Groq free-tier models

The terms in full

Standing organization-level Free Plan with no usage charges and model-specific recurring rate limits. Free Plan table on 2026-10-06: openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, and qwen/qwen3.8-27b 30 RPM, 1K RPD, 8K TPM, 200K TPD; openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b 3 RPM, 1K RPD, 2K TPM, 200K TPD; meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-22m and meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-86m 30 RPM, 14.4K RPD, 15K TPM, 500K TPD; canopylabs/orpheus-arabic-saudi and canopylabs/orpheus-v1-english 10 RPM, 100 RPD, 1.2K TPM, 3.6K TPD; whisper-large-v3 and whisper-large-v3-turbo 20 RPM, 2K RPD, 7.2K audio seconds per hour, 28.8K audio seconds per day. Rate limits apply at the organization level rather than to individual users, and cached tokens do not count toward them. The page says the exact current limits are on the authenticated account Limits page; a valid payment method is needed only to upgrade to the Developer plan.

• When it runs out Requests are rejected (429) until the window resets.
• Clock Not stated by the provider. No fixed offer end date is stated
• Region No region restriction stated by the provider.

Models

Free Plan rate-limit table as of 2026-10-06: openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, qwen/qwen3.8-27b, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-22m, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-86m, canopylabs/orpheus-arabic-saudi, canopylabs/orpheus-v1-english, whisper-large-v3, and whisper-large-v3-turbo. Removed from the table since 2026-09-01: groq/compound, groq/compound-mini, and qwen/qwen3.6-27b. Removed from the table earlier, since 2026-08-25: llama-3.1-8b-instant, llama-3.3-70b-versatile, llama-4-scout, and llama-guard-4-12b.

Signup, payment, data

• Signup required; a GroqCloud account and API key are required
• Card / payment not required for the Free tier; a valid payment method is required only to upgrade to Developer tier
• Training Not stated by the provider.
• Data terms Groq says inference inputs and outputs are not retained by default, with limited retention for persistence features, reliability, or abuse monitoring, and offers zero data retention to all customers. The reviewed surface does not state whether any retained data is used for model training.

What the provider's page says

Every structured number above is backed by one of these quotes, checked verbatim against the page our crawler fetched. A field with no quote is shown as not stated.

• payment “To upgrade from the Free tier to the Developer tier, you'll need to provide a valid payment method (credit card, US bank account, or SEPA debit account).” source
• allowance “| openai/gpt-oss-120b | 30 | 1K | 8K | 200K | \- | \- |” source
• limits “| openai/gpt-oss-120b | 30 | 1K | 8K | 200K | \- | \- |” source
• at exhaustion “When you exceed rate limits, our API returns a `429 Too Many Requests` HTTP status code.” source

Evidence pages, re-read nightly

• https://console.groq.com/docs/rate-limits.md
• https://console.groq.com/docs/rate-limits
• https://console.groq.com/docs/billing-faqs
• https://console.groq.com/docs/quickstart
• https://console.groq.com/docs/your-data

Change history

1. 2026-10-06 Terms changed: Groq Groq free-tier models (free terms, models detail)
   • free terms Standing organization-level Free Plan with no usage charges and model-specific recurring rate limits. Free Plan table on 2026-10-06: openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, and qwen/qwen3.8-27b 30 RPM, 1K RPD, 8K TPM, 200K TPD; openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b 3 RPM, 1K RPD, 2K TPM, 200K TPD; meta-llam
   • models detail Free Plan rate-limit table as of 2026-10-06: openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, qwen/qwen3.8-27b, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-22m, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-86m, canopylabs/orpheus-arabic-saudi, canopylabs/orpheus-v1-english, whisper-large-v3, and whispe
2. 2026-10-05 Terms changed: Groq Groq free-tier models (free terms, models detail)
   • free terms Standing organization-level Free Plan with no usage charges and model-specific recurring rate limits. Free Plan table on 2026-10-05: openai/gpt-oss-120b and openai/gpt-oss-20b 30 RPM, 1K RPD, 8K TPM, 200K TPD; openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b 5 RPM, 1K RPD, 2K TPM, 200K TPD; qwen/qwen3.8-27b 30 RPM, 1K
   • models detail Free Plan rate-limit table on 2026-10-05: openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, qwen/qwen3.8-27b, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-22m, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-86m, canopylabs/orpheus-arabic-saudi, canopylabs/orpheus-v1-english, whisper-large-v3, and whisper-l
3. 2026-09-20 Terms changed: Groq Groq free-tier models (free terms, models detail)
   • free terms Standing organization-level Free Plan with no usage charges and model-specific recurring rate limits. Free Plan table on 2026-09-20: openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, and qwen/qwen3.8-27b 30 RPM, 1K RPD, 8K TPM, 200K TPD; meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-22m and -
   • models detail Free Plan rate-limit table as of 2026-09-20: canopylabs/orpheus-arabic-saudi, canopylabs/orpheus-v1-english, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-22m, meta-llama/llama-prompt-guard-2-86m, openai/gpt-oss-120b, openai/gpt-oss-20b, openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, qwen/qwen3.8-27b, whisper-large-v3, and whispe