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Text Generation Inference Pricing

open sourceopen source · Apache-2.0last verified September 6, 2026official site ↗

At a glance

100% free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license ($0 software cost). Hugging Face Text Generation Inference (TGI) provides ultra-fast LLM serving with continuous batching, tensor parallelism, and quantization at zero tool licensing expense for self-hosting, with optional pay-as-you-go hourly deployment on Hugging Face Inference Endpoints.

Self-hosting cost

Text Generation Inference is open source under the Apache-2.0 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 DevOps & Deployment

same category, free plan or open-source license

Ciliumopen sourceFree and 100% open source under the Apache-2.0 license (with dual GPL-2.0/BSD-2-Clause BPF datapath templates) as a CNCF Graduated project. Cilium has no software licensing fees for self-hosted or cloud Kubernetes deployments (including GKE Dataplane V2 and Azure CNI Powered by Cilium); organizations pay only for their compute infrastructure. For mission-critical enterprise environments, Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium (by Cisco) provides quote-based annual subscriptions (per-node/environment) with 24/7 SLA support, hardened LTS builds, Customer Testing Environments (CuTEs), enterprise BGP/EVPN, and advanced multi-cluster security and observability retention.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/.
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FAQ

How much does Text Generation Inference cost?

100% free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license ($0 software cost). Hugging Face Text Generation Inference (TGI) provides ultra-fast LLM serving with continuous batching, tensor parallelism, and quantization at zero tool licensing expense for self-hosting, with optional pay-as-you-go hourly deployment on Hugging Face Inference Endpoints.

Does Text Generation Inference have a free plan?

Yes — Text Generation Inference is open source and free to use.

Can you self-host Text Generation Inference for free?

Text Generation Inference is open source under the Apache-2.0 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 Text Generation Inference alternatives?

Cilium, Claude, Cerebras 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.