OpenAI's Agents API lets you spin up cloud-based AI agents with a single API call, handling long sessions, tool use, and parallel subagents on OpenAI's Codex harness. It has no free tier — pricing is based on token and tool usage, with specific rates not yet published — so if you want to try similar agent orchestration without a bill attached, the options below have real free tiers or are free entirely.
| Product | Free tier | Starts at | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Agents API | No | Not stated (usage-based) | Teams already on OpenAI's stack needing a managed cloud harness |
| orchagent | Yes (1,500 tool/150 agent runs/mo) | $29/mo (Pro) | Scheduled agent runs with room to scale into paid tiers |
| Cognitora | Yes | Free | Multi-agent research pipelines built on OpenAI's Agents SDK |
| Cloudcode | Yes | Free (waitlist) | Open-source cloud agent platform, early access |
| Agent OS by AIUtil | Yes | Free | Local-first review/memory workbench for coding agents |
| ClawCloud | Yes | Free to start | Per-agent isolated cloud containers |
| Run AI Agents on your cloud infrastructure | Yes (Starter, 5 seats) | Free (Scale/Enterprise: contact sales) | Running agents on your own infra without git worktrees |
| Orkestrai | Yes | Free | Visual canvas orchestration of coding agents, fully open-source |
orchagent
orchagent (site) lets you publish, schedule, and run AI agents in secure cloud sandboxes without setting up your own infrastructure. It suits teams that want a hosted runner with usage caps they can see up front. The free tier gives 1,500 tool runs and 150 agent runs per month; paid plans start at $29/month (Pro, 15,000 tool/1,500 agent runs) up to $99/month (Team). Limitation: the free tier's run limits are modest, so anything beyond light testing will likely need a paid plan quickly.
Cognitora
Cognitora (site) is an open-source multi-agent system where a Master Orchestrator delegates to specialized agents — Data Analyst, Statistician, Report Writer — each executing code to complete a workflow like analyzing e-commerce data. It's built using OpenAI's Agents SDK, so it's a fit for developers who want a working example of handoff-based orchestration rather than a replacement for OpenAI's models. It's free, with no pricing information published. Limitation: because it runs on OpenAI's SDK, you still depend on OpenAI's API underneath.
Cloudcode
Cloudcode (site) bills itself as an open source cloud agent platform for running agents without managing your own servers. It suits developers who want to inspect or modify the underlying agent runner rather than use a closed managed service. It's free, currently in early access with a waitlist, and no pricing has been published. Limitation: early-access status means the feature set and availability aren't fully settled yet, and there's no indication of what pricing (if any) comes later.
Agent OS by AIUtil
Agent OS (site) is an open-source, local-first desktop workbench for running, reviewing, and remembering work across AI coding agents. It suits developers who prefer keeping agent activity on their own machine rather than in a cloud sandbox. It's free to download, with no pricing listed. Limitation: it's a local desktop tool, not a cloud agent runner, so it doesn't replace OpenAI's Agents API for teams that specifically need hosted, sandboxed cloud execution.
ClawCloud
ClawCloud (site) runs each agent on its own isolated cloud container, aiming to give agents dedicated compute rather than sharing environments. It suits teams that want strict isolation between agent runs. It's free to start, with no pricing details published on the site. Limitation: with no stated pricing tiers or limits, it's unclear what happens once usage grows beyond a starting point.
Run AI Agents on your cloud infrastructure
Built by the Okteto team, this product (site) offers Agent Fleets — ephemeral, containerized environments for AI agents running on your own infrastructure, spun up with one click or API call. It suits teams already frustrated by local git worktrees and messy context switching. The free Starter tier covers up to 5 seats; Scale and Enterprise require contacting sales. Limitation: pricing beyond the free tier isn't published, so cost at scale is unknown until you talk to sales.
Orkestrai
Orkestrai (site) is an open-source (Apache 2.0) desktop app for orchestrating a team of AI coding agents on a visual canvas. It suits developers who want to see and arrange agent workflows visually rather than through code or API calls, and who prefer fully free, self-hosted software. It's free to download for macOS, Windows, and Linux with no pricing page at all. Limitation: it's a desktop app, not a cloud-hosted API, so it lacks the built-in managed sandboxes that OpenAI's Agents API provides.
How to choose
If you want something closest to OpenAI's managed cloud-sandbox model with a usage cap you can test against, start with orchagent's free tier. If you want to see a working multi-agent example built on OpenAI's own SDK, look at Cognitora. If you'd rather keep agents local or fully open-source with no cloud dependency, Agent OS or Orkestrai fit. If you're running agents on infrastructure you control, Okteto's Agent Fleets or ClawCloud are the closer match.
FAQ
Does OpenAI Agents API have a free tier? No — it has no free tier and charges based on token and tool usage at rates OpenAI hasn't published. Which alternatives are completely free? Cognitora, Cloudcode, Agent OS by AIUtil, and Orkestrai are listed as free with no pricing stated. Which alternatives offer a free tier plus paid plans? orchagent and Okteto's Agent Fleets are freemium, with free tiers and paid plans above them.