Best LLM APIs 2026

Hosted model APIs, studios, and local inference servers. We list 19 tools with researched pricing and features; 13 of them can be used for free.

How this list is ordered: Sorted by how much you can use for free (free or open source first, then free plan with paid tiers, then paid only), then by the number of documented features, then alphabetically. No ratings or reviews are used.

These lists are not benchmark scores; they follow the ordering above. How benchmark evidence is labeled

1. 1.

   MiniCPM-V 4.7

   Free and open source

   OpenBMB image-text-to-text model on Hugging Face. Transformers weights, multimodal, MoE.

   • Understands single images, multiple images, and video
   • Decodes 13+ tokens/s on iPhone 17 Pro Max in 3 GB
   • Supports mixed 4x and 16x visual token compression
   MiniCPM-V 4.7 alternatives
2. 2.

   NVIDIA NIM

   Free

   NVIDIA's catalog of inference microservices and trial APIs.

   • Run free inference on listed models through endpoints
   • Call pre-built skills from an agent
   • Start from blueprints with workflows and code samples
   NVIDIA NIM alternatives
3. 3.

   Cerebras

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   Wafer-scale inference for open models.

   • Runs inference up to 30 times faster than GPUs
   • Serves models in the cloud and on-premise
   • Trains, fine-tunes, and serves models on one platform
   Cerebras alternatives
4. 4.

   Hugging Face

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   Model hub, datasets, and hosted inference. Paid plans from $9/month.

   • Host unlimited public models, datasets, and applications
   • Browse 2M+ models, 1M+ apps, and 500k+ datasets
   • Call 45,000+ provider models through one API
   Hugging Face alternatives
5. 5.

   LM Studio

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   Desktop app for running local models with an OpenAI-compatible server. Paid plans from $20/month.

   • Create and edit documents, slides, PDFs, and software
   • Run coding tasks, automations, and computer control
   • Transcribe speech on-device in real time
   LM Studio alternatives
6. 6.

   Mistral

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   Mistral's model API and Le Chat product. Paid plans from $14.99/month.

   • Customize open-weight models on your data with Forge
   • Build and govern agents and applications in Studio
   • Run models on-prem, in your VPC, or Mistral's cloud
   Mistral alternatives
7. 7.

   Ollama

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   Local app for running open models on your own machine. Paid plans from $20/month.

   • Run open models locally on macOS, Windows, and Linux
   • Run open models in the cloud with usage credits
   • Local runs on your own hardware stay unlimited
   Ollama alternatives
8. 8.

   OpenRouter

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   One API that routes requests to many model providers.

   • Access over 500 models across more than 80 providers
   • Generate text, images, videos, and audio through one interface
   • Create an API key compatible with the OpenAI format
   OpenRouter alternatives
9. 9.

   Replicate

   Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

   API for running published models, including image and language models.

   • Run models through a cloud API in Node, Python, or HTTP
   • Fine-tune models using your own data
   • Deploy custom models packaged with Cog on dedicated hardware
   Replicate alternatives
10. 10.

    Together AI

    Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

    Inference and fine-tuning API for open models.

    • Serve open models on demand through inference APIs
    • Process async batch jobs up to 30 billion tokens
    • Reserve inference capacity with a 99% uptime SLA
    Together AI alternatives
11. 11.

    Workers AI

    Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

    Model inference inside Cloudflare Workers. Paid plans from $0.011 / 1,000 Neurons.

    • Run machine learning models on serverless GPUs
    • Call models from Workers, Pages, or the API
    • Use 50+ open-source models from the catalog
    Workers AI alternatives
12. 12.

    Anthropic Console

    Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

    Console and API for Claude models.

    • Create agents that use Claude models
    • Build applications on Claude models
    • Run agents on managed infrastructure
    Anthropic Console alternatives
13. 13.

    Vertex AI

    Freemium (free plan + paid tiers)

    Google Cloud platform for Gemini and other models.

    • Build agents and scale, govern, and optimize them
    • Deploy agents and applications
    • Offer sample code and notebooks
    Vertex AI alternatives
14. 14.

    DeepInfra

    Paid

    Hosted inference API for open models.

    • APIs for text, speech, image, music, and video models
    • Hourly on-demand rental of NVIDIA DGX B300 GPUs
    • Language models billed per token; others by runtime
    DeepInfra alternatives
15. 15.

    DeepSeek

    Paid

    DeepSeek's models and API.

    • Publishes open-source models DeepSeek-V4 and DeepSeek-R1
    • Chat on the web, in the app, and on desktop
    • API in OpenAI format and Anthropic format
    DeepSeek alternatives
16. 16.

    fal

    Paid

    Inference API aimed at image, video, and audio models.

    • Call 1,000+ image, video, audio, and 3D models via one API
    • Deploy your own or fine-tuned models on serverless GPUs
    • Train and fine-tune models on dedicated GPU clusters
    fal alternatives
17. 17.

    Fireworks AI

    Paid

    Inference platform for open models.

    • Train with a guided plan, your config, or custom RL code
    • Deploy each training checkpoint to production in seconds
    • Serve open or your own models on serverless or dedicated GPUs
    Fireworks AI alternatives
18. 18.

    SambaNova

    Paid

    Inference platform for open language models.

    • Inference and fine-tuning that fit existing data centers
    • OpenAI-compatible APIs for porting applications
    • Autoscaling, load balancing, monitoring, and model management
    SambaNova alternatives
19. 19.

    xAI API

    Paid

    API documentation for xAI's Grok models.

    • Generate and stream text with reasoning and structured outputs
    • Generate and edit images, including multi-image edits
    • Generate, edit, and extend video from images or text
    xAI API alternatives

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