No free tier - verified
Is the OpenAI API free?
No. The OpenAI API has no free tier for text generation. Trains on your data: No (unless you opt in to share data).
Read from developers.openai.com, help.openai.com. Compare every free LLM API
- Offer
- No free tier
- Card required
- Not stated
- Trains on data
- No
- Verified
- 2026-10-18
The offer
- Offer class
No free tier
Recorded as: none (text generation); data-sharing complimentary tokens for paying tiers
The rate-limits guide still lists a 'Free' usage tier (allowed geography, $100 / month usage limit), but every text-generation model page checked today (gpt-6-luna, gpt-5.6-luna, gpt-5.4-nano, gpt-4o-mini) publishes limits only for Build, Launch and Grow. The only Free-tier limits found are for text-embedding-3-small. Treated as no free tier for LLM text generation.
“The three paid usage tiers are Build, Launch, and Grow. Your organization's usage tier upgrades automatically as its total credit purchases reach each threshold.”
developers.openai.com “| Free | User must be in an allowed geography | $100 / month |”
developers.openai.com “gpt-6-luna rate limits table lists only: | Build | 5,000 | 2,000,000 | 20,000,000 | / | Launch | ... | / | Grow | ... | (no Free row; same for gpt-5.6-luna, gpt-5.4-nano, gpt-4o-mini)”
developers.openai.com “You need a positive account balance to use OpenAI models and the free tokens.”
help.openai.com - How to get it
- Not stated
- Card required
Not stated
Free limits
Values are copied exactly as the provider publishes them, units included. Not stated means the public docs give no value.
| Model | Free RPM | Free RPD | Free TPM | Free Batch queue limit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| text-embedding-3-small (embeddings, not text generation) | 100 | 2,000 | 40,000 | - | developers.openai.com |
Does it train on your data?
No
Unless you opt in to share data
No by default for API data; yes for traffic an org opts in to share (which is the condition for the complimentary tokens).
“Your data is your data. As of March 1, 2023, data sent to the OpenAI API is not used to train or improve OpenAI models (unless you explicitly opt in to share data with us).”
“By default, we don't use any inputs or outputs from our products for business users, including ChatGPT Business, ChatGPT Enterprise, and the API, to improve our models.”
“Data you share will be used to help identify usage patterns, measure model quality, and inform future evaluation and training of models.”
Restrictions
Free tier qualification is geography-based
“User must be in an allowed geography”
developers.openai.com Only org owners can opt in to data sharing; ZDR orgs cannot
“You will need to be an organization owner to opt in to share data with OpenAI. Accounts with Zero Data Retention enabled cannot opt in to our data sharing mechanisms.”
help.openai.com
Upgrade path
Build tier: "$5 in total credit purchases" (usage limit $500 / month).
Complimentary tokens for paying tiers (not a free tier)
Daily complimentary tokens on traffic shared with OpenAI, for eligible Build, Launch and Grow organizations that opt in to share inputs and outputs. Not available to free accounts (positive balance required).
- Build, group 1 (e.g. gpt-6.1-sol, gpt-6-astra, gpt-6-luna, gpt-5.6-sol)
- 250,000 tokens per day
- Build, group 2 (e.g. gpt-5.6-terra, gpt-5.6-luna, gpt-5.4-mini, gpt-5.4-nano, gpt-4o-mini)
- 2.5 million tokens per day
- Launch and Grow, group 1
- 1 million tokens per day
- Launch and Grow, group 2
- 10 million tokens per day
“Some organizations may qualify for daily complimentary tokens on traffic shared with OpenAI.”
“Eligible Build organizations receive up to 250,000 tokens for the first group and 2.5 million for the second. Eligible Launch and Grow organizations receive up to 1 million tokens for the first group and 10 million for the second.”
“Fine-tuned models, fine-tuning training, evals, and tool use are not included.”
“The free-token counter resets at 00:00 UTC each day.”
“OpenAI will give 30 days notice before terminating this program.”
“If you do not see this language on your data sharing page, you are not eligible for the complimentary tokens at this time.”
FAQ
Is the OpenAI API free?
No. The OpenAI API has no free tier for text generation. Trains on your data: No (unless you opt in to share data).
Does OpenAI API train on your data?
No (unless you opt in to share data). The terms say: "Your data is your data. As of March 1, 2023, data sent to the OpenAI API is not used to train or improve OpenAI models (unless you explicitly opt in to share data with us)."
Sources
Last verified from OpenAI API's own pages below. Quotes are verbatim.
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/rate-limits
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-6-luna
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-5.6-luna
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-5.4-nano
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-4o-mini
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/text-embedding-3-small
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/your-data
- https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10306912-sharing-feedback-evaluation-and-fine-tuning-data-and-api-inputs-and-outputs-with-openai
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