GLM-5.3 on NVIDIA
NVIDIA API Catalog (build.nvidia.com, NIM) Free API tier
The catch: Trial terms allow internal testing and evaluation only, not production, and let NVIDIA use your prompts and outputs to improve its products, including AI models. Free endpoints are retired often: DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, MiniMax, Mistral, GLM-5.1 and gpt-oss-120b lost theirs between July and September 2026.
| Access | Free API tier |
|---|---|
| Free limits | Free Endpoint on build.nvidia.com for NVIDIA Developer Program members: up to 40 requests a minute and 10,000 a day (NVIDIA says limits may vary by model and other users' traffic can cause throttling). |
| Modality | text, code |
| Credit card | Not required |
| Commercial use | Not allowed |
| Trains on your data | Yes, on the free tier |
| Licence or terms | NVIDIA API Trial Terms of Service (v. September 19, 2025), plus each model's own licence |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Model id | z-ai/glm-5.3 |
| Base URL | https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1 |
| Last checked | 8 Oct 2026 |
How to use GLM-5.3
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
curl https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1/chat/completions -H "Authorization: Bearer $NVIDIA_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"model":"z-ai/glm-5.3","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Say OK"}]}'I want to use the free AI model "GLM-5.3" from NVIDIA (model id: z-ai/glm-5.3) in my project. Please: 1. Check the provider docs and give me the exact steps to get a free API key. 2. Give me a minimal working example that reads the key from an environment variable. 3. Tell me the real free limits and any catch (commercial use, card, data use). Listed limits: Up to 40 RPM · 10,000 requests/day. 4. If the same provider has a more generous free option, mention it.
Before you ship on it
- Trial terms allow internal testing and evaluation only, not production, and let NVIDIA use your prompts and outputs to improve its products, including AI models. Free endpoints are retired often: DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, MiniMax, Mistral, GLM-5.1 and gpt-oss-120b lost theirs between July and September 2026.
- Prompts on the free tier may be used to train models. Keep customer data off it.
- NVIDIA API Trial Terms of Service (v. September 19, 2025) s.1.2: access "for limited trial purposes only and without use of the API Service or Generated Content in production"; s.1.4: without a paid Subscription "you…
- Free tiers are shared capacity: treat the limits as a ceiling, not a promise, and keep a paid fallback.
Questions
Is GLM-5.3 on NVIDIA free?
Yes. NVIDIA offers it as free api tier, with these limits: Up to 40 RPM · 10,000 requests/day. No credit card is needed.
Can I use GLM-5.3 on NVIDIA commercially?
No: the free access is for testing or non-commercial use. A paid plan is needed for production.
How do I start with GLM-5.3 on NVIDIA?
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
Source: build.nvidia.com/z-ai/glm-5-3, checked 8 Oct 2026.