Is Jev Free? Free Tiers and Trials for the Jev API
Last checked · Independent guide, not affiliated with TypeSafe AI
Mostly not. TypeSafe, OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway all charge $0.042 per million input tokens and nothing for output; Vercel's free launch promotion ended on September 25, 2026. The remaining no-cost routes are Vercel's $5 monthly free-tier credit (card required, heavily throttled) and OpenCode Zen's limited-time jev-1.13-free model.
Jev has one unusual pricing rule that makes it cheap even when it is not free: output tokens cost nothing. You pay only for the text you send in. Beyond that, whether you can use it for free depends on where you call it.
Free options by channel (as of September 25, 2026)
Section titled “Free options by channel (as of September 25, 2026)”| Channel | Free? | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| TypeSafe API | No published free tier or trial | New signups paused since Sep 22, 2026; $0.042 per million input tokens |
| Vercel AI Gateway | No longer free per token; $5/month free-tier credit per team | The free Jev promotion ended Sep 25, 2026; a card must be on file; free-tier requests are heavily throttled |
| OpenRouter | No | Needs prepaid credits; $0.042 per million input tokens, $0 output |
| OpenCode Zen | Yes, jev-1.13-free, for a limited time |
Needs an OpenCode Zen account and API key; no end date announced |
| Cloudflare | Not stated | Billed from prepaid AI Gateway credits; price only shown in the dashboard |
The Vercel route in practice
Section titled “The Vercel route in practice”Jev itself is no longer free on Vercel, but the $5 of monthly credit every team gets on the free tier still pays for thousands of Jev requests. It comes with two conditions. First, the Vercel team needs a payment card on file; without it, calls fail with customer_verification_required. You do not have to buy credits. Second, free-tier requests are rate-limited per model. In our testing, a batch of 131 questions took about an hour and a half because Vercel let a few through at a time.
Do not buy credits just to lift the limit unless you mean to: Vercel’s pricing docs say that purchasing credits moves the team to the paid tier and ends the monthly free credit. Step-by-step setup: Jev on Vercel AI Gateway.
The OpenCode Zen free model
Section titled “The OpenCode Zen free model”OpenCode Zen, the model gateway behind the OpenCode coding agent, lists two Jev models: jev-1.13 at the standard $0.042 per million input tokens, and jev-1.13-free, which OpenCode says is available “for a limited time”. Both take TypeSafe’s request format at https://opencode.ai/zen/v1/systemone with an OpenCode Zen API key. OpenCode has not said when the free model ends, so do not build anything that depends on it.
How much does Jev cost if you pay?
Section titled “How much does Jev cost if you pay?”Very little per request. A short customer message with three questions used 451 input tokens in our test, which is about $0.000019. One dollar covers roughly 50,000 requests of that size. A 26,000-token document costs about a tenth of a cent per call. Details and more examples: Jev API pricing.
Is there a free trial on TypeSafe itself?
Section titled “Is there a free trial on TypeSafe itself?”TypeSafe’s website and documentation do not advertise a free trial or free credits as of September 25, 2026. A few articles written during the short open-signup window (September 20 to 22) mention $5 of starting credit for new accounts; TypeSafe has not documented this, and new signups are paused anyway. The console includes a Playground for trying questions in the browser; TypeSafe does not say whether Playground calls are billed.
Free ways to experiment without Jev
Section titled “Free ways to experiment without Jev”- Open-source lookalikes. Several community projects imitate Jev’s interface with small open models you can run yourself. They are not Jev and their quality claims are their own. See Jev alternatives.
- TypeSafe’s own adapter. TypeSafe publishes an open-source Python package that answers the same Noul, Choice and Score questions using an LLM from OpenAI or Anthropic instead of Jev. It is meant for comparing the two, and you still pay the LLM provider.
Bottom line
Section titled “Bottom line”If you want zero cost, Vercel’s monthly free credit and OpenCode Zen’s limited-time free model are the routes left, and both have catches. If you just want low cost, any channel works: at Jev’s prices, most prototypes spend less than a dollar.