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SambaNova alternatives

Same shelf — models-api. Order: verdict first, then freshness. No sponsored spots.

Google AI Studio / Gemini API

ship

Gemini API with a real free tier — huge context, multimodal, generous limits.

freemiumfree tier (text models); paid from $0.75/1M input (Gemini 3.7 Flash promo till 2027-01)

Verified 2026-09-01

Anthropic API

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Claude models direct — the practitioner's pick for coding and long-form text.

paidpay-as-you-go, from $1/1M input (Haiku 4.5); small free credits for new users

Verified 2026-08-19

Cerebras

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Ultra-fast inference on wafer-scale AI accelerators with competitive API pricing.

freemiumfree trial ($5 credits); self-serve Developer from $10 deposit; Enterprise custom

Verified 2026-08-19

OpenAI API

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GPT-5 family and o-series reasoning models behind one API.

paidpay-as-you-go, from $0.20/1M input (GPT-5.6 Luna); GPT-5.6 Sol promotional $4/$20 at least through 2026-11-21 (list $5/$30); no free tier

Verified 2026-08-19

Qwen API

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Alibaba Cloud Model Studio API for text, code, image, audio, video and omni models with OpenAI compatibility.

paidQwen3.7 Max ~$1.48/$4.43 per 1M, Qwen3.6 Flash $0.19/$1.13 per 1M, Qwen-Image 2.0 ~$0.04/image; Token Plan and Coding Plan subscriptions available

Verified 2026-08-19

Baidu ERNIE API

situational

Enterprise AI platform with ERNIE LLMs, image models, and OpenAI-compatible v2 API.

paidERNIE 5.1 ≤32k ~$0.56/$2.54 per 1M, 32k-128k ~$0.85/$3.10; ERNIE 4.5 Turbo 32K/128K ~$0.11/$0.45; ERNIE X1.1 ~$0.14/$0.56; prices in CNY, USD approximate

Verified 2026-08-24

Hunyuan API

situational

Tencent Cloud TokenHub API for Hunyuan Hy3, image, video and 3D models (now Tencent Hy).

paidHy3 ~$0.14/$0.56 per 1M tokens (256K context) on TokenHub; Hunyuan 3D from ~1.8 yuan (~$0.27)/generation on TokenHub; older TurboS/T1 and HY2.0 lines retired June 2026

Verified 2026-08-24

StepFun API

situational

API for Step-2/Step-3 family of frontier MoE models from Shanghai.

paidStep 3.7 Flash ~$0.20/$1.15 per 1M; Step 3.5 Flash open-source $0.10/$0.30; Step-2 ~$0.83/$2.50; Step-2-mini ~$0.14/$0.42; Step-1.5V ~$0.42/$1.25; Step-R ~$1.11/$3.33

Verified 2026-08-24

Amazon Bedrock

situational

AWS-managed platform giving API access to hundreds of foundation models plus agents and guardrails.

paidPay-per-use per model/token; rate card varies by provider and modality. New AWS customers receive up to $200 in credits to try AWS AI.

Verified 2026-08-19

ByteDance Seed

situational

ByteDance Seed models served through Volcano Engine and BytePlus, including Seed 2.1 Pro/Turbo.

paidSeed 2.1 Pro approx $0.83/$4.17 per 1M (CNY ¥6/¥30), Seed 2.1 Turbo ~$0.42/$2.08; Doubao Pro 32K $0.11/$0.28; no official USD rate card, figures are conversions

Verified 2026-08-19

Cohere

situational

Enterprise-focused models — Command for generation, Rerank for retrieval.

freemiumfree trial keys (1,000 calls/mo); production API pay-as-you-go (Command from $1/1M input tokens)

Verified 2026-08-19

DeepSeek API

situational

Open-weights lab with frontier-ish reasoning at disruptive prices.

paidno free API tier; V4 Flash peak $0.44 input (cache miss) / $0.014 cache hit / $1.32 output per 1M, V4 Pro peak $1.32 input / $0.044 cache hit / $3.96 output per 1M; off-peak 50% off (01:00–04:00, 06:00–10:00 UTC); effective 2026-08-16 16:00 UTC

Verified 2026-08-19

GLM API

situational

Zhipu AI's OpenAI-compatible API for GLM text, vision, image and video models, plus flat-rate coding plans.

paidGLM-5.3 (1M context) approx ¥8/¥28 per 1M and temporarily free as of scan; GLM-5.2 same; GLM-5.1 ¥6–8/¥24–28, GLM-5-Turbo ¥5–7/¥22–26, GLM-4.7-Flash free

Verified 2026-08-19

Google Vertex AI

situational

Google Cloud's ML and generative AI platform, now branded Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.

paidPay-as-you-go for models, compute, storage, and pipelines; new Google Cloud customers get $300 in credits. Agent Platform offers limited free tiers for agent compute, memory, and storage.

Verified 2026-08-19

Kimi API

situational

Moonshot OpenAI-compatible API — K3 1M context, K2.7 Code, pay-as-you-go after a $1 top-up.

paidno free API calls; K3 unlocked after ≥$1 top-up; K3 $0.30 cache-hit / $3 input / $15 output per 1M; K2.7 Code $0.19 / $0.95 / $4 per 1M; K2.6 $0.16 / $0.95 / $4

Verified 2026-08-19

Lambda

situational

Cloud GPU instances and API inference for training and deploying AI models.

paidpay-as-you-go GPU and API pricing

Verified 2026-08-19

MiniMax API

situational

MiniMax developer API for text, image, video, music and speech models; also powers Hailuo AI video.

paidMiniMax-M3 ≤512K context $0.30/$1.20 per 1M (promo 50% off list $0.60/$2.40), >512K 2× rate; M2.5 $0.30/$1.20 per 1M; Text-01 not listed on current API docs

Verified 2026-08-19

Mistral API (La Plateforme)

situational

European frontier lab — efficient models, open-weights options, EU hosting.

freemiumfree plan incl. $10/mo API credits; pay-per-token (Large 3: $0.50/$1.50 per 1M)

Verified 2026-08-19

Nebius

situational

AI cloud platform with GPU VMs and API access to open models.

paidpay-as-you-go; from $0.40/1M tokens for smaller models

Verified 2026-08-19

xAI API

situational

Grok models via API — strong reasoning, X integration, big context.

paidpay-as-you-go; Grok 4.6 $2/$6 per 1M

Verified 2026-08-19

01.AI Yi API

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Self-serve Yi API platform is shutting down; open-weight Yi models remain on HuggingFace.

paidyi-lightning ¥0.99/1M (~$0.14) and yi-vision-v2 ¥6/1M (~$0.85), 16K context; new signups/top-ups closed 2026-08-03, API calls end 2026-09-03

Verified 2026-08-24

AI21

radar

Enterprise AI platform with Jamba models, Maestro optimization, and agent execution strategies.

freemiumNew accounts get a $10 credit for three months; usage is then charged per token monthly.

Verified 2026-09-01

Cloudflare Workers AI

radar

Serverless GPU inference for 50+ open-source models on Cloudflare's global network, with free and paid plans.

freemiumPay-for-what-you-use per-token/neuron rates; a free plan is available with limits.

Verified 2026-09-01

Crusoe Cloud

radar

AI cloud platform for managed inference, serverless fine-tuning, and self-serve GPU deployments.

paidServerless inference from $0.03–$4.40 per 1M tokens; GPU instances from $2.00–$4.29/GPU-hr; fine-tuning from $0.40–$10.00 per 1M tokens.

Verified 2026-09-01

DeepInfra

radar

Serverless inference cloud for 100+ open-source LLMs, embeddings, image, video, and speech models.

paidPay per token with model-specific rates shown on model cards; private deployments on A100/H100/H200/B200/B300 billed per GPU-hour.

Verified 2026-09-01

FriendliAI

radar

Frontier AI inference cloud with fast model APIs, dedicated endpoints, and container deployments.

paidModel APIs from $0.03–$4.40 per 1M tokens; dedicated endpoints from $2.90–$12.00/GPU-hr; container pricing is contact sales.

Verified 2026-09-01

Hyperbolic

radar

Open-access AI cloud for on-demand GPUs and pay-as-you-go serverless inference with OpenAI-compatible APIs.

paidServerless text inference from $0.10–$4.00 per 1M tokens; dedicated GPU hosting billed hourly by GPU type.

Verified 2026-09-01

Novita AI

radar

AI-native cloud with serverless APIs for 200+ text, image, audio, and video models plus dedicated endpoints.

paidUsage-based per-token, per-image, and per-second rates for 200+ models; dedicated endpoints priced separately.

Verified 2026-09-01

RunPod

radar

Serverless GPU cloud for deploying containerized inference endpoints that scale from zero to production.

paidServerless GPU workers from $0.58/hr to $9.98/hr, metered per second; pods and clusters billed hourly.

Verified 2026-09-01

Snowflake Cortex

radar

Managed LLM, RAG, and AI functions inside the Snowflake data cloud, priced in AI Credits.

paidAI Credits at $2.00 (global) or $2.20 (regional) per credit; features billed per million tokens, pages, or GB-month.

Verified 2026-09-01

Upstage

radar

Enterprise AI platform with Solar LLM, document parsing, and information extraction APIs.

freemiumEvery agent includes 10 free runs; prepaid commitment tiers start at $100/month; per-page and per-step billing.

Verified 2026-09-01

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