free-ride

name	free-ride
description	Free model fallback via OpenRouter. Use when: (1) primary API key is exhausted or rate-limited, (2) user wants to minimize costs, (3) background/low-priority tasks that don't need frontier models. Provides a ranked list of free models on OpenRouter sorted by capability.

Free Ride — OpenRouter Free Model Fallback

Use OpenRouter's free model tier as a fallback when paid APIs are unavailable or for low-priority tasks.

Setup

1. Get a free API key at https://openrouter.ai/keys
2. Add to your environment (already configured in ~/.openclaw/.env):

   OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-xxxxx
   

   Status: CONFIGURED

Free Models (ranked by capability, March 2026)

Model	Context	Speed	Best For
deepseek/deepseek-chat:free	128k	Fast	General chat, Chinese
google/gemma-3-27b-it:free	96k	Fast	Reasoning, multilingual
mistralai/mistral-small-3.1-24b-instruct:free	96k	Fast	Code, instruction following
qwen/qwen3-32b:free	40k	Medium	Chinese, general
meta-llama/llama-4-scout:free	512k	Medium	Long context
google/gemini-2.5-pro-exp-03-25:free	1M	Slow	Complex reasoning

OpenRouter Config for OpenClaw

Add as a provider in openclaw.json (manual edit recommended):

{
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "openrouter_free": {
        "baseUrl": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
        "apiKey": "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY",
        "api": "openai-completions",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "deepseek/deepseek-chat:free",
            "name": "DeepSeek Chat (Free)",
            "api": "openai-completions",
            "reasoning": false,
            "input": ["text"],
            "cost": {"input": 0,      
             
             
          
        
      
    
  

Usage Strategy

• Add openrouter_free/deepseek-chat:free as a fallback in agent model config
• Use for: background cron tasks, routine scans, simple classification
• Don't use for: complex reasoning, code generation, production-critical tasks
• Rate limits apply per model — spread load across multiple free models

Warning

Do NOT let OpenClaw auto-install this skill's config changes. Edit openclaw.json manually or use a coding agent to avoid breaking your existing provider setup.