SambaNova Cloud free tier
SambaNova (SambaCloud) Free API tier
The catch: Only 20 requests a day per model (and 200K tokens a day) until you link a payment method.
| Access | Free API tier |
|---|---|
| Free limits | Free Tier (applies while no payment method is linked): 20 requests/min, 20 requests/day and 200,000 tokens/day, per model. Free models: DeepSeek-V3.1, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, gpt-oss-120b (production) and DeepSeek-V3.2, gemma-4-31B-it (preview, evaluation only). Linking a payment method moves you to the paid Developer Tier (60 RPM / 12,000 RPD on most models, 240 RPM / 48,000 RPD on Llama 3.3 70B, 20M tokens/day cap). |
| Modality | text |
| Credit card | Not required |
| Commercial use | Allowed |
| Trains on your data | No |
| Licence or terms | SambaCloud Terms of Service (plus third-party model licences) |
| Context window | 131,072 tokens |
| Model id | Meta-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct |
| Base URL | https://api.sambanova.ai/v1 |
| Last checked | 2 Oct 2026 |
How to use Llama 3.3 70B, gpt-oss-120b
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://api.sambanova.ai/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
Quickstart
curl https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/chat/completions -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"model":"Meta-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'Paste into Claude Code
I want to use the free AI model "Llama 3.3 70B, gpt-oss-120b" from SambaNova (model id: Meta-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct) 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: 20 RPM, 20 requests and 200K tokens a day per model. 4. If the same provider has a more generous free option, mention it.
Before you ship on it
- Only 20 requests a day per model (and 200K tokens a day) until you link a payment method.
- The SambaCloud Terms of Service has no free-tier or non-commercial carve-out (third-party model licences apply, s.1.3). The rate-limits page says production models are intended for production use, while preview models…
- Free tiers are shared capacity: treat the limits as a ceiling, not a promise, and keep a paid fallback.
Questions
Is SambaNova Cloud free tier free?
Yes. SambaNova offers it as free api tier, with these limits: 20 RPM, 20 requests and 200K tokens a day per model. No credit card is needed.
Can I use SambaNova Cloud free tier commercially?
Yes, under SambaCloud Terms of Service (plus third-party model licences). Check the current terms before you ship.
How do I start with SambaNova Cloud free tier?
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://api.sambanova.ai/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
Source: docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/models/rate-limits, checked 2 Oct 2026.