SambaNova Cloud

SambaNova Cloud is a hosted service for running open AI models, such as DeepSeek, Llama, and OpenAI's open-weight gpt-oss models, for chat and agent applications. It runs on SambaNova's own chip, the Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit, or RDU, a different design from a standard GPU. The API follows the OpenAI-compatible format, so code built for other providers generally needs only small changes. SambaNova markets its newest RDU generation as built for fast agentic workloads, meaning applications that make several chained model calls in sequence, and highlights lower power use per query as a cost advantage over GPU-based competitors. Access is by API key through a developer dashboard, with separate pricing plans for different usage levels.

This fits a workload involving multiple model calls in a row, such as an agent that plans a task and then executes several steps, where delay compounds across each step; it is worth comparing alongside other speed-focused inference providers. A reasonable pilot is running one existing open-model workload, such as a support chatbot on Llama or DeepSeek, on SambaNova's endpoint and comparing speed and cost against your current provider. Detailed per-model pricing sits behind a separate plans page rather than the main site, so treat any number you find as a planning estimate and confirm current rates directly. As with other specialized inference vendors, the model catalog is smaller than a general-purpose API, and the company is far smaller than the major cloud providers, which matters for long-term vendor risk.