cheapskate

name	cheapskate
description	Free-tier provider auto-rotation. Select cheapskate/auto as your model and it transparently routes to the best available free backend.
distribution	public

Cheapskate Mode

Select cheapskate/auto from the model picker. It transparently routes requests to the best available free-tier backend and rotates on rate-limit errors.

How it works

1. Appears as a model — cheapskate/auto shows up in the compose box model selector alongside your other models
2. Shows the active backend — the model name displays which provider is active: Free → Google Gemini / Gemini 2.5 Flash · $0
3. Rotates automatically — when a backend hits rate limits, it switches to the next available one before the next turn
4. Costs nothing — all backends are free-tier APIs

Setup

Set API keys as environment variables or in the keychain (all are free to obtain):

Provider	Env var / Keychain entry	Sign up
Google Gemini	GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY / google/generative-ai-api-key	aistudio.google.com/apikey
Cerebras	CEREBRAS_API_KEY / cerebras/api-key	cloud.cerebras.ai
Groq	GROQ_API_KEY / groq/api-key	console.groq.com/keys
SambaNova	SAMBANOVA_API_KEY / sambanova/api-key	cloud.sambanova.ai

Only backends with a configured API key are available. Any subset works — even a single provider.

Free-tier backends

Provider	Model	Context	Reasoning	Free limits
Google Gemini	Gemini 2.5 Flash	1M	✅	10 RPM, 250K TPM, 1M TPD
Cerebras	Qwen 3 235B	131K	✅	30 RPM, 60K TPM, 1M TPD
Groq	QwQ 32B	131K	✅	30 RPM, 15K TPM, 500K TPD
SambaNova	DeepSeek R1	65K	✅	10 RPM, 100K TPM

Usage

Select the model

Pick cheapskate/auto from the model selector in the compose box or settings. The compose box shows the active backend:

cheapskate/auto — Free → Google Gemini / Gemini 2.5 Flash · $0

When the backend rotates (e.g. after a rate limit), the display updates:

cheapskate/auto — Free → Cerebras / Qwen 3 235B · $0

Management tool: cheapskate

Action	What it does
cheapskate action=status	Show configured/available backends and active backend
cheapskate action=list	List all backends with models, limits, and availability
cheapskate action=usage	Show current rate-limit consumption per backend
cheapskate action=rotate	Force rotation to the next available backend

Automatic rotation

• Before each turn: picks the best available backend (least recently used, then largest context)
• On rate-limit error (429): rotates to next backend with exponential backoff (30s → 5min max)
• At 90% of any limit (RPM/TPM/TPD): backend marked unavailable for rotation
• Tracking resets: per-minute counters reset every 60s, daily counters every 24h

Quality ranking

Use case	Best backend	Why
General coding	Google Gemini 2.5 Flash	Largest context (1M), strong reasoning
Complex reasoning	SambaNova DeepSeek R1, Groq QwQ 32B, OpenRouter DeepSeek R1	Dedicated reasoning models
Fast iteration	Cerebras Qwen 3 235B	~2000 tok/s inference speed
Most models via one key	OpenRouter	Aggregates free models from many providers
Budget fallback	Any — all are $0	Rotate through all six

Notes

• Free tiers change frequently — backend definitions are hardcoded and should be updated when tiers change
• Quality varies between backends — Gemini 2.5 Flash and Cerebras Qwen 3 235B are the strongest for coding
• The extension uses pi.registerProvider() to register the cheapskate provider and compat.modelId to map the virtual auto model to the backend's actual model ID
• Each turn start re-registers the provider with the current best backend's URL and API key
• The tool is also available as a bundled extension in the piclaw monorepo for immediate availability without installing the addons package