# CrabDash Free Provider Keys

Get free LLM API keys to use with CrabDash — no credit card, no waitlist.

CrabDash routes requests to cloud providers using your own API keys. Keys are stored in the macOS Keychain — they never leave your machine.

Every provider below offers genuinely free API access — no credit card, no expiring trial credits. All are OpenAI-compatible, so they work with CrabDash out of the box.

## [Google Gemini](/content/docs/crabdash/provider-keys#google-gemini/index.html)

The easiest way to start. No billing required.

1. Go to [aistudio.google.com/apikey](https://aistudio.google.com/apikey)
2. Click **Create API key**
3. Add it in CrabDash → Settings → Providers → Google

Free tier includes Gemini 2.0 Flash and Gemini 1.5 Pro at ~15 RPM. No per-token billing. Good enough for development and personal use.

## [Groq](/content/docs/crabdash/provider-keys#groq/index.html)

Fast inference on open models.

1. Go to [console.groq.com/keys](https://console.groq.com/keys)
2. Click **Create API Key**
3. Add it in CrabDash → Settings → Providers → Groq

Free tier includes Llama 3, Mixtral, and Gemma. ~30 RPM, ~14,400 requests/day.

## [NVIDIA NIM](/content/docs/crabdash/provider-keys#nvidia-nim/index.html)

Largest free model catalog — 100+ models.

1. Go to [build.nvidia.com](https://build.nvidia.com/) and join the Developer Program
2. Generate an API key
3. Add it in CrabDash → Settings → Providers → NVIDIA

Free tier includes Llama 4, DeepSeek R1/V3, Qwen3, Mistral, and many more. ~40 RPM per model.

## [Cloudflare Workers AI](/content/docs/crabdash/provider-keys#cloudflare-workers-ai/index.html)

Edge inference in 300+ cities.

1. Create a free account at [dash.cloudflare.com](https://dash.cloudflare.com/)
2. Go to Workers & Pages → AI and create an API token
3. Add it in CrabDash → Settings → Providers → Cloudflare

Free tier includes 50+ models (Llama 3.2 variants, Mistral 7B, others). 10,000 Neurons/day.

## [Mistral](/content/docs/crabdash/provider-keys#mistral/index.html)

All Mistral models on the free Experiment plan.

1. Go to [console.mistral.ai](https://console.mistral.ai/)
2. Create an account (defaults to Experiment plan) and generate an API key
3. Add it in CrabDash → Settings → Providers → Mistral

Free tier includes Mistral Large, Small, Codestral, and Pixtral. 1B tokens/month but low rate limit (1–2 RPM). Requests may be used for model training.

## [Running without cloud providers](/content/docs/crabdash/provider-keys#running-without-cloud-providers/index.html)

You don't need any API key to use CrabDash with local models on Apple Silicon. See [Local Models](/content/docs/crabdash/local-models/index.html).

[Getting Started with CrabDash](/content/docs/crabdash/getting-started/index.html)  
[CrabDash Gateway API](/content/docs/crabdash/gateway-api/index.html)