This date has passed. If it just broke for you, what to do is below.
criticalShutdown
MiniMax Free Model IDs on AI Gateway End Sept 6
- Announced
- 25 Aug 2026
- Effective
- passed 6 Sept 2026
- Source
- the vendor’s own page · last checked 3 Oct 2026
What breaks
After the free period ends, the free-tier model IDs will no longer function.
- Requests using minimax/minimax-m3-free will return an error
- Requests using minimax/minimax-m2.7-free will return an error
What to do
Switch to the standard model IDs before the free period ends to keep requests working.
- Use the standard model ID without the -free suffix (e.g. minimax/minimax-m3 instead of minimax/minimax-m3-free)
- Place GMI Cloud first in the provider order so AI Gateway tries it first and falls back to another provider if needed
- Note that requests outside the free GMI Cloud route are billed at the serving provider's rate
- For coding agents, run vercel ai-gateway coding-agents setup and select a -free model ID to use the free models there
Advice confirmed 3 Oct 2026
What the vendor said
Vercel's AI Gateway is offering MiniMax M3 and M2.7 free through GMI Cloud until Sunday, September 6. Requests using the minimax/minimax-m3-free or minimax/minimax-m2.7-free model IDs route to GMI Cloud at no cost during this window. After the free period, these specific model IDs stop working entirely.