Model provider

Also called: AI provider, LLM provider, model vendor, inference provider, model API, AI vendor

The company or service that runs an AI model and answers requests to it, usually over the internet through an API. Anthropic, OpenAI and Google are examples, and a model can also run on your own machine. Your provider sets the price per token, the rate limits and the data terms you agree to.

For example: A startup sends its users' questions to a model provider and pays a monthly bill based on how many tokens went back and forth.

Connects to 11

Model Concept
Inference Concept
API Concept
Model provider request Concept
Rate limit Concept
Local model Concept
Data privacy Concept
Token Concept
Frontier model Concept
Prefix cache Concept
Cache tokens Concept