Comparisons · October 2026 · 7 min read
Free AI tools that don't need a credit card: every live no-card route, compared
Almost every AI free trial wants your card first. The offer says free, the signup form says enter a payment method, and one forgotten cancellation later you are paying $20 a month. But a small set of genuinely free AI routes ask for nothing: no card, no payment method, nothing to cancel. This post collects every one we have verified live on October 20, 2026.
The short version: developers should start with You.com's $100 in free API credits or AgentRouter's $50 signup credits, agent builders get the most from TinyFish's free wallet credits, app users should grab the Meta Muse referral, and daily builders get Bolt.new's free tokens. Each one is checked below, including the one case where a free tier quietly wants a card anyway.
The short answer: six live no-card routes
Six offers, six different shapes. Here is the honest comparison before the details:
| Route | Free offer | What it is really worth | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| You.com | $100 in API credits on signup | About 20,000 Web Search API calls ($5 per 1,000) | New accounts only; developer APIs, not a chat app |
| AgentRouter | $50 in signup API credits | Roughly $12.50 of standard API usage (credits spend at ~4x the standard rate) | Invite link required; developer-focused (API keys and IDEs, not a chat app) |
| River AI | $25 in free inference credits | Roughly 208M input tokens on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or GLM-5.3 Flash | Shows in Billing after signup, not advertised on the homepage; credit expiry not published |
| TinyFish | $35 student / $8 everyone wallet credits | $35 is about 2,187 web-agent steps | $35 needs an email-and-password signup: Google or Microsoft login does not trigger it |
| Meta Muse referral | 1 billion tokens for you and the referrer | About $32 of in-app AI usage | US or Canada accounts only, 18+, code must be redeemed within 48 hours of joining |
| Bolt.new | 300,000 tokens daily | Roughly 3-8 app-building prompts a day | Resets daily; the free tier is limited and the 20% new-user discount is separate |
The card-free developers: You.com, AgentRouter, River AI
The three API-credit routes are the best no-card value on this list, because API credits convert directly into model usage with no subscription wrapper. You.com is the biggest headline: $100 in free credits for every new account, stated on its own FAQ with no credit card required. Spend it on Web Search ($5 per 1,000 calls), Contents ($1 per 1,000 pages), or Research (from $12 per 1,000): live web results for agents, with no minimum spend and no region restriction published. The honest caveats: it is a developer offer, not a student discount, and You.com publishes no expiry for the credits, so spend them on real experiments rather than hoarding.
AgentRouter offers $50 in signup credits through an invitation link, with no card and no student ID, for one-key access to Claude, GPT, and more. The catch that matters: the credits spend at roughly four times the standard rate, so the $50 is worth about $12.50 of standard API usage. Still free, but budget accordingly.
River AI gives new signups $25 in free credits for open models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM-5.3 Flash through an OpenAI-compatible API. At River's prices ($0.12 per 1M input tokens), $25 buys roughly 208M input tokens, an enormous sandbox. The one quirk: the $25 is not advertised on the marketing homepage; it shows in Billing after signup, and its expiry is not published.
The card-free agents: TinyFish and Meta Muse
TinyFish is the strongest free agent budget on this list. Students with an eligible academic email get $35 in wallet credits, and every new account gets $8, no card for either. Search and Fetch are free within published limits, and the $35 covers about 2,187 agent steps. One trap documented from the official pages: the $35 triggers on an email-and-password signup only. Continue with Google or Microsoft does not trigger it, so pick the right flow at signup.
The Meta Muse referral is different: 1 billion tokens (about $32 of in-app usage) for you and whoever shares the code, with no card and tokens that do not expire. The constraints are tighter: US or Canada accounts, 18+, and the code must be redeemed within 48 hours of joining. If you qualify, it is free usage that never expires, which almost no other route on this list offers.
The card-free builder: Bolt.new
Bolt.new gives every free account 300,000 tokens a day, about 3 to 8 app-building prompts, with no credit card on file and nothing to cancel. The allowance resets daily up to a monthly cap. It is the only route here that refreshes every day, which makes it the right pick for a slow-burn side project: a little free building, every day, forever, with no card anywhere in the flow.
The one to watch out for: Hoplite
Not every free tier on aicredits.tech is card-free, and this is the example to remember. Hoplite's free cloud coding-agent tier costs $0 a month and charges nothing, but it still requires a credit card at signup. The card is required, nothing is charged. It is an honest free tier, but it is not a no-card route, so it did not make the table. Whenever a deal page on this site says no card required, it means exactly that: we checked.
Which one should you claim?
Claim all of them. They stack: nothing on this list blocks you from holding the others, and none of them can charge you because none of them has your card. Start with You.com if you are building anything that needs live web data, TinyFish if you want an agent that browses for you, and Bolt.new if you want to ship a small app. Add the Meta Muse referral if you are in the US or Canada and join within the 48-hour window, and River AI if your work runs on open models.
The general rule behind this post: free with a card on file is a trial; free with no card is a gift. Prefer the gift.
Ready to set it up?
Claim it through our verified deal page: exact claim steps, current terms, and the catches to watch for, all re-checked on the dates shown there.
You.com: $100 free API credits, no cardFrequently asked questions
Do any of these free AI offers ask for a credit card?
No. Every route in the table was verified on October 20, 2026 as requiring no credit card: You.com, AgentRouter, River AI, TinyFish, Meta Muse referral, and Bolt.new. The one exception on the site is Hoplite's free tier, which requires a card at signup (nothing charged) and is flagged on its deal page.
Which no-card offer gives the most free value?
By headline number, You.com's $100 in API credits (about 20,000 search calls). By per-unit value, River AI's $25 (about 208M input tokens). By daily persistence, Bolt.new's 300,000 tokens every day. They stack, so the real answer is all of them.
Do the free API credits expire?
None of the three API-credit providers publish a credit expiry date: not You.com, not River AI, and not AgentRouter's standing signup offer. Treat all of them as live only while listed and spend them on real experiments.
Can students get more than the standard free amounts?
Yes, in one case: TinyFish gives students $35 instead of the $8 every new account gets. The rest of this list is open to everyone with no student requirement.
Why is the Meta Muse referral the only one with an expiry-style rule?
Because its terms say so: the referral code must be redeemed within 48 hours of joining, and it is limited to US or Canada accounts aged 18+. The tradeoff is that the tokens themselves never expire once claimed.
Is there really no catch to Bolt.new's free tier?
The daily tokens are genuinely free with no card, but the tier is limited: about 3 to 8 prompts a day. Bigger builds need a paid plan, where a separate 20% new-user discount applies.