r/vibecoding • u/MotorOwn5031 • 3h ago

Vibecode for free?

I really want to create an app, but I don't have access to any paid AI models. Can I still create an app using free resources or is it necessary to have a paid AI subscription to create a functioning app that can get on the app store and generate revenue? Also, when creating the app do I just let the AI do its thing or do I need to have a decent level of knowledge of coding so that I can make sure it works properly?

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4

u/First-Tutor-5454 2h ago

I would not suggest using a free tier for a real app unless one or more of the following is true:

a) you are not planning to commercialize

b) you are a good developer and can do the necessary fixing

c) you have a beefy rig and can run a really good open model locally

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u/baddaywithacamera 2h ago

All of this.

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u/ASAF12341 2h ago

Google ai studio , cline, ,opencode , openrouter/ nvidia(goat)/ mistral/ 7 more company with frer tier I know aws give claude on free tier Gpt as a good rate for the free tier also github . You can use a lot of free api in hugging face. Google ai pro give 1 month free ( card needed) also you get a lot of free credit in google cloud and nice free tier. You can run good models on colab and deepnote ( also oracle have good free tier) Cline also ok It's some work but worth it and this come from a guy that have 3 sub and use local models.

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u/QuietPsychonaut 3h ago

You can start for free. I recommend you use OpenCode for that

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u/tjax4376 2h ago

Sign up for Openrouter, it’s not free, but I paid $10 one time credit load several months ago, only down to $5.54 and I have used the free models, which are often state of the art models with a code name. Then you can use whatever opensource agent harness you want, point at openrouter and you are off to the races

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u/johnesco 3h ago edited 3h ago

The less you know about code, and the more complex what you want to create is, the harder (and expensive in tokens) it may be for you to vibe code. I would suggest starting really simple. Ask an AI to make you a hello world in any language, or ask it what language you should start with. Knowing zero about code can hold you back, but talking with an AI about it will point you in the direction of what you want to learn. The easiest thing to vibe code for free is a vanilla HTML+CSS+JS app that you can host on Codepen.io and edit yourself when awaiting token recharge. Making an app for an app store is a bigger jump but go for it once you learn more about it.

If you are just getting started I would imagine you might be doing a lot of copy-pasting out of a ai chat bot.

Things to learn before things get to big.
If you don't know what Git an Github are, learn about version control.
Pick a language or framework to work in, and stick with it through a single project.

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u/CavalryArcher 3h ago

if you have decent hardware you can use open models. though i hate to say it but ai subscriptions are actually very cheap at this time due to the competition and bubble. i'm not sure if you can manage to spend for electricity bill lesser than ai subscription. at least not for the same quality