--- title: "FreeTheAI FAQ" description: "Answers about FreeTheAI accounts, limits, errors, and setup." url: https://freetheai.org/faq language: en --- # FreeTheAI FAQ ## Platform **What is FreeTheAI?** A controlled AI marketplace. One account, one wallet, one OpenAI-compatible endpoint that routes to every enabled provider and model. FreeTheAI owns routing, billing, listing review, and payouts. **Do I need a separate key per provider?** No. You create FreeTheAI API keys and spend from a single wallet. The platform dispatches your request to the route you picked and bills the listed price. **Where do the prices come from?** Every listing shows the price you actually pay, set at review time. Sellers propose pricing; FreeTheAI reviews and controls what is published. ## Free tier **Is there still a free tier?** The free tier closed for most accounts on November 10, 2026. A small group of accounts kept access, and their Free usage page says so. Everyone else uses paid models, billed per token from the wallet. **How do I raise my daily cap?** Eligible account benefits are applied only after the related trust or contribution signal is verified and enforced by the server. **What happens to a donated API key?** It is validated against the upstream provider, encrypted at rest, and added to the shared free pool. Donated keys are never displayed, never attributed publicly, and can be revoked by you at any time from the donate page. ## Billing **How do deposits work?** You deposit into your FreeTheAI wallet and usage debits it per request at the listed pricing. Balances, limits, and transactions are visible in the dashboard wallet. **What happens when a request fails?** A failed request releases its wallet hold automatically. Buyers do not submit refund requests. Owner-verified usage corrections can reverse an incorrectly settled request. ## Sellers **Can I sell access to my models?** Yes. Apply from the dashboard: you provide your endpoint base URL and API key, pick endpoint types, and propose pricing. After review, the platform routes buyer traffic through your endpoint and you earn per call, minus the platform fee. **Is my endpoint or identity exposed?** No. Buyers see a platform-assigned seller label. Your upstream host, API key, and contact details stay private; the platform proxies all traffic. **When do I get paid?** Earnings become payable after the seven-day hold window. You request a payout from the seller console, then FreeTheAI sends it manually and records the transaction hash. ## Using the API **Which URL and key do I put in my app?** Use the base URL https://api.freetheai.org/v1 and an API key from Dashboard > API keys. Apps that ask for the full URL, like JanitorAI, need https://api.freetheai.org/v1/chat/completions. Copy model IDs exactly as they appear on the Models page. Step-by-step guides for 24 apps are at freetheai.org/setup. **Why are my replies cut off, or why does my app say "No response"?** Raise your app's max tokens (response length), or set it to 0 to use the model's full output length, and turn on streaming. Some models think before they answer, so long chats can take a while; if your app gives up waiting, retry or pick a faster model. **SillyTavern shows "Bad Request". How do I fix it?** On the API connection screen, set Prompt Post-Processing to "Semi-strict" and try again. Some models need at least one message from you in every request, and that setting makes sure there is one. **What are the dog/ models good for?** The fta/dog/ models are for everyday work that is not roleplay or coding: questions, writing and editing, summaries, research, translation, and reading images you attach. They reply in plain text only. They do not play characters, so roleplay apps such as JanitorAI usually get a content filter error, and they cannot make tool or function calls, so coding agents and tool-based apps do not work with them. For roleplay or coding, pick a GLM, Kimi, or MiniMax model instead. **How do I turn the model's thinking off?** On Dashboard > API keys, open scope & settings under your key, turn on "Turn thinking off", and save. Models that think first then answer straight away, with nothing to change in your app. If you see a second "thinking" part inside the reply text, your app's preset is asking the model to write its thoughts; turn that option off in the preset. **Which model should I use for roleplay?** On the Models page, pick Roleplay under Good for. It lists the models that suit roleplay, ranked by what roleplay apps use most. The dog/ and lion/ models are for general questions and writing, not roleplay. ## Errors and limits **Why do I get "daily check-in required"?** Free models unlock after a quick daily check-in at freetheai.org. Your dashboard shows when the next check-in opens. Daily free requests reset at 00:00 UTC. **It says the model is busy or I am rate limited. What should I do?** Free models can get busy at peak times. Wait a minute and retry, or switch to another model. Requests turned away because a model was busy do not count toward your daily free requests. **My message was blocked or "rejected". Is my setup wrong?** Usually not. Some models have a content filter that can block a message or its reply. Retry, rephrase a little, or switch to another model. **Do failed requests count against my daily limit?** No. A request only counts when it gets a real answer. Errors, busy models, and requests turned away are given back right away. A reply that breaks off partway counts only if a real amount of text already reached you. ## Account and support **Which email can I sign up with?** Use an address from a major provider such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook. Some privacy-focused and temporary email services are not accepted. Verify your email from the link we send before using the API. **My API access is on hold. What now?** Open an appeal from Dashboard > Support and choose the appeal category. Staff review every appeal in order and you get a notification with the result. The decision on an appeal is final, and creating another account to get around a hold gets that account closed too. Appeals are handled on the site only, not in Discord. **What should I include when I ask for help?** Your signup email, a screenshot of the error, a screenshot of your app's connection settings with the API key hidden, the error ID if there is one, and roughly when it happened. That lets us find the problem without back and forth. **I forgot my password or got logged out. What do I do?** Use "Forgot password?" on the login page to get a reset link by email. Don't make a new account to get back in: FreeTheAI allows one account per person, and extra accounts are put on hold. **The security check or check-in game doesn't work for me.** Open freetheai.org in Chrome, Edge, or Safari with ad blockers and other extensions turned off for the site (or in a private window), turn off any VPN, and stay on one connection until you finish. If it still fails, try another browser or device. **Can people in my household have their own accounts?** Yes. Each person signs up with their own email and uses only their own account and API key. Don't share accounts or keys. If an account is put on hold, its owner appeals from that account.