Models

Free models

Run Codey with no API key and no model bill.

Codey ships a route into the workspace that costs nothing: a group of free models in the model picker, reachable without a key. Install, sign in if you want to, and start a session before you have connected a single provider.

#Where they are

Pinned in the picker. The Free Models group sits at the top of the model list on Desktop and in /models in the TUI, and each model carries a Free tag.
Filterable in Settings. Models has a Free filter and its own group, so you can turn visibility off per provider, per project, or globally.
Selectable from the CLI. codey models lists them alongside everything else; pin one in config as opencode/<model-id>.

#What counts as free

The free group is the zero-cost tier of the OpenCode Zen catalog — three dozen models today. Zen is the only provider Codey classifies this way: a model is free when Zen lists it at zero input cost.

Local is free too, and stays separate. A local endpoint or a local agent CLI bills you nothing per token, but it keeps its own place in the picker instead of joining the free group — the label is reserved for the no-key route.
No key means no choice of paid models. With nothing configured, Codey calls the Zen endpoint unauthenticated and hides every model it would charge for. Add OPENCODE_API_KEY and the paid Zen catalog appears beside the free one.

The endpoint is third-party. Free models are served from Zen, so prompts on this route leave your machine — nothing is stored by Codey either way. For a session that never leaves the box, point Codey at a local endpoint or set "offline": true.

#What still works

On a free model	Status
File and shell tools	read, write, edit, apply_patch, bash, glob, grep, webfetch — all of them
Web and code search	On by default for Zen, no environment flag needed
Sessions, skills, rules, MCP, scheduled tasks	Identical to any other model
Improve Prompt	Off — the rewriter runs on a provider you have keyed

#Free models are not the Free tier

Model choice answers who bills your tokens. Codey's tier answers what you can do with them. A Pro account on a free model keeps every Pro feature; a Free account on a paid model keeps none of them.

Tier	Covers
Free · forever	Any model you already pay for, local models, free models, 25 agent CLIs, core tools, skills, MCP servers you configure, sessions and threads, scheduled tasks, workbench, Desktop and CLI.
Pro · $10/mo	Autopilot, Workpilot, custom agents, Blueprint, the shared browser, design systems, and the built-in document servers — Docs, Sheets, PDF, Writer, Slides.

#Switch when you outgrow them