Maximize free AI credits

Set up Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, and Ollama for zero- or low-cost Arka usage — with failover, key rotation, and token-saving routing.

New to Arka? Start here to stretch free LLM quotas and run locally when you can.

If you say arka free tier setup, Arka should route that to free_credits, not generic web_answer.

Natural language

arka how to get free ai credits
arka maximize free credits
arka free tier setup
how to use arka without paying
learn free ai providers

CLI

free_credits

Shows your configured providers, recommended .env settings, and verification steps.

Free providers (recommended stack)

Provider	Cost	Get a key
Gemini	Free tier	Google AI Studio
Groq	Free tier	Groq Console
OpenRouter	Free + paid models	OpenRouter
Ollama	Local — $0 API	ollama.com + ollama pull llama3.2:1b

Arka’s default failover chain tries Gemini Flash → Groq Llama → Ollama before other configured providers.

Step-by-step

1. Add keys to .env

Edit ~/.config/arka/.env (created by arka setup):

GEMINI_API_KEY=your_key
GROQ_API_KEY=your_key
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_key

Use at least one cloud key, or run Ollama locally for zero API cost.

2. Stretch quotas with backup keys

GEMINI_API_KEYS=key2,key3
GROQ_API_KEY_2=backup_key
API_KEY_ROTATION=1

On 429 rate limits, Arka rotates keys before switching providers.

3. Save routing tokens

ROUTE_MODE=symbolic
LLM_AUTO_FALLBACK=1

symbolic runs most skills locally; the LLM only classifies skill names — not full skill manuals.

4. Pick models for your hardware

arka select best model for my pc
select_model --apply

Or set a preferred fast model:

AI_PREFERRED_PROVIDER=gemini
AI_PREFERRED_MODEL=gemini-2.0-flash

5. Verify

arka setup
arka doctor
arka ai-models

Context7 and MCP

Context7 (CONTEXT7_API_KEY) is optional — it powers library-docs MCP lookup, not chat LLM calls. Skip it until you need live documentation search.

Related

• LLM concepts — providers and failover
• Select model — hardware-aware recommendations
• Operation modes — ROUTE_MODE reference