Groq’s “free credits” aren’t a one-time coupon. It’s a permanent free tier for LPU-powered inference with real, ongoing usage (rate-limited by model, roughly ~30 requests/minute and ~6,000–12,000 tokens/minute).
Dev teams building a fast chat endpoint, founders prototyping an MVP, researchers testing model behavior, and students doing course projects can all get value here. The biggest win is simple: Groq free credits come with no credit card required, so you can start experimenting without worrying about surprise bills.
This guide covers eligibility, the exact signup flow, what the free tier includes, the limits you will hit, and a few practical ways to stretch your quota.
Program at a Glance
| Provider | Groq |
| Credit Amount | Rate-limited free usage (varies by model) |
| Duration | No expiration (ongoing free tier) |
| Eligibility | One free account per person; email or GitHub signup |
| Credit Card Required? | No (unless you upgrade to paid) |
| Difficulty | Easy. Instant access after signup and API key creation. |
| Best For | Prototyping, hackathons, latency-sensitive demos |
| Official Page | Groq Program Page |
What You Actually Get
Groq offers a permanent free tier for its GroqCloud inference API running on LPU (Language Processing Unit) hardware. You get an API key instantly (no credit card), and you can call all supported models, including Llama 3.1/3.3, Llama 4 Scout/Maverick (preview), GPT-OSS, Qwen3, Kimi K2 (preview), Whisper, and Groq’s agentic “Compound” system. The API is OpenAI-compatible, which means most OpenAI tooling works by swapping the base URL and using your Groq key. The tradeoff is rate limits that vary by model and apply at the organization level.
In practical terms, this is enough to build a functioning chatbot, a low-latency “AI helper” inside an app, or a few internal tools that need fast responses. It’s also a solid way to benchmark prompt quality across multiple open models without paying just to explore. If you’re trying to run production traffic, you will probably outgrow the free tier quickly, but for experimentation it’s honestly one of the better deals out there.
Who Qualifies (and Who Doesn’t)
Eligibility is simple: if you’re a person who can sign up with an email address or GitHub, you can use the Groq free tier. There’s no special approval process and no verification beyond standard account creation.
- You are limited to one free account per person, and Groq calls this out explicitly.
- Sign up using an email address or a GitHub account, then accept the Services Agreement and Privacy Policy.
- An API key is required for usage, and you will need to create it from the API Keys page after signup.
- No credit card is needed for the free tier, so you can start without entering billing details.
If you’re trying to create multiple free accounts for extra quota, expect problems. “One free account per person” is the rule, and rate limits are enforced at the organization level anyway.
How to Sign Up
Signup is fast, but take the API key step seriously because you only see the key once.
- Go to console.groq.com.
- Click “Sign Up” (or use console.groq.com/authenticate/signup).
- Sign up with your email address or GitHub account, and accept the Services Agreement and Privacy Policy.
- Verify your email if you’re prompted.
- Confirm you’re on the Free tier (no credit card needed and no trial period).
- Open the API Keys page and click “Create API Key”.
- Name the key and copy it immediately, because it will not be shown again.
- Set it as an environment variable (example:
export GROQ_API_KEY=your-key-here). - Make your first request to https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions.
After you create the key, you can start calling models immediately. If you lose the key, you’ll need to create a new one, so store it like any other secret.
What the Credits Cover
The free tier covers LPU inference on GroqCloud across the supported model lineup, with OpenAI-compatible chat completions as the primary interface. Rate limits vary by model, and they apply to your organization as a whole (not per user), so a shared key across a team will hit caps sooner.
| Service / Feature | What It Does | Included? |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions | Call supported LLMs via /openai/v1/chat/completions. | ✓ |
| Supported LLMs (Llama, GPT-OSS, Qwen3, Kimi) | General text generation across multiple model families. | ✓ |
| Whisper (ASR) | Speech-to-text transcription (Whisper Large V3 variants). | ✓ |
| Compound systems (agentic) | Server-side web search + Python code execution with tool calls. | ✓ |
Notable exclusions: the free tier isn’t a “higher limits” plan, and there’s no SLA. Also, preview models may be removed without notice, so don’t bet a production feature on them.
Limitations to Know About
Every free program has catches. With Groq, the “catch” is mostly about throughput and predictability, not paywalls.
- Free tier usage is rate-limited by model, with representative limits around ~30 requests per minute and ~6,000–12,000 tokens per minute.
- Limits apply at the organization level, so multiple apps or teammates share the same pool.
- Limits reset daily at UTC 00:00, which matters if you batch work at the end of your day.
- When you exceed limits, you get a 429 Too Many Requests error and are throttled rather than charged.
- Max output per request is 8,192 tokens, so very long generations will get cut off.
- There is no SLA on the free tier, and preview models may be discontinued.
When you run out of free tier capacity for the minute/day, requests fail with 429s until the window resets. You will never be charged unless you explicitly add payment info and upgrade to the Developer tier from the console. If you do upgrade, it’s pay-as-you-go and the Developer tier offers roughly 10x higher limits, plus Batch API access for high-volume workloads (with a cost discount).
Have Unused Groq Credits?
It sounds weird with a free tier, but Groq credits do show up in the real world through paid plans, enterprise commits, and teams that upgraded then changed direction. Those allocations can sit unused until budgets reset or the project dies. If you have Groq credits you won’t use, AI Credit Mart lets you list them so they don’t go to waste.
Need More Groq Credits?
Once you hit free tier throttling, you have two options: engineer around the limits, or move to paid usage. If you’d rather not pay retail while you scale, AI Credit Mart is a marketplace for discounted Groq credits sourced from surplus allocations. Deals commonly land about 30–70% below face value, depending on supply.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Credits
- Implement retry logic with exponential backoff for 429 errors, because you will hit rate limits on the free tier.
- Keep a close eye on token counting since both input and output tokens count toward your TPM/TPD limits.
- Lean into caching when you can: cached tokens don’t count toward free tier rate limits, and they’re discounted on paid plans.
- Use the free tier for prototyping and experimentation, then plan a paid path before you ship something that needs consistent throughput.
- Avoid relying on preview models for core workflows, because Groq notes they may be removed without notice.
Frequently Asked Questions
There isn’t a fixed dollar credit amount. The value is “ongoing free usage” capped by model-specific rate limits (roughly ~30 RPM, ~6K–12K TPM, and daily token/request caps), which can easily cover a prototype, demo, or internal tool if you design around throttling.
No.
They don’t expire because the free tier is ongoing (not a trial).
Yes. If you have Groq credits you won’t use before they expire, you can list them on AI Credit Mart and sell them at up to 70% of face value. Companies regularly list surplus credits from startup programs and enterprise agreements.
AI Credit Mart has discounted Groq credits available from companies with surplus allocations. Prices are typically 30-70% below retail.
For the free tier specifically, there’s no expiration date; when you hit limits you get throttled (429 errors) until limits reset.
Groq states the free tier gives access to all supported models, including Llama 3.1/3.3, Llama 4 Scout/Maverick (preview), GPT-OSS, Qwen3, Kimi K2 (preview), Whisper, and the agentic groq/compound systems. The exact lineup changes, and preview models may be discontinued without notice, so it’s smart to check your console for the current list before you commit to one model in your code. If you care about stability, prefer the “Production Models” section over preview. Also note that different models have different RPM/TPM/TPD caps.
No; exceeding limits returns a 429 Too Many Requests error, and you’re never charged unless you explicitly add payment info and upgrade to the Developer tier.
Groq’s free tier is the rare kind that doesn’t expire, doesn’t need a card, and still gives you access to serious models. Sign up, ship a prototype, and if you end up needing more capacity, you can either upgrade or source discounted Groq credits through AI Credit Mart.
Your AI credits are losing value every day
Join the marketplace and start trading unused credits today.