Best LLM Inference APIs & Model Hosting in 2026
Inference platforms let you run open and custom models without owning GPUs — billed per token or per second of compute. The best pick depends on whether you want raw speed, the widest model catalog, or full control over deployment.
If you're building on open-weight models, an inference API saves you from managing GPUs. The field splits into a few styles.
For speed, Groq stands out — its custom LPU hardware makes agents, voice, and chat feel noticeably snappier. For breadth and price, Together AI and Fireworks AI host large catalogs of open models at competitive per-token rates with fast serving. OpenRouter is the aggregator: one API key routes to hundreds of models across providers, with automatic fallback and transparent pricing. For running any model or custom code, Replicate (pay-per-second, huge community catalog, strong for generative media), Baseten, and Modal give you flexible deployment, while Anyscale (from the creators of Ray) targets large-scale distributed workloads.
Pick based on your priority: Groq for latency, Together or Fireworks for cheap open-model tokens, OpenRouter to avoid lock-in, and Baseten/Modal/Replicate when you need to deploy your own models. Most offer free credits, so it's cheap to benchmark on your actual workload — and you can compare token costs on our LLM cost calculator.
Very fast LLM inference on custom LPU hardware.
Inference, fine-tuning, and GPU clusters for open models.
