Baseten
LLM 8.0/10Usage-based platform for hosting open-weight LLMs and custom models, with $30 in free credits for new workspaces and no platform fee.
Baseten scores 8/10 for free value in LLM. The main constraint: New workspaces receive a one-time $30 in free credits (no credit card required at signup) that apply to Model APIs and dedicated/ training compute on the usage-based Startup plan.
Free value score
8.0 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
Models
13 free · 87+ total| Model | Family | AA | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLM 5.2 | GLM | 51.1 | free |
| DeepSeek V4 | DeepSeek | 44.3 | free |
| Kimi K2.6 | Kimi | 42.8 | free |
| Kimi K2.7 Code | Kimi | 42 | free |
| GLM 5.1 | GLM | 40.2 | free |
| GLM 5 | GLM | 39.5 | free |
| Kimi K2.5 | Kimi | 38.1 | free |
| NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra | Nemotron | 37.8 | free |
| GLM 4.7 | GLM | 33.8 | free |
| GPT OSS 120B | GPT | 23.8 | free |
| DeepSeek V3 0324 | DeepSeek | 10.4 | free |
| NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super | Nemotron | — | free |
| Qwen3 Coder 480B | Qwen | — | free |
| GLM 4.7 Flash | GLM | 33.8 | paid |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | DeepSeek | 24.7 | paid |
| GLM 4.6 | GLM | 23 | paid |
| DeepSeek V3.1 | DeepSeek | 21.1 | paid |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 | DeepSeek | 20.1 | paid |
| Kimi K2 Thinking | Kimi | 19.4 | paid |
| GLM-4.5 Air | GLM | 16.5 | paid |
| GPT OSS 20B | GPT | 14.9 | paid |
| Llama 4 Maverick | Llama | 14.3 | paid |
| DeepSeek-R1 Distill Qwen 32B | DeepSeek | 11 | paid |
| Llama 4 Scout | Llama | 10 | paid |
| Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B | Nemotron | 9.1 | paid |
| DeepSeek Prover V2 671B | DeepSeek | — | paid |
| DeepSeek-R1 Distill Llama 70B | DeepSeek | — | paid |
| DeepSeek-R1 Zero | DeepSeek | — | paid |
| GLM-4.5V | GLM | — | paid |
| GLM-4.6V | GLM | — | paid |
| Kimi K2 Instruct (0905) | Kimi | — | paid |
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct | Llama | — | paid |
| Llama 3.3 Nemotron 49B Super | Nemotron | — | paid |
| Nemotron 3 Nano Omni | Nemotron | — | paid |
| NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano | Nemotron | — | paid |
| Qwen3 235B 2507 | Qwen | — | paid |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B | Qwen | — | paid |
| Qwen3 Next 80B A3B (Instruct & Thinking) | Qwen | — | paid |
| Qwen3 VL 235B | Qwen | — | paid |
| Qwen3.5 / Qwen3.6 series (4B-122B) | Qwen | — | paid |
Showing first 13 of a larger catalog.
What you get
$30 in free credits for every new workspace, no credit card needed to sign up
OpenAI-compatible Model APIs for open-weight LLMs (DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi K2, GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen)
Purely usage-based pricing with no monthly or annual platform fee on the default Startup plan
Credits also cover dedicated GPU deployments (T4 through B200) and fine-tuning/training jobs
Limitations
- $30 one-time credit cap
Free usage is capped at $30 of credit, which burns down at usage-based rates (per-token for Model APIs, per-GPU-minute for dedicated deployments). There is no fixed token or request allowance.
- Card required after credits run out
No credit card is needed to sign up and use the $30, but a card and pay-as-you-go billing are required to continue once the credit is exhausted.
Sources
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"Plus, we're offering $30 in free credits for all new workspaces and to existing workspaces that transition over to the Startup plan."
https://www.baseten.co/resources/changelog/usage-based-pricing-with-free-credits/ -
"Basic (unverified) | 15 | 100,000 ... Basic (verified) | 120 | 500,000 ... Pro | 120 | 1,000,000"
https://docs.baseten.co/inference/model-apis/rate-limits-and-budgets -
"DeepSeek V4 Pro (Reasoning, Max Effort) scores 52 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it well above average among comparable models (averaging 30)."
https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/deepseek-v4-pro -
"Sacra estimates that Baseten hit $600M in annualized revenue in March 2026, up about 1,900% year-over-year and up from $200M in December 2025."
https://sacra.com/c/baseten/