Agentic Design

Patterns

Inference Providers

AI Inference Service Providers

Compare leading AI inference providers for cost, performance, and features. Choose the right provider based on your specific needs for latency, cost, and model availability.

Local / On-Device Providers

Run AI models locally on your hardware for maximum privacy, zero ongoing costs, and complete data control. Perfect for sensitive applications and offline environments.

Ollama

Easy-to-use local model serving with Docker-like simplicity

Key Features
Local deployment
Simple CLI
Model library
REST API
Pricing: Free (your hardware)
LM Studio

Desktop app for running LLMs locally with user-friendly interface

Key Features
GUI interface
Model management
Chat interface
API server
Pricing: Free
Jan

Open-source alternative to ChatGPT that runs 100% offline

Key Features
100% offline
Cross-platform
OpenAI compatible
Privacy-first
Pricing: Free (open-source)
GPT4All

Free-to-use, locally running, privacy-aware chatbot

Key Features
No GPU required
Privacy-aware
Easy setup
Multiple models
Pricing: Free
llamafile

Distribute and run LLMs with a single file executable

Key Features
Single executable
Cross-platform
No dependencies
Mozilla project
Pricing: Free (open-source)

Cloud Inference Providers

Managed AI inference services with scalable infrastructure, enterprise features, and API access. Pay-per-use pricing with global availability and automatic scaling.

OpenAI

Industry-leading AI models including GPT-4, GPT-3.5, and DALL-E

Key Features
GPT-4 Turbo
Function calling
Vision capabilities
Assistants API
Pricing: $0.01-0.06/1K tokens
Anthropic

Claude models focused on helpful, harmless, and honest AI

Key Features
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
200K context
Safety-focused
Constitutional AI
Pricing: $3-15/1M tokens
Google AI Studio

Gemini models with multimodal capabilities and long context

Key Features
Gemini Pro
1M token context
Multimodal
Code generation
Pricing: Free tier + usage
Together AI

High-performance inference with sub-100ms latency and strong privacy controls

Key Features
200+ models
Sub-100ms latency
11x more affordable
Privacy-focused
Pricing: Pay-per-token
OpenRouter

Inference marketplace routing traffic across 300+ models from top providers

Key Features
300+ models
Automatic failovers
Unified API
Competitive pricing
Pricing: Varies by model
Fireworks AI

Ultra-fast inference using proprietary optimization with multi-modal support

Key Features
4x lower latency
Multi-modal
HIPAA/SOC2
FireAttention engine
Pricing: Usage-based
Groq

Ultra-fast AI inference with custom Language Processing Units (LPUs) - industry-leading speed

Key Features
18x faster than GPUs
275 tokens/sec
0.14s TTFT
Sub-second responses
Hardware optimization
Pricing: Token-based
Replicate

Cloud platform for running open-source models with simple API

Key Features
1000+ models
Quick experiments
Pay-per-inference
Open-source focus
Pricing: Per-inference
Novita AI

Globally distributed inference with intelligent auto-scaling and cost efficiency

Key Features
50% cost savings
Global edge deployment
Auto-scaling
Multi-region
Pricing: Per-second billing
Perplexity AI

AI-powered search and reasoning with real-time information

Key Features
Real-time search
Reasoning models
Citation support
Fast inference
Pricing: $5/month Pro
Cohere

Enterprise-focused language AI with customization capabilities

Key Features
Command R+
RAG optimization
Enterprise security
Fine-tuning
Pricing: Usage-based
Mistral AI

European AI company offering efficient and powerful language models

Key Features
Mistral Large
Code generation
Function calling
Multilingual
Pricing: €0.25-2/1M tokens
xAI Grok

Elon Musk's AI model with real-time information access and open-source availability

Key Features
Real-time X integration
Grok-1 open-sourced
314B parameters
Mixture of Experts
Pricing: Subscription-based

Deployment Comparison

On Device Benefits
Privacy

100% private - data never leaves your device

Cost

Free after initial setup (your hardware)

Offline

Works without internet connection

Cloud Benefits
Performance

Latest models with optimized inference

Scalability

Handle any load without hardware limits

Maintenance

No setup, updates, or hardware management

Cloud Provider Performance (DeepSeek R1)
ProviderBest ForTTFTTokens/sec
GroqUltra-low latency0.14s275/s
Together AILarge-scale deployment0.47s134/s
FireworksMulti-modal tasks0.82s109/s
OpenAI GPT-4Best quality~1.5s~50/s
Novita AICost efficiency0.76s34/s

AI Inference Guide

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Core Concepts

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Deployment Options

3
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Tools & Services

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Advanced Topics

2
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