Baseten
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What is Baseten?
Baseten is an AI infrastructure platform that provides the Inference Cloud for deploying machine learning models in production environments. The platform focuses on high-performance inference, enabling companies to serve open-source, custom, and fine-tuned AI models on purpose-built infrastructure at massive scale. Baseten delivers the infrastructure, tooling, and expertise needed to bring performant AI products to market quickly, without requiring teams to build and manage complex hardware themselves.
Key features include Pre-optimized Model APIs for instant access to popular open-source models like DeepSeek, GLM, and Kimi; Dedicated Deployments for custom AI models with full GPU control; the Baseten Inference Stack with custom kernels and advanced caching; Training infrastructure for model fine-tuning; Baseten Chains for compound AI with granular hardware autoscaling; and Baseten Embeddings Inference (BEI) with 2x higher throughput. The platform offers blazing-fast cold starts, 99.99% uptime, OpenAI/Anthropic SDK compatibility, streaming responses, structured outputs, and tool calling capabilities.
Baseten is designed for highly technical audiences including machine learning engineers, data scientists, and developers building AI applications. It's ideal for companies with in-house MLOps teams that need to deploy complex open-source models at scale or serve their own custom AI models. Customer examples include Writer, Patreon, and Brain MAX, which are tech-savvy organizations requiring robust backend infrastructure for AI products.
Baseten pricing
Pricing model: Free
Basic plan: $0 per month, pay-as-you-go after $30 free credits for new accounts. Includes dedicated deployments, Model APIs, training, fast cold starts, SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance, email and in-app chat support. Model APIs priced per 1M tokens: NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra $0.60 input/$2.40 output, DeepSeek V4 $1.74 input/$3.48 output, GLM 5 $0.95 input/$3.15 output, GPT OSS 120B $0.10 input/$0.50 output. Dedicated Deployments priced per GPU minute: T4 $0.01052/min, L4 $0.01414/min, A10G $0.02012/min, A100 $0.06667/min, H100 $0.10833/min, B200 $0.16633/min. Pro plan: Volume discounts available, includes unlimited autoscaling, priority GPU access, dedicated compute, higher Model API rate limits, hands-on engineering expertise, dedicated Slack and Zoom support. Enterprise plan: Custom SLAs, self-host deployments, on-demand flex compute, existing cloud commitments, full data residency control, advanced security/compliance, custom global regions, advanced RBAC with Teams.
Baseten pros
- Fastest inference performance with custom kernels and advanced caching
- 99.99% uptime out of the box without extra configuration
- Blazing-fast cold starts for rapid model deployment
- Pay only for active compute time, no idle time charges
- OpenAI and Anthropic SDK compatibility for easy integration
- Access to cutting-edge GPUs including B200, H100, and A100
- Pre-optimized Model APIs for instant prototype development
- Dedicated deployments with full GPU control for custom models
- Baseten Embeddings Inference with 2x higher throughput than competitors
- Baseten Chains cuts latency in half for compound AI workflows
- SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant for enterprise security
- Streaming token-by-token responses for responsive chat UIs
- Self-hosted deployment option for work in your own VPCs
- Unlimited autoscaling on Pro plan with priority compute access
- Per-minute billing for GPU instances down to the minute precision
Baseten cons
- Requires significant technical expertise and MLOps team
- Not suitable for non-technical business departments
- Pay-as-you-go pricing creates unpredictable costs for budgeting
- No fixed monthly pricing makes cost forecasting difficult
- Must hire expensive ML engineers before using the platform
- Long 6-12 month setup timeline for business automation
- Higher management overhead compared to replica-hour pricing
- Volume discounts only available on Pro and Enterprise plans
- Self-hosting requires additional engineering resources
- Not a turnkey solution for immediate business problem-solving
Frequently asked questions about Baseten
What exactly is Baseten designed to do for companies working with AI?
Baseten is an AI infrastructure platform that helps companies deploy machine learning models into production environments. It provides the high-performance plumbing for running trained AI models, focusing on the inference stage to get predictions and answers efficiently without building and managing complex hardware themselves.
How does the pricing for Baseten typically work for pre-built and custom models?
Baseten operates on a pay-as-you-go model. For popular open-source models accessed via Model APIs, charges are based on per-million tokens processed (input and output). For custom model deployments via Dedicated Deployments, pricing is determined by per-minute usage of dedicated GPU or CPU instances, with no platform fee for Startup plan workspaces.
Which types of teams or organizations are the ideal users for Baseten?
Baseten is best suited for highly technical audiences including machine learning engineers, data scientists, and developers. It is designed for companies with in-house MLOps teams who are building their own AI applications or need to deploy complex open-source models at scale, such as Writer, Patreon, and Brain MAX.
Can a non-technical business department effectively use Baseten to automate tasks like customer support?
No, Baseten is an infrastructure platform requiring significant technical expertise to set up and manage. Business teams would need to hire expensive ML engineers and embark on a lengthy 6-12 month development project, making it impractical for direct, immediate business problem-solving without a dedicated technical team.
What are the key performance benefits companies can expect from using Baseten for AI inference?
Companies using Baseten can expect over 225% better cost-performance using NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, 2x improvement in throughput, time-to-first-token reduced by half, Baseten Embeddings Inference with 2x higher throughput and 10% lower latency than competitors, and Baseten Chains powering 6x better GPU usage while cutting latency in half.
How does Baseten differ from application-specific AI tools for solving business problems?
Baseten provides underlying infrastructure for technical teams to build and deploy AI products, requiring extensive engineering effort and custom model development. Application-specific tools are ready-to-use solutions designed to solve particular business problems immediately without complex MLOps or custom development, going live in minutes versus months.
What GPU instances are available on Baseten and what are their specifications?
Baseten offers T4 (16 GiB VRAM, 4 vCPUs), L4 (24 GiB VRAM), A10G (24 GiB VM), A100 (80 GiB VRAM, 12 vCPUs), H100 MIG (40 GiB VRAM), H100 (80 GiB VRAM, 26 vCPUs), and B200 (180 GiB VRAM, 28 vCPUs). CPU instances range from 1x2 (1 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM) to 16x64 (16 vCPUs, 64 GiB RAM).
Is Baseten secure and compliant for enterprise use?
Yes, Baseten is SOC 2 Type II certified and HIPAA compliant. Enterprise plans include advanced security and compliance features, custom SLAs, full control over data residency, advanced RBAC with Teams, and options for self-host deployments or custom global regions for extra security.
Do I pay for idle time when models are not actively making predictions?
No, you do not pay for idle time. You only pay for the time your model is using compute on Baseten, which includes active deployment time, scaling up or down, and making predictions. You have full control over how your model scales up or down to minimize costs.
Can I deploy Baseten in my own cloud infrastructure instead of Baseten Cloud?
Yes, Baseten offers self-hosted deployment options that let you run the platform in your own VPCs with low latency and high throughput. You can optionally go hybrid with on-demand flex capacity on Baseten Cloud. Enterprise plans include full control over data residency and custom global regions.