API KEYS · GUIDE 7 OF 7
How to get a free Hugging Face API key
The home of open models. Great for discovery; hosted inference now needs credits.
- You need
- Email.
- Free allowance
- Free accounts can browse and download models and use many free Spaces (demo apps). Since 7 October 2026, free accounts no longer get monthly Inference Providers credits — calls require bought credits or PRO.
- Best for
- Finding open models and datasets, trying demos in Spaces, downloading models to run locally.
- Region notes
- Available almost everywhere. Spaces may be slow at busy times.
- Key looks like
hf_…
Step by step
- Create an account at huggingface.co.
- Settings → Access Tokens → “Create new token”. Choose fine-grained and tick only what you need (read access for downloads).
- Copy the token (starts with hf_).
- Use it in Python with huggingface_hub, or to download gated models. Never put it in website code.
Where you will use it
This provider is for your own projects — for example the Telegram, Discord and chat-widget projects in Build apps. It is not used inside Open Practice tools.
If something goes wrong
| 402 / credits required | Inference Providers need credits on free accounts. Use Groq or Gemini for free hosted inference. |
|---|
Keep your key safe
- Treat a key like a password: never post it in chats, screenshots, GitHub or website code.
- Create one key per project so you can delete just that one if it leaks.
- If a key leaks, delete it in the provider console immediately and create a new one.
- Prefer free-only keys (for example, OpenRouter with a $0 credit limit) so a leak cannot cost money.
- On a shared or public computer, do not tick “remember on this device”, and press “Forget all keys” when you finish.
Other free keys
GUIDEGroqThe easiest first key: email signup, no card, very fast open models.GUIDEGoogle Gemini (AI Studio)Generous free tier on Gemini Flash models with a Google account.GUIDEOpenRouterOne key for many models, including a rotating set of free ones.GUIDEMistralFree “Experiment” plan covering Mistral’s model line-up, with phone verification.GUIDECerebrasExtremely fast inference — but check whether a card is now required.GUIDECloudflare Workers AIFree daily AI allowance inside the same account that hosts your Workers and bots.
Questions people ask
Is Hugging Face free?
Free accounts can browse and download models and use many free Spaces (demo apps). Since 7 October 2026, free accounts no longer get monthly Inference Providers credits — calls require bought credits or PRO.
Do I need a credit card for Hugging Face?
Email.
Is Hugging Face available in my country?
Available almost everywhere. Spaces may be slow at busy times.