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llama.cpp Pricing

open sourceopen source · MITlast verified September 6, 2026official site ↗

At a glance

Free and 100% open-source LLM inference engine under the MIT license with zero software licensing fees or subscription costs. Executes locally and privately across Apple Silicon Metal, NVIDIA CUDA, AMD ROCm, Vulkan, and CPU SIMD hardware with zero cloud dependencies, including an OpenAI-compatible REST server (llama-server) for zero-cost self-hosted deployments.

Self-hosting cost

llama.cpp is open source under the MIT license. Self-hosting does not add a software license fee, but you still pay for infrastructure, operations, and any external model or API usage.

Free & cheaper Model Providers

same category, free plan or open-source license

ClaudeFree tier with core Claude access. Paid subscription plans include Claude Pro at $20/month ($17/month billed annually), Claude Max 5x at $100/month for 5x Pro usage limits, Claude Max 20x at $200/month for heavy agentic coding and power workflows, and Claude Team at $30/user/month ($25/user/month billed annually, 5-seat minimum). Enterprise tier provides custom scalable pricing, SAML SSO, and SCIM provisioning.CerebrasCerebras delivers high-throughput inference powered by its Wafer-Scale Engine (CS-3). It offers a free tier with $5 trial credits, a Developer pay-as-you-go tier with 10x rate limits and per-token pricing starting at $0.10/1M tokens, and custom Enterprise agreements with dedicated wafer hardware and guaranteed SLAs.ChatGPTChatGPT plans (vendor_documented, as-of 2026-09-14): Free; Go (~$8/mo US); Plus $20/mo; Pro from $100/mo (5×) and $200/mo (20×—new $200 sign-ups paused as of 2026-09-10); Business Standard $25/user/mo or $20/user/mo annual (Premium seats $125/$100 annual); Enterprise custom. Product URL: chatgpt.com. Former “Team” plan is now Business. Confirm geo-localized Go/Plus/Pro card amounts on https://chatgpt.com/pricing/.GroqGroq offers ultra-fast LPU inference for open-source AI models. It features a free prototyping tier with zero credit card required, pay-as-you-go developer pricing from $0.05/1M tokens with 50% prompt caching and batch discounts, and dedicated Enterprise LPU capacity.
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FAQ

How much does llama.cpp cost?

Free and 100% open-source LLM inference engine under the MIT license with zero software licensing fees or subscription costs. Executes locally and privately across Apple Silicon Metal, NVIDIA CUDA, AMD ROCm, Vulkan, and CPU SIMD hardware with zero cloud dependencies, including an OpenAI-compatible REST server (llama-server) for zero-cost self-hosted deployments.

Does llama.cpp have a free plan?

Yes — llama.cpp is open source and free to use.

Can you self-host llama.cpp for free?

llama.cpp is open source under the MIT license. Self-hosting does not add a software license fee, but you still pay for infrastructure, operations, and any external model or API usage.

What are free or cheaper llama.cpp alternatives?

Claude, Cerebras, ChatGPT are in the same category with a free plan or open-source license.

pricing is editorial catalog data (last verified September 6, 2026) — vendors change plans; confirm on the official site before you buy. Reuse this data under CC-BY 4.0 via /data.