8 min readPublished: 2026-07-29Updated: 2026-08-21

SiliconFlow Free Models 2026: Current List, Limits and API Example

A verified snapshot of SiliconFlow models currently marked free on the official pricing page, plus identity verification, fixed rate limits, Pro model naming, and a first API call.

By Heizi· Founder & Editor· Published: 2026-07-29· Updated: 2026-08-21

Free models verified on August 21, 2026

SiliconFlow's official pricing page marked the following chat, translation, and OCR IDs as 免费 for both input and output on August 21, 2026. The catalog changes, so treat this as a dated snapshot and confirm the live price before production use. How the free tier works — verification, fixed limits, credit vs free models — is in the SiliconFlow API free tier 2026 guide.

DeepSeek had 6 more models collapsed and Qwen had 30 more. Those hidden rows are omitted. Visible paid chat rows on the same page include DeepSeek-V4-Pro, DeepSeek-V4-Flash, Kimi K2.7/K2.6, MiniMax-M2.5, and the expanded Qwen 3.5/3.6 models.

THUDM/GLM-Z1-9B-0414 — chat
THUDM/GLM-4-9B-0414 — chat
tencent/Hunyuan-MT-7B — translation
PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR-VL-1.5 — OCR / vision-language

Other free modalities

The same August 21, 2026 pricing page also marks embedding, rerank, image, and speech IDs as free. Pro/BAAI/bge-m3 and Pro/BAAI/bge-reranker-v2-m3 are paid. Neither listed Wan video model was free.

BAAI/bge-m3 — embedding (Pro/BAAI/bge-m3 is paid)
BAAI/bge-reranker-v2-m3 — rerank (Pro/BAAI/bge-reranker-v2-m3 is paid)
BAAI/bge-large-zh-v1.5 — embedding
BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5 — embedding
Kwai-Kolors/Kolors — image, free per image
Qwen/Qwen3-ASR-1.7B — speech
TeleAI/TeleSpeechASR — speech
FunAudioLLM/SenseVoiceSmall — speech

Free does not mean unlimited

SiliconFlow's official rate-limit documentation says identity verification is required to use all free models. Calls to free models are billed at zero, but their rate limits are fixed and cannot be increased by moving up a paid usage tier.

Some models have both a free and paid service. The free model uses the ordinary vendor/model ID; the paid version adds the Pro/ prefix. Paid models use account-level rate limits based on usage. Check the console for the exact live limit of a model instead of relying on a static RPM copied into an article.

New-user credit: ¥16 in China or $1 globally

SiliconFlow's official June 2026 product announcement states that new users can receive ¥16 on the China site or $1 on the global site to try platform models. This promotional credit is separate from zero-priced models and can be used to test paid models under the applicable campaign rules.

First free API call

Create a key at https://cloud.siliconflow.cn/me/account/ak, complete identity verification, and select a model still marked free on the live pricing page. The example below uses THUDM/GLM-Z1-9B-0414, which was listed as free on August 21, 2026.

python

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["SILICONFLOW_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.siliconflow.cn/v1",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="THUDM/GLM-Z1-9B-0414",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Reply with: KEY_WORKS"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

OpenAI-compatible Python request

Checklist before production

Confirm the model still appears as free, verify its current rate limit in the console, use the full namespaced model ID, and keep a paid fallback if a fixed free-model limit cannot meet production traffic. For account setup, see the SiliconFlow API key tutorial.

FAQ

Which SiliconFlow models are free right now?

On the August 21, 2026 pricing snapshot: THUDM/GLM-Z1-9B-0414, THUDM/GLM-4-9B-0414, tencent/Hunyuan-MT-7B, PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR-VL-1.5, four BAAI embedding/rerank IDs, Kwai-Kolors/Kolors, Qwen/Qwen3-ASR-1.7B, TeleAI/TeleSpeechASR, and FunAudioLLM/SenseVoiceSmall. Recheck the live pricing page before you depend on any ID.

Is the SiliconFlow API completely free?

No. SiliconFlow has both free and paid models. Models marked free are billed at zero within fixed rate limits; paid models are charged according to the live pricing page.

Is identity verification required for free models?

SiliconFlow's official rate-limit documentation says identity verification is required to use all free models.

Can I raise a free model's rate limit?

The official documentation says free-model rate limits are fixed. Where available, a Pro/ version is paid and follows paid-model limits.

How much credit do new SiliconFlow users get?

The current official announcement states ¥16 for China-site users or $1 for global-site users. Campaign availability should be confirmed when registering.