SambaNova

What is SambaNova?

SambaNova offers AI inference built on its own Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chip. Its developer product, SambaCloud, is a hosted API for large open-source models such as DeepSeek, Llama, Qwen, Gemma and gpt-oss, with speeds that SambaNova says are benchmarked by Artificial Analysis. The endpoints are OpenAI compatible, so moving from another provider means setting your API key and base URL and choosing a model. SambaNova states it does not see or collect your prompts, and lists integrations with CrewAI, Hugging Face, Cline and AWS. Automatic prompt caching lowers the cost of repeated prefixes on MiniMax-M3. For organizations that run their own deployments, SambaStack applies optional rate limits set by an administrator. Pricing is pay-as-you-go per million tokens; for example gpt-oss-120b costs 0.22 USD per million input tokens and 0.59 USD per million output tokens. A free tier works without a payment method, and Enterprise adds higher limits.

Use cases

• Call open-source LLMs through an OpenAI-compatible API
• Run low-latency inference for AI applications
• Switch from another inference provider
• Cut costs on repeated prompts with caching
• Power agent frameworks like CrewAI
• Deploy models on your own SambaStack systems

Who it's for

• AI developers
• ML engineers
• Enterprise AI teams
• Startups building LLM apps

Why use SambaNova

• OpenAI-compatible endpoints let you move existing code by changing the API key, base URL and model name.
• Open-source models run on dedicated RDU hardware aimed at high throughput and low latency.
• Per-token pricing is published for each model, so costs are easy to estimate.
• Cached input is priced below regular input, for example $0.03 versus $0.30 per 1M tokens on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash.
• SambaNova states it never sees or collects your prompts or data.

SambaNova features

• OpenAI-compatible API endpoints
• Open-source models: DeepSeek, Llama, gpt-oss, Gemma, MiniMax
• Production and Preview model tiers
• Automatic prefix caching for MiniMax-M3
• Rate limit headers on every response
• Pay-as-you-go credits billed per million tokens
• Support for text, image and audio models
• Integrations with CrewAI, Hugging Face, Cline and AWS
• SambaStack deployments with administrator-set rate limits

SambaNova integrations

• CrewAI
• Hugging Face
• Cline
• AWS
• OpenAI SDK

How to get started with SambaNova

1. Create a SambaCloud account and get an API key; add a payment method to move from the free tier to the Developer tier.
2. Set OPENAI_API_KEY to your SambaNova key and point the base URL at SambaCloud.
3. Choose a model such as DeepSeek, Llama or gpt-oss-120b.
4. Send requests and read the rate limit headers to track usage.
5. Contact sales for production rate limits, Enterprise features or SambaStack deployments.

SambaNova limitations

• Free tier is limited to 20 requests per minute, 20 requests per day and 200000 tokens per day per model
• Developer tier accounts are capped at 20M tokens per day across all models
• Preview models are for experimentation only, run with limited capacity, and can be withdrawn with little warning
• Prompt caching applies only when the shared prefix reaches 4096 tokens

SambaNova pricing

Yes, SambaNova has a free plan.

SambaNova plans

• Free

  $0

  no payment method linked

  • Pay-as-you-go credits available
  • Access to Production models
  • Community support

• Developer

  Pay as you go

  per million tokens

  • Standard rate limits
  • Payment method linked
  • gpt-oss-120b: 0.22 USD input, 0.59 USD output per 1M tokens

• Enterprise

  Custom

  subscription based pricing for larger usage

  • Production rate limits
  • All Production and Preview models
  • Standard support
  • Optional On Request models, BYOC and custom rate limits

Plans as listed on the official pricing page on 24 Oct 2026. Prices can change and may vary by country or exclude tax. Check the official pricing page.

SambaNova alternatives

The main SambaNova alternatives listed on Debuly are Groq, Cerebras, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Baseten and OpenRouter. The table compares pricing and platforms; order is A–Z.

1. 

   Baseten

   Inference platform for deploying open-source, custom and fine-tuned AI models, with per-token Model APIs and dedicated GPUs.

   Developer platforms
   PaidVisit Baseten (official site)
2. 

   Cerebras

   Inference cloud and API running open models on wafer-scale chips, with a free tier, pay-per-token Developer plan and coding plans.

   Developer platformsCoding
   FreemiumVisit Cerebras (official site)
3. 

   Fireworks AI

   Inference and training platform for open models: pay-per-token serverless APIs, GPU deployments, fine-tuning and reserved capacity.

   Developer platformsCodingAutomation and agents
   PaidVisit Fireworks AI (official site)
4. 

   Groq

   GroqCloud inference API that serves open models such as GPT-OSS and Whisper on Groq's LPU hardware, billed per token.

   Developer platformsAudio and voiceCoding
   FreemiumVisit Groq (official site)
5. 

   OpenRouter

   Unified OpenAI-compatible API for 500+ AI models with provider fallbacks, pay-as-you-go credits and a free tier

   Developer platformsChat assistantsAutomation and agents
   FreemiumVisit OpenRouter (official site)
6. 

   Together AI

   AI cloud for running open-source models through serverless and batch inference, dedicated endpoints, GPU clusters and fine-tuning.

   Developer platformsCoding
   PaidVisit Together AI (official site)

SambaNova FAQ

Sources & verification

Facts on this page come from the official sources below, each with the date we read it. Written by Debuly; the vendor did not review this page.

Image credits

• Logo: from sambanova.ai · fetched 24 Oct 2026 · Vendor trademark, used only to identify the product; removed on request
• Cover: none collected yet, so a generated tile is shown.

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