Get Free GLM-5.1 API Access for Powerful AI Coding (via Modal)
Looking for a high-performance LLM to supercharge your coding workflow — completely free? GLM-5.1, the latest flagship model from Z.ai (Zhipu AI), is now available through a generous free API endpoint hosted by Modal Research.GLM-5.1 stands out as a next-generation model optimized for agentic engineering and long-horizon tasks.
It delivers exceptional coding capabilities, strong reasoning, tool use, and sustained autonomous execution (up to several hours on complex projects). Benchmarks show it competing with or surpassing top models in software engineering tasks like SWE-Bench, repo generation, and real-world terminal workflows.
In this quick tutorial, we cover everything you need to get started:Sign up on Modal (easy with GitHub/Google)
- Access the dedicated GLM-5.1 free endpoint
- Generate your API key instantly
- Install the Python client and configure the base URL + model name (z-ai/glm-5-fp8 or similar)
- Integrate seamlessly with popular VS Code extensions like Continue (or KiloCode) for AI-assisted coding, chat, and agentic development
No heavy local hardware required — just plug in the API and start building. Perfect for prototyping, automation scripts, full-stack projects, or experimenting with advanced coding agents. The free tier gives you meaningful usage without a credit card in many setups, making it ideal for students, indie devs, and hobbyists.
