You searched for a free Claude API key. There is no permanent one. Anthropic makes three real exceptions: starter credits in the Console, API credits bundled into Max, Ultra and Team plans, and a grant program for researchers. Everything else sold as free is either not Claude or someone else's key.
Two kinds of readers land here. One has a card or a country that Anthropic's checkout rejects. The other just wants a single key that reaches Claude, GPT and DeepSeek without three separate accounts. Both can do the same thing: test code on the free model in the catalog, then move to Claude Haiku for real work. A request with 1,000 input and 200 output tokens costs about 0.02 cents there.
This guide covers the API: keys, tokens, billing. For Claude Code on cheap models, start with Claude Code in 2026: setup with Claudexia and pay-as-you-go.
What Anthropic gives away
We read the API pricing page, the plans page and Anthropic's help center on 10 November 2026. Here is what they say.
| Route | What you get | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Console credits | A "small amount" of credits to test the API | The docs name neither the amount nor the expiry |
| Credits inside plans | Max $100 a month, Ultra $200, Team up to $500 for the whole team | Pro and Enterprise get none. We could not read the footnote attached to these numbers, so check the plans page for the conditions |
| AI for Science program | Up to $20,000 in API credits for 6 months | Researchers at universities and nonprofits. Applications are reviewed on the first Monday of each month, and the help article does not say whether intake is open now |
| Free plan on claude.ai | Chat, search, artifacts | The plan description does not mention the API, and the comparison table marks Claude Code as not included |
A subscription and the API are billed separately. Anthropic's help center says so directly: a paid plan improves your chat experience, while the Claude API is a separate bill. Pro at $20 does not give you an API key. If you buy Console credits yourself, the same help center lists three conditions: credits expire one year after purchase, they are non-refundable, and the API stops answering when they run out. It does not state a minimum purchase.
Claudexia does not sell Claude subscriptions. The Max and Ultra numbers above are reference points from the plans page, not a suggestion to buy.
Can you use these routes where you live?
All of them go through an Anthropic account, and the account depends on where you are. Anthropic lists the countries where it offers its products on a supported-countries page and says anything not listed is unsupported. On 10 November, Russia, Belarus, China, Iran and North Korea were not on that list. Look up your own country there before you spend an evening on signup. Payments are in US dollars, and the pricing page says major credit cards are accepted.
If your country is missing, or your card is declined at checkout, these routes are closed, and working around a provider's terms is not something we recommend. A gateway that takes local payment methods is the other path: see how to use the Claude API without an Anthropic account, and for one region in detail, how to reach the Claude API from Russia.
Why "free Claude API" repos and channels are a bad trade
We will not link to these projects or explain how to install them. What follows is how they usually make money. We have not audited specific projects, so these are types of schemes, not accusations.
A pool of other people's keys. Requests run on keys the operator found, bought or stole. GitHub scans public repositories for Anthropic keys and can check whether a found key is still active, so a key sitting in plain text will not stay stable.
A different model under Claude's name. The proxy accepts a request meant for Claude and answers with a free model from another vendor. You cannot tell by reading the reply.
Free in exchange for your data. The operator pays for tokens and gets your prompts back. For a coding agent, that means pieces of your repository.
| What you lose | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Code and prompts | The proxy sees the whole request. If the agent read a file with secrets, the secrets leave with the request |
| Your key | The key sits in the request header, so the operator sees it in clear text |
| Time | The key is revoked or the quota ends, and work stops halfway through a task |
| Your account | If you plug your own Anthropic key into such a proxy, the spend and any terms violations land on your bill |
| Your machine | Fake builds carry malware: in April 2026, fake repositories advertising a "leaked" Claude Code installed the Vidar infostealer |
The rule is short. Do not send a stranger's proxy anything you would not show a stranger, and never type a key you pay for into it.
The cheapest way in, step by step
Five steps: a key, a check that costs nothing, a request to the free model, a request to Claude, a top-up.
Step 1. Create a key
Sign up at claudexia.tech and create a key that looks like sk_cdx_... in the API keys section of the dashboard. The dashboard has a "Check key" button that makes a free request to the gateway and shows whether the key was accepted.
Step 2. Check the key without spending anything
The model list is free, while a model request takes a small amount from your balance. The dashboard quickstart says exactly that.
curl https://api.claudexia.tech/v1/models \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk_cdx_YOUR_KEY"
The response lists model IDs, including the free model and the Claude ones. Use https://api.claudexia.tech without /v1 for the Anthropic SDK and Claude Code, and with /v1 for the OpenAI SDK. The quickstart has both.
Step 3. Send a request to the free model
This is the request from the quickstart in Anthropic Messages format, with a zero-price model:
curl https://api.claudexia.tech/v1/messages \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "x-api-key: sk_cdx_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
-d '{
"model": "deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017-free",
"max_tokens": 512,
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Say hello."}]
}'
One caveat. The key check in the dashboard says a model request will not go through at zero balance, and it does not say whether the free model is an exception. The homepage promises $1 on your balance for joining the Telegram channel, which is enough to settle the question. We did not run this request against the free model on 10 November.
Step 4. Repeat it on Claude
Change model to claude-haiku-5.5. A request with 1,000 input and 200 output tokens costs 1,000 × $0.10 / 1,000,000 + 200 × $0.36 / 1,000,000 = $0.000172, about 0.02 cents. This is the cheapest Claude in the catalog.
If your code already uses the OpenAI SDK, point it at the /v1 address and keep the rest. One key then covers every model ID in the catalog, so switching vendors is a change of one string:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.claudexia.tech/v1", api_key="sk_cdx_YOUR_KEY")
reply = client.chat.completions.create(
model="claude-haiku-5.5",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Say hello."}],
)
print(reply.choices[0].message.content)
We did not run this snippet on 10 November either. It follows the OpenAI-format address and key from the quickstart.
Step 5. Top up
The minimum top-up is $1 and the maximum is $10,000 per payment. The top-up dialog shows exact limits for the method you pick. The balance never expires. Accepted: international cards (through Platega), crypto such as USDT, BTC and ETH (CryptoCloud and CryptoBot), and for users in Russia, local cards and SBP (YooKassa). Details are in how to pay for the Claude API with crypto, card or SBP.
The balance is prepaid, so a runaway script can only burn what you put in. To keep it from getting that far, see how to cut your Claude Code bill threefold.
What Claude costs on 10 November
Claudexia prices below come from the public catalog on the site (Premium channel) on 10 November 2026. Anthropic prices come from its API pricing page the same day. All prices are per 1M tokens. The comparison volume is hypothetical and has no cache: 5M tokens in and 1M out. It is not a measurement of your workload.
| Model | Claudexia, in / out | Anthropic, in / out | Volume, Claudexia | Volume, Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.10 / $0.36 | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.86 | $1.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $0.52 / $1.98 | $2 / $10 | $4.58 | $20 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $0.86 / $3.30 | $4 / $20 | $7.60 | $40 |
For Haiku 5.5 Anthropic's price applies to prompts up to 100,000 tokens, and above that input is $0.50 and output $2.50. Treat the cache separately: a cache read on Haiku 5.5 costs $0.01 at Anthropic against $0.04 here, on Sonnet 5.5 it is $0.10 against $0.06, and on Opus 5.5 $0.20 against $0.10. An agent that reads almost all its input from cache will see a different ratio than the table shows.
The catalog changes. Older posts on this blog carry prices from earlier dates, and the models page is the source of truth. The Cheap channel has its own rates: on 10 November the public API lists Claude Opus 4.6, 4.7 and 5.5 there at $0.40 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output. It is not open to every account: if it does not appear in your dashboard, it is closed to you.
The free model in the catalog
On 10 November the public catalog lists one free text model.
| ID | Developer | Context | Max output | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017-free | DeepSeek | 1M | 131,072 | $0 for input and output |
On 29 October there were three free models. We did not find minimax-m3-free and qwen3.8-flash-free in the catalog on 10 November, so do not build a workflow on a free model: tomorrow it may be gone. Check limits and conditions on the model page. We promise none. The catalog also leaves the tool-calling support field empty for these models, and coding agents depend on it.
The free model is good for checking a key, a request format and a client, for a small script, and for trying a Claude Code setup. It is not Claude, and Anthropic says plainly that it does not support pointing Claude Code at non-Claude models through gateways. For DeepSeek's own free offers, read DeepSeek for free: chat, API limits and service status.
When to go to the Console directly
If your country is on Anthropic's list, your card works and you want the first-party source, use the Console: starter credits, no middleman, a bill in dollars. Anthropic also has a Batch API at half the price (Haiku 5.5 input $0.05, output $0.25), and it runs asynchronously. Claudexia fits where that route is closed, where payment fails, or where one key should open Claude, GPT and DeepSeek at once.
FAQ
Is there a free Claude API?
There is no permanent free tier. Anthropic's pricing page says new users get a small amount of free credits to test the API, and gives no figure. API credits also come inside Max, Ultra and Team plans, and up to $20,000 through the AI for Science program for researchers.
How do I get a Claude API key for free?
Creating a key is free, and tokens are what you pay for. Free Claude tokens come from the Console starter bonus in supported countries and from the credits inside plans. We would not use keys found "in the open": GitHub scans public repositories for Anthropic keys, so such a key is either dead already or someone else's.
Is there an unlimited Claude API?
We found nothing like it in Anthropic's official sources: the API has rate-limit tiers, and the Start, Build and Scale tiers also carry a monthly spend cap. Custom-tier organizations have no cap, and their limits are arranged with Anthropic's account team. Any service promising unlimited Claude for free is paid for by someone else. We do not promise unlimited either, and the free model's conditions are on its model page.
Does Claude Code work with a free API?
By Anthropic's documentation, Claude Code works with any gateway that exposes a supported API format, but Anthropic does not support pointing Claude Code at non-Claude models through gateways. The free model in the catalog is fine for a test. For serious work, use a paid model.
What is the cheapest Claude API?
On 10 November in Claudexia's catalog it is Claude Haiku 5.5: $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.36 per 1M output. Anthropic lists the same model at $0.10 and $0.50 for prompts up to 100,000 tokens. Haiku may not be enough for hard tasks, so compare it on your own set.
Are free Claude API proxies on GitHub safe?
We would not trust them. Even after reading a proxy's entire code, you will not know what the operator's server does with your requests. It sees your prompts and keys, a swapped model is invisible in the reply, and fake builds have already distributed malware. If you need a free way in, use the catalog's free model with your own key.