# OpenRouter free API key: how to get one

> Always free OpenRouter API key, no card needed. Models ending in :free get 20 requests a minute and 50 a day. Buy $10 of credit once and it rises to 1,000 a day for good. Step by step setup, checked October 2026.

- Kind: Always free, no card
- Limits: Models ending in :free get 20 requests a minute and 50 a day. Buy $10 of credit once and it rises to 1,000 a day for good.
- Models: A rotating set of free models from DeepSeek, Meta, Google, Mistral, Qwen and others
- Get the key: https://openrouter.ai/settings/keys
- Note: Free models are rate limited at busy times and change without notice.

## Steps

1. Sign up at openrouter.ai.
2. Open Keys and create a key.
3. Paste it under OpenRouter, press Sync all models and pick a model whose name ends in "free".

## Use it with every other AI at once

Paste the key into MultiScreenAI (https://www.multiscreenai.com) and ask every model at once, side by side, with a blind test mode. Agents can do the same over MCP: https://www.multiscreenai.com/mcp