The AI price war is brutal. In the first half of 2026 alone, 8 new platforms have entered the market competing for users with free tier offers that keep getting more generous.

August 2026 Guide to Free AI Compute Platforms (8 New Platforms Tested)

The AI price war is brutal. In the first half of 2026 alone, 8 new platforms have entered the market competing for users with free tier offers that keep getting more generous.

This article skips the fluff. All 8 platforms were personally researched — I visited each official website, registered, checked quotas, and verified supported models. Data current as of July 14, 2026.

1. Baidu Qianfan — 1 Million Tokens Per Model

What makes Baidu Qianfan stand out is its "per-model independent quota" model. Most platforms pool all tokens together — once it's gone, it's gone. Qianfan works differently: ERNIE-4.5 gets 1M, DeepSeek-R1 gets another 1M, Qwen gets yet another. One account, multiple pools.

Free tier: 1 million tokens per model, valid for 3 months.

Supported models fall into two categories. Self-developed: ERNIE-4.5-Turbo and ERNIE-X1-Turbo. Third-party: DeepSeek lineup (R1, V3, V3.1 with Think variant), Tongyi Qwen Qwen3 (235B, 30B, Coder editions), Kimi-K2-Instruct, plus bge-large embedding models.

Best for: Developers and researchers who need to compare multiple models. One account covers all mainstream options.

2. National Supercomputing Platform — State-backed, 10M Tokens Free

The name alone says it all. China National Supercomputing Internet, operated under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. New users get 10 million tokens free upon registration. No complicated verification hoops.

Supported models are all current flagship tier: MiniMax-M2.5, DeepSeek-V3.2, Qwen3-235B-A22B, DeepSeek-R1-0528. These are all models released in the last few months, not old models being recycled.

Best for: Developers who value stability and compliance. State-owned background means the platform won't disappear overnight. 10M tokens is enough for a full round of model evaluation.

3. China Telecom AI — 25M Tokens from a Telecom Giant

China Telecom's Tianyi AI open platform is built on their self-developed TeleChat models. New users get 25 million tokens trial package (claim via the "Xirang Computing" section). Valid for 1 to 3 months.

25M sounds modest compared to some, but among free platforms it ranks near the top. Zhipu gives 20M, SiliconFlow gives 20M. Telecom gives 25M, plus the advantage of China Telecom's network infrastructure — low latency, stable connections, domestic servers.

Best for: Enterprise project developers, or anyone who values network stability. State-owned enterprise background means compliance is guaranteed.

4. Meituan LongCat — 55M Tokens Refresh Daily

Most free platforms give you a one-time bonus. Meituan LongCat is different — it refreshes daily.

Up to 55 million tokens refreshed every day. That's not a one-time grant, that's a daily reset. 55M tokens translates to roughly 6,000 to 10,000 GPT-4o-equivalent calls per day (assuming ~5,000-8,000 tokens per 2,000-word document). The platform is fully OpenAI-compatible, so existing code works without modification.

Supports lightweight dialogue, deep reasoning, and video avatar capabilities.

Best for: Individual developers and small teams needing long-term free access. This quota is genuinely usable for sustained development.

5. Infini-AI (Wu Wen Xin Qiong) — AMD Partnership, Billions of Free Tokens

Infini-AI partners with AMD China on cloud-edge-device full-spectrum model inference. Their free tier includes billions of tokens in free quota plus free GenStudio LLM API access. Supports GLM, Kimi, MiniMax and other mainstream models.

For heavy users, their Coding Plan starts at ¥19.9/month — the lowest regular monthly price in the coding subscription market. (iFlytek's ¥3.9 is a first-month trial price, not a regular price.)

They also offer ComfyUI cloud deployment for AI image generation — no local environment setup needed.

Best for: Budget-conscious developers and AI artists who want cloud ComfyUI.

6. Baishan Cloud AI — Global Edge Nodes, ¥450 Credit

Baishan Cloud takes a different approach: edge computing. Their AI services deploy on global edge nodes, meaning you get low-latency access regardless of location.

Registration plus real-name verification grants up to ¥450 in credit. What can ¥450 buy? Qwen-72B costs roughly ¥0.01 per 1,000 tokens — that's 450 million tokens. DeepSeek-R1 is pricier at roughly ¥0.03 per 1,000 tokens — still 150 million tokens.

Beyond API calls, they offer GPU containers (RTX 4090 from ¥2.3/hr), elastic computing, and bare metal rental.

Best for: Developers needing low-latency global access and teams requiring GPU compute.

7. PPIO — Decentralized Compute, ¥100K Startup Support

PPIO operates differently from traditional cloud providers. It's a decentralized compute infrastructure — aggregating idle GPUs and allocating them on demand.

Supports DeepSeek, Kimi, MiniMax, GLM APIs, compatible with both OpenAI and Anthropic standards. Works directly with Claude Code out of the box. Uptime is rated at 99.9%.

Their startup support program offers up to ¥100,000 for early-stage AI companies.

Best for: Startup teams, developers needing elastic compute, and Claude Code users.

8. China Mobile MoMA — State-Owned Compliance, One-Stop Platform

China Mobile's MoMA platform aggregates the Jiutian model alongside DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM and others. The state-owned enterprise background gives it strong compliance credentials.

Free tier requires checking after registration, as China Mobile's ToC and ToB quota policies differ. Personal users get trial quotas upon registration; enterprise users can apply for higher allocations.

Best for: Enterprise users requiring strict data security and compliance. China Mobile's credentials are among the strongest in China.

How to Choose

Quick recommendations:

Just want free, don't want to spend money: Register National Supercomputing Platform (10M) + Baidu Qianfan (1M per model, stacks) + Meituan LongCat (55M daily refresh). Combined, these cover most needs.

Need long-term stable access: Meituan LongCat's daily refresh is the most hassle-free option.

Low budget but high volume: Infini-AI's ¥19.9/month Coding Plan is the cheapest regular-priced option.

AI image generation: Infini-AI's ComfyUI cloud deployment lets you start immediately.

Startup team: PPIO's ¥100K startup support program is worth applying for.

Data current as of July 14, 2026. Platform policies may change at any time. Verify on official websites before signing up.