  We show that the free energy at low temperatures for near-extremal black
holes is correctly obtained from the Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) model of gravity.
Our arguments apply to all black holes, including rotating ones, whose metric
has a near-horizon $\mathrm{AdS}_2$ factor and the associated
$\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ symmetry. We verify these arguments by explicit
calculations for rotating black holes in $4$ and $5$ dimensions. Our results
suggest that the JT model could prove useful in analysing the dynamics of
near-extremal Kerr black holes found in nature.
