Developer Money-Saving Guide: How to Use AI Large Models for Free in 2026? (12 Free Tier Summary Included)
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Developer Money-Saving Guide: How to Use AI Large Models for Free in 2026?
Reading time: 9 minutes
Suitable for: Individual developers, indie developers, tech entrepreneurs
Savings: Up to ¥100,000/year in development costs
The Bottom Line First
In 2026, AI development is no longer a rich person's game.
I built a complete AI development environment using free Coding Plans from 12 cloud vendors, saving ¥80,000 in API costs annually.
This isn't clickbait — this is what actually happened.
My savings plan:
- DeepSeek: Largest free tier, primary model
- Volcengine Ark: Multi-model comparison testing
- Kimi: Chinese content generation
- Zhipu AI: Enterprise-grade stable needs
Why Do I Want to Save Money?
My Development Cost Bill
Last year I developed an AI writing assistant project. My API costs were:
| Month | OpenAI API Cost | Other Costs | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | $320 | $50 | $370 |
| February | $450 | $60 | $510 |
| March | $380 | $55 | $435 |
| April | $520 | $70 | $590 |
| May | $480 | $65 | $545 |
| 6-month Total | $2,150 | $300 | $2,450 |
Spent $2,450 (about ¥18,000) in half a year. Painful.
Started Looking for Alternatives
I thought: is there a cheaper or even free alternative?
Then I discovered the treasure that is Coding Plan.
What Is a Coding Plan?
Plain language: the "newcomer gift pack" each cloud vendor gives developers.
Usually includes:
- Free API call quota
- Discounted compute resources
- Exclusive developer tools
- Technical support channels
Purpose: Let you try at low cost; if you like it, pay later.
12 Coding Plans Compared
| # | Vendor | Product | Free Tier | Personal Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeepSeek | DeepSeek | Largest | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 2 | ByteDance | Volcengine Ark | Has gift quota | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 3 | Moonshot AI | Kimi | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 4 | Zhipu AI | GLM Series | Has free calls | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 5 | Alibaba Cloud | Bailian/Model Studio | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 6 | Tencent Cloud | Tencent Cloud | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 7 | iFlytek Spark | iFLYTEK Spark | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 8 | Volcengine | Volc Ark | Has gift quota | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 9 | MiniMax | MiniMax | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 10 | Baidu Cloud | Baidu Cloud | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| 11 | JD Cloud | JD Cloud | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| 12 | China Mobile Cloud | China Mobile Cloud | Has free tier | ⭐⭐⭐ |
My Savings Plan in Detail
Tier 1: Primary Models
1. DeepSeek (Cost-Saving Top Pick)
Why choose it:
- Free tier: Largest among mainstream vendors
- Price: 1/10 of others
- Performance: DeepSeek-V3 rivals GPT-4o
Savings effect:
1 | Same code task: |
Final Word
AI development doesn't have to be expensive anymore.
Use free Coding Plans strategically, and you can build a complete AI development environment at virtually zero cost.
The key is: don't put all your eggs in one basket. Use multiple platforms, choose the right tool for each task.
I'm Coder Wanfeng, with 400,000 followers across all platforms, creator of the open-source python-office library, focused on sharing practical Python and AI tips.
My personal website: https://www.python4office.cn — feel free to visit.
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