LLMEndpoint

Inference Providers

Hosted inference platforms for open and proprietary models, often optimized for speed, serverless GPU access, or dedicated deployments.

Short answer

Inference Providers are usually a strong fit for builders who want open model choice, fast inference, or infrastructure options without running their own GPUs. The main tradeoff is model availability, exact pricing, cold starts, and capacity can vary by provider and deployment mode.

7Providers in this category

First-pass shortlist for this landing page

5OpenAI-compatible routes

Useful for migration and fallback research

1Providers with tool calling listed

Relevant for agents and structured workflows

Start here if Inference Providers sound close to your need

Use these cues to decide whether this category belongs in the shortlist before you spend time comparing vendors inside it.

Strong fit when

Builders who want open model choice, fast inference, or infrastructure options without running their own GPUs.
You want cheaper, faster, or more flexible open-model infrastructure.

Wrong fit when

Model availability, exact pricing, cold starts, and capacity can vary by provider and deployment mode.
Your main priority is direct official vendor trust.

Best next action

Pick one speed-focused and one cost-focused option, then test the same workflow on both.

Who should use this category?

Builders who want open model choice, fast inference, or infrastructure options without running their own GPUs.

Common risks

Model availability, exact pricing, cold starts, and capacity can vary by provider and deployment mode.

How to Evaluate Inference Providers

Use this path to go from category research to a realistic shortlist.

Workflow

Find out whether Inference Providers fit your use case

Use the finder when you know the product job-to-be-done but are still unsure which provider type belongs in the shortlist.

Start with the use case

Workflow

Compare final candidates side by side

Move from broad category research to one-on-one comparisons once you have a shortlist of serious options.

Then compare finalists

Workflow

Model the real monthly cost

Estimate token spend only after you know which providers and model families are realistic contenders.

Validate the budget last

Providers

Compare the current dataset for this category.

Provider	Category	Supported models	OpenAI-compatible	Starting price	Context	Tool calling	Vision	Streaming	Status	Trust	Links
Together AI	Inference Providers	Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek-V4, Mistral	Yes	Often competitive for open models	Broad open-model range	No	Yes	Yes	Available	11/15	Review Docs Compare
Fireworks AI	Inference Providers	Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek-V4, Mistral	Yes	Competitive serverless tiers for open models	Broad open-model range, model specific	No	Yes	Yes	Available	11/15	Review Docs
Groq	Inference Providers	Llama, Mixtral, Gemma, Whisper-like speech models	Yes	Speed-oriented model tiers	Selected fast-serving model range, model specific	Yes	No	Yes	Available	11/15	Review Docs Compare
DeepInfra	Inference Providers	Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek-V4, Mistral	Yes	Often low for open models	Broad open-model range, model specific	No	Yes	Yes	Available	10/15	Review Docs Compare
Replicate	Inference Providers	open models, image models, audio models, video models	No	Runtime dependent	Model dependent	No	Yes	Yes	Available	10/15	Review Docs
Baseten	Inference Providers	custom models, open models	No	Deployment dependent	Model dependent	No	Yes	Yes	Available	10/15	Review Docs
Anyscale Endpoints	Inference Providers	open models, custom deployments	Yes	Unclear	Model dependent	No	No	Yes	Unclear	10/15	Review Docs