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SambaNova Cloud

LLM 6.3/10 Jul 4, 2026

SambaNova Cloud offers very fast inference on Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen and other open models, with free signup credits and community-earnable additional credits.

Tokens / day
20M
Free credit
$5
Card required
No

SambaNova Cloud scores 6.3/10 for free value in LLM. The main constraint: $5 in free API credits on signup with no credit card; initial credits expire in 30 days. Reported developer/free-tier ceiling around 20M tokens/day across models. Additional credits earnable via the developer community.

Category LLM Kind Ultra-fast hosted LLM API Caveats The old ongoing free tier was folded into a paid Developer tier; the free allotment is now a finite $5 that expires in 30 days, after which a card is needed. Treat token/day figures as reported. Card required No Eligibility anyone

Free value score

6.3 / 10
Show the math
Value 6.4/10
value = 5 $ one-time
weighted score = 0.7 * 6.4/10
Model Quality 6.8/10
value = 38 artificial_analysis_score
weighted score = 0.2 * 6.8/10
Volume 5.1/10
value = 11428571 tok/mo
weighted score = 0.1 * 5.1/10
Access 7/10
value = 7/10
score = 7/10

Key metrics

MiniMax-M2.7 38 Best model
20M T/day Tokens/day
$5 Credit
Yes Commercial use

Models

4 free · 6 total

Limits may be stale — last re-verified outside this section's freshness window.

Model Family AA Access
MiniMax-M2.7 MiniMax 38.1 free
gpt-oss-120b GPT 23.8 free
DeepSeek-V3.1 DeepSeek 21.1 free
Meta-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Llama free
DeepSeek-V3.2 DeepSeek 24.7 paid
gemma-4-31B-it Gemma paid

Compare all free models across providers →

What you get

$5 free credit at signup, no credit card required

Among the fastest inference speeds for open models

Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen and more via OpenAI-compatible API

Earn extra credits through the developer community

Gotchas

  • $5 one-time signup credit

    All free-tier users receive exactly $5 in API credits at signup; once exhausted the credits do not renew.

  • Card required after credits run out

    Once the $5 free credit is exhausted or expires, a credit card must be added to continue using the API under the paid Developer tier.

Sources

sambanova fast-inference open-weight finite-credit openai-compatible

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