4-nano and older mini models)
Build ($5+ bought)	250,000 tokens a day	2.5 million tokens a day
Launch and Grow ($100+ bought)	1 million tokens a day	10 million tokens a day

A chat turn with some history is often about 2,500 tokens, so 2.5 million tokens a day on gpt-5.6-luna is around 1,000 turns a day at no cost. Fine print from OpenAI's help center:

• You still need a positive balance, even if you only use free tokens.
• Use above the daily allowance is billed at normal rates. If one request would push you over, the whole request is billed.
• Fine-tuned models, evals and tool use (for example web search) are not included.
• OpenAI promises 30 days' notice before ending the program.

The catch is privacy. Shared inputs and outputs are used to evaluate and train OpenAI's models. Keep sharing on for a separate project used for public or throwaway text, and give that project's key to the BYOK app; keep a second project, with sharing off, for anything private.

2. OpenAI's open-weight models, for free

OpenAI also publishes open-weight models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b. They are older and smaller than GPT-6, but good for everyday chat and coding help, and you can use them without paying OpenAI:

• Groq's free plan serves both with 1,000 requests and 200,000 tokens a day, no payment method needed. See the Groq API key guide.
• On your own computer with Ollama or LM Studio: free, unlimited and private. gpt-oss-20b is the one that fits a well-equipped laptop. See local LLM apps.

3. Pay a little: $5 goes a long way

Buy $5 of credit (which also moves you from the Free usage tier to Build) and pick a small model. On 2026-10-29 OpenAI listed gpt-6-luna at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens: a chat turn of 2,000 tokens in and 500 out costs about $0.00045, so $5 covers roughly 11,000 turns. Set a hard spend limit in the dashboard and you can't be surprised by the bill. Step by step: how to get an OpenAI API key.

What to avoid

• "Free OpenAI API key" lists on GitHub, Telegram, YouTube or paste sites. These are leaked or stolen keys. They break OpenAI's terms, get revoked at any moment, and your prompts end up in a stranger's account.
• Sites that ask for your own key "to unlock free credits": that is phishing. A key is a password to your billing.
• Unofficial "free GPT API" proxies that resell access to ChatGPT. They break OpenAI's terms, can read everything you send, and disappear without notice.
• The "Free" usage tier isn't free usage, just the starting tier, with a $100 monthly usage limit.

Other genuinely free keys

If you don't need OpenAI specifically, Google's Gemini free tier gives strong models for free with a normal API key, and OpenRouter's free models give you a rotating set of open models behind one key. All options are compared in free AI API keys.