OpenAI Free Tier
OpenAI offers limited free tier access. New accounts may receive $5 in credits, but free access is restricted to older models with very low rate limits.
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Free Tier Details
Free Credits$5 for new accounts (may vary)
Free Tier ModelsGPT-3.5 Turbo only
Free Tier Rate Limit3 requests/min
Credit Card RequiredRequired for GPT-4+ access
The original free trial program ($18 in credits) was discontinued in mid-2025. Researchers and educators can apply for the Researcher Access Program for up to $1,000 in credits.
Cheapest Paid Models on OpenAI
When you need more than the free tier, these are the most affordable options.
| Model | Context | Input / 1M | Output / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-5 Nano | 400K | $0.050 | $0.400 |
| openai-text-embedding-ada-002-v2 | — | $0.100 | $0.00 |
| GPT-4.1 Nano | 1048K | $0.100 | $0.400 |
| openai-text-embedding-ada-002 | — | $0.100 | $0.00 |
| GPT-4o-mini | 128K | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| openai-gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18 | — | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| openai-gpt-4o-mini-search-preview | — | $0.150 | $0.600 |
| text-ada-001 | 2K | $0.200 | $0.200 |
| openai-gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14 | — | $0.200 | $0.800 |
| GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini | 400K | $0.250 | $2.00 |
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