Use an uncensored model in Aider

Sign up, then add credit: API keys work after your first top-up of $5 or more. A first top-up of $10 or more adds $5 of bonus credit.

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://unrestricted.sh/setup.sh)"

Run it in a terminal and approve the connection in your browser. It creates an API key for this machine, asks which tools to set up, and writes the Aider settings to ~/.aider.conf.yml, leaving the rest of that file as it was. It needs curl and Node 18 or newer.

Already have a key? Set UNRESTRICTED_API_KEY to it first and the browser step is skipped. Put UNRESTRICTED_TOOLS=aider in front of the command to set up only Aider.

This adds three settings to ~/.aider.conf.yml. Run it with UNRESTRICTED_API_KEY set and your shell fills in the key. Delete any openai-api-base, openai-api-key or model line already in the file first.

cat >> ~/.aider.conf.yml <<EOF
openai-api-base: https://api.unrestricted.sh/v1
openai-api-key: $UNRESTRICTED_API_KEY
model: openai/qwen3.8-27b-uncensored
EOF
chmod 600 ~/.aider.conf.yml

The model line makes Qwen3.8 27B Uncensored the model Aider starts with, and the openai/ prefix sends it through Aider's OpenAI-compatible provider. Run aider.

401 invalid_api_key

Missing or revoked API key.

402 insufficient_funds

Out of funds.

403 api_locked

Add funds once to unlock API keys.

429 concurrent_request_limit

Too many requests running on this account.

Every error the API returns is listed in the API reference.

Cached input: when your tool resends the start of a conversation, those tokens cost $0.10 per million instead of $1.00. Cached-input pricing applies to the API and coding tools; messages in the web chat pay the full input price.

A coding-agent turn with 60,000 tokens in, 55,000 of them cached, 1,500 out costs $0.015. The pricing page has every price and more examples.