Developer shares blueprint for free LLM access using 9router and Freebuff

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A developer has published a technical guide detailing how to access large language models for free by combining two tools: Freebuff and 9router. Freebuff provides free access to models like GPT-3.5-turbo and Llama3 through an OpenAI-compatible API, while 9router acts as a local proxy that manages authentication and token handling. The setup uses an OAuth device code flow, where users authorize access via a browser and 9router then automatically manages token storage, expiry, and refresh. The goal is to reduce API costs for non-critical tasks, development environments, and experimental AI agents without changing existing OpenAI client code. The author notes this approach is not intended to replace paid APIs entirely but to enable smarter, cost-conscious routing between free and paid tiers.

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