Free AI with Ollama Cloud — No Credit Card Required

Introduction

Want to use powerful AI models for free? Ollama Cloud offers premium models at no cost — no credit card, no subscription. This guide shows you exactly how to set it up with OpenClaw.

What You Get for Free

Ollama Cloud provides these models completely free:

• MiniMax M2.5 — Fast, excellent for coding
• Kimi K2.5 — Multimodal reasoning
• GLM-5 — Reasoning and code generation
• And more models available directly from Ollama

Setup (5 Minutes)

Follow these exact steps:

1. Install OpenClaw (no onboarding)

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --no-onboard

2. Install Ollama

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

3. Start Ollama server

ollama serve &

4. Launch OpenClaw config

ollama launch openclaw --config

You'll see a list of available models. Select one of these free cloud models:

• minimax-m2.5:cloud
• kimi-k2.5:cloud
• glm-5:cloud

5. Start the gateway

openclaw gateway &

6. Start chatting

openclaw tui

That's it! You're now using premium AI models for free.

Your Config

After setup, your openclaw.json will look like this:

{
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "ollama": {
        "baseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:11434",
        "apiKey": "ollama-local",
        "api": "ollama",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "minimax-m2.5:cloud",
            "name": "minimax-m2.5:cloud",
            "reasoning": true,
            "contextWindow": 204800,
            "maxTokens": 128000
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "ollama/minimax-m2.5:cloud"
      }
    }
  }
}

Why This Works

• Ollama Cloud provides these models free — no credit card needed
• OpenClaw connects to your local Ollama instance
• Everything runs through http://127.0.0.1:11434
• API key is simply "ollama-local"

Available Free Models

Troubleshooting

Not seeing cloud models?

ollama signin
ollama pull minimax-m2.5:cloud

Gateway not starting?

openclaw gateway restart

Conclusion

Premium AI doesn't have to cost anything. With Ollama Cloud + OpenClaw, you get access to top-tier models for free. No credit card, no subscription, just AI.

Try it now.