5 Ways I Access Coding Models for Free

A year ago, AI coding meant asking a chatbot to generate a function. That has changed. We are no longer limited to asking a chatbot to generate a function or explain an error. Modern coding agents can inspect entire repositories, edit multiple files, run terminal commands, test their changes, and work through complex development tasks almost autonomously.

The surprising part is that you no longer necessarily need a \$20 monthly subscription or an expensive API budget to experience this. Free platforms are making both powerful open models and proprietary models accessible to almost anyone.

In this article, we will explore five ways to access coding models and AI coding agents for free, using OpenCode, OpenAI Codex, Kilo Code, OpenRouter, and Google Antigravity.

1. Using Free Models With OpenCode

OpenCode is an open-source coding agent that runs from your terminal. It can explore your codebase, edit files, execute commands, and work through multi-step development tasks.

What makes it particularly interesting for free users is OpenCode Zen, which regularly provides selected models at no cost. Current free options include models such as MiMo-V2.5, Deepseek v4 Flash, Laguna S 2.1, Nemotron 3 Ultra, North Mini Code, and other promotional models.

Install OpenCode with:

curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash

Then navigate to your project and start it:

cd my-project

opencode

Connect OpenCode Zen and use /models to find the models currently available for free.

The only downside is that free models change frequently, so a model available today may become paid later.

2. Using OpenAI Codex for Free

Another option that surprised me is OpenAI Codex, which is currently included with the ChatGPT Free plan.

Codex is an agentic coding tool that can inspect files, modify code, run terminal commands, review changes, and help you complete development tasks. You can use it through different Codex experiences, including the CLI.

Install Codex CLI with:

npm install -g @openai/codex

Then open your project:

cd my-project

codex

You can sign in with your ChatGPT account, which means you do not need to create an API key or add API credits just to try it.

This is a great way to experience what a modern coding agent can do without immediately paying for a subscription. The free plan naturally comes with lower limits, so I would use it for learning, smaller projects, and experimentation rather than expecting unlimited daily development.

3. Getting Free Coding Models Through Kilo Code

Kilo Code is another open-source coding agent that works across VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, the terminal, and cloud environments.

For free users, the most useful option is:

kilo-auto/free

Instead of requiring you to choose a model yourself, Auto Free automatically routes your requests to one of the free models currently available through Kilo. No paid inference credits are required.

You can also manually search for free models using the model picker or the /models command in the CLI.

I like this approach because it removes one of the annoying parts of using free AI models: constantly checking which provider or model is still free. Kilo handles much of that routing for you.

Just keep in mind that free providers can have rate limits, and Kilo warns that some endpoints may log prompts and outputs. I would therefore avoid sending private or confidential code through these endpoints.

4. Using OpenRouter's Free Model API

OpenRouter takes a different approach. Instead of giving you one coding agent, it gives you a single API for accessing models from many providers.

One of the easiest ways to use it for free is:

openrouter/free

The Free Models Router automatically selects from the free models currently available and can take requirements such as tool calling, structured output, and image understanding into account.

This is especially useful if you want to build your own coding agent, application, or experiment because OpenRouter provides an OpenAI-compatible API.

What I find interesting here is the scale of some models you can access without paying for inference. Free model collections can include large open models with tens or even hundreds of billions of parameters, giving students and independent developers access to computing capabilities that would be extremely expensive to host themselves.

There is a limit, though. Free accounts currently receive around 50 free-model requests per day, so I would use OpenRouter for prototypes, experiments, and learning rather than production applications.

5. Using Google Antigravity for Free

Google Antigravity might be the most interesting option if you want to experiment with several major model families from one development environment.

Its individual plan currently costs \$0 per month and gives you access to models from multiple providers, including Google's Gemini 3.7 Flash, and Gemini 3.1 Pro, Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Opus 4.6, and the open-weight GPT-OSS-120B model.

It also includes unlimited Tab completions and Command requests, while agent model usage is subject to weekly and shorter-term rate limits.

For someone who cannot justify another \$20 monthly subscription, this is a great way to experience frontier and open models in a proper coding agent. The free limits are naturally lower, but you can still compare models, build applications, let agents work across your codebase, and learn how modern agentic development actually works.

Final Thoughts

The five options in this article are not the only ways to code with AI for free. There are many other free coding agents and model providers available today. I have not included all of them simply because I have not personally tested or used them enough to recommend them.

What interests me more is the bigger shift happening around AI coding. Companies such as Google, along with the open-source AI community and model providers, are releasing capable models without locking them behind another monthly subscription.

Take OpenCode as an example. At the time of writing, OpenCode Zen alone lists multiple coding-capable models with free inference. These free models are promotional and keep changing, but that is actually part of what makes the ecosystem interesting: one free model may disappear and another one takes its place.

The same idea exists elsewhere. Kilo Code has an Auto Free option that automatically routes your coding tasks to whatever free models are currently available, while OpenRouter currently provides access to 25+ free models through its API.

This means that even if you do not have a paid Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Cursor subscription, you can still install a coding agent, open a local project, and ask an AI model to inspect files, modify code, debug errors, run commands, and help you build applications. Your usage may be limited, and the available models will keep changing, but the cost of experimenting can genuinely be \$0.

Abid Ali Awan (@1abidaliawan) is a certified data scientist professional who loves building machine learning models. Currently, he is focusing on content creation and writing technical blogs on machine learning and data science technologies. Abid holds a Master's degree in technology management and a bachelor's degree in telecommunication engineering. His vision is to build an AI product using a graph neural network for students struggling with mental illness.