What is SambaNova used for?

SambaNova is an AI inference cloud and full-stack platform that runs open models on SambaNova's custom RDU chips, available as a cloud service or as data center systems. It is a good fit for hosting open models for agentic applications, sovereign AI deployments in a country's data centers and adding inference capacity to an existing data center.

How much does SambaNova cost?

SambaNova is a paid product with no free plan. Pay per token by model. Input costs range from $0.22 per million tokens for gpt-oss-120b to $3 for DeepSeek models, with output priced separately, for example $0.59 per million for gpt-oss-120b.

Is SambaNova open source?

No. SambaNova is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to SambaNova include vLLM and SGLang.

Can I self-host SambaNova?

Yes. Although SambaNova is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers, and the vendor also offers a hosted version.

What are some alternatives to SambaNova?

SambaNova competes with Groq, Cerebras and Together AI. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source SambaNova alternatives.

SambaNova: features, pricing and alternatives

About SambaNova

SambaNova is an AI infrastructure company that builds its own processors, called RDUs, and the software and systems around them. It uses them to run open models for inference and fine-tuning, and it sells the result both as a hosted cloud and as hardware that customers can install.

The product line includes SambaCloud for hosted use, SambaStack as the software platform and SambaRack as the physical system. Solution pages address neoclouds, sovereign AI, developers and enterprises, and the government and public sector, and the vendor says its platform integrates into existing data center infrastructure. The site also offers an early access program, a developer showcase and an academy.

SambaNova is proprietary commercial technology with a pricing page, documentation and a start-building route for developers. It is aimed at companies that want fast, cost-conscious inference for agentic AI without relying only on GPU-based clouds.

Key features

Custom RDU chips with dataflow architecture
SambaCloud hosted inference
SambaStack software platform
SambaRack data center systems
Fine-tuning of open models
Early access program for developers

Good fit for

→Hosting open models for agentic applications
→Sovereign AI deployments in a country's data centers
→Adding inference capacity to an existing data center

Tags: ai-inference; ai-hardware; rdu; dataflow; fine-tuning; sovereign-ai; cloud; data-center

SambaNova: questions and answers

What is SambaNova used for?: SambaNova is an AI inference cloud and full-stack platform that runs open models on SambaNova's custom RDU chips, available as a cloud service or as data center systems. It is a good fit for hosting open models for agentic applications, sovereign AI deployments in a country's data centers and adding inference capacity to an existing data center.
How much does SambaNova cost?: SambaNova is a paid product with no free plan. Pay per token by model. Input costs range from $0.22 per million tokens for gpt-oss-120b to $3 for DeepSeek models, with output priced separately, for example $0.59 per million for gpt-oss-120b.
Is SambaNova open source?: No. SambaNova is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to SambaNova include vLLM and SGLang.
Can I self-host SambaNova?: Yes. Although SambaNova is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers, and the vendor also offers a hosted version.
What are some alternatives to SambaNova?: SambaNova competes with Groq, Cerebras and Together AI. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source SambaNova alternatives.