Anthropic
AI research company that makes the Claude models, the Claude apps and the Claude API.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $20 a month for Claude Pro; API from $1 per million input tokens (Haiku 4.5)Open source noStars 2.2knpm a week 54M
Replicate alternatives
12 tools you can use instead of Replicate, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Anthropic, OpenAI and OpenAI API are the most used. Stats updated 5 hours ago.
Together AI is the closest alternative: a cloud platform for running and fine-tuning open source models, with serverless inference priced per token. Hugging Face hosts models and offers paid inference. To avoid per-request costs, Ollama runs models locally.
When Replicate is not a good fit
Replicate is a platform for running open source and custom machine learning models through a hosted API, without managing GPU infrastructure yourself. Most models are billed by how long they run on a given hardware tier, from CPU up to multi-GPU H100 and B200 configurations, while some popular models are billed per image or per token instead. There's no monthly subscription; you pay only for compute used.
It is a weaker choice for:
- Very high, constant-volume inference where owning or reserving dedicated GPU capacity elsewhere would be cheaper
- Teams that want a flat, predictable monthly bill rather than usage-based pricing
- Applications needing the absolute lowest latency, where a self-managed, always-warm deployment may outperform a shared platform
The alternatives
Most used first.
View Anthropic
OpenAI
AI research company behind ChatGPT and the GPT model family, accessed through apps and an API.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus; API pricing varies by modelOpen source noStars 11.2knpm a week 51M
OpenAI API
Pay-per-token API access to OpenAI's GPT models for building AI into your own applications.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens on GPT-6 LunaOpen source noStars 11.2knpm a week 51M
Ollama
Run open source AI models locally, with an optional hosted cloud and Pro plan.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $20 a month for the Pro plan, including $60 of usage credit for cloud modelsOpen source yesStars 185knpm a week 889k
Hugging Face
Hub for open source AI models, datasets and demo apps, plus paid hosting for inference and Spaces.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $9 a month for a PRO accountOpen source yesStars 168knpm a week 440k
Mistral AI
French AI company building open-weight and proprietary language models, accessed via API or Le Chat.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $5.99 a month for Le Chat Pro (student pricing), $14.99 a month standardOpen source nonpm a week 9.6M
Groq
AI inference company behind GroqCloud, a fast API for running open models on its own LPU chips.
Pricing Pay as you goOpen source nonpm a week 1M
Cohere
Enterprise-focused AI company offering language, embedding and rerank models through an API.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.30 input / $0.60 output per million tokens on Command-light; current flagship Command A models are priced on requestOpen source nonpm a week 543k
Together AI
Cloud platform for running and fine-tuning open source AI models, with serverless inference and GPU clusters.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.09 per million input tokens (lowest-cost serverless models)Open source nonpm a week 118k
LM Studio
Desktop app for downloading and running open-weight language models locally, with a chat UI and local API.
Pricing FreemiumOpen source nonpm a week 65.1k
OpenRouter
One API for 500+ AI models from 80+ providers, announced on 19 August 2026 that it is joining Stripe.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from Pay as you go with a 5.5% platform fee (Standard)Open source no
Perplexity AI
AI-powered answer engine that searches the web and cites sources, with a free tier and paid Pro/Max plans.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from About $20 a month (Pro plan)Open source no
Replicate and its alternatives, side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replicate | Pay as you go | No ongoing free plan; billing is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum | about $0.000025 a second for small CPU instances, varying by model and hardware | No | 598 |
| Anthropic | Pay as you go | Yes, in the Claude apps. The API is billed per token. | $20 a month for Claude Pro; API from $1 per million input tokens (Haiku 4.5) | No | 2.2k |
| OpenAI | Freemium | Yes, in ChatGPT. The API has no free plan and is billed per token. | $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus; API pricing varies by model | No | 11.2k |
| OpenAI API | Pay as you go | No, the API has no free tier and is billed per token from the first request | $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens on GPT-6 Luna | No | 11.2k |
| Ollama | Freemium | Yes, running models locally is always free | $20 a month for the Pro plan, including $60 of usage credit for cloud models | Yes, MIT | 185k |
| Hugging Face | Freemium | Yes: unlimited public model, dataset and Space hosting, free CPU and limited ZeroGPU compute | $9 a month for a PRO account | Yes, Open source libraries (e.g. Transformers) are Apache-2.0; hosted models and datasets carry their own individual licenses | 168k |
| Mistral AI | Pay as you go | Yes, in Le Chat, with limited usage and $10 a month in API credits | $5.99 a month for Le Chat Pro (student pricing), $14.99 a month standard | No | None |
| Groq | Pay as you go | Yes, with rate limits that vary by model. The paid Developer plan raises them. | Not listed | No | None |
| Cohere | Pay as you go | Yes: evaluation API keys are free but limited in usage | $0.30 input / $0.60 output per million tokens on Command-light; current flagship Command A models are priced on request | No | None |
| Together AI | Pay as you go | Limited free credits are typically available for new accounts to try the platform | $0.09 per million input tokens (lowest-cost serverless models) | No | None |
| LM Studio | Freemium | Yes, the core app and running local models is free | Not listed | No | None |
| OpenRouter | Pay as you go | Yes: access to 25+ free models from 4 providers. | Pay as you go with a 5.5% platform fee (Standard) | No | None |
| Perplexity AI | Freemium | Yes: free tier available with standard search and limited access to advanced features | About $20 a month (Pro plan) | No | None |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
Questions
What is the most popular alternative to Replicate?
By GitHub stars, Anthropic is the most used alternative to Replicate listed on ScratchDB, with 2.2k stars.
Which Replicate alternatives are open source?
Ollama and Hugging Face are open source.
Which Replicate alternatives have a free plan?
Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, Hugging Face, Mistral AI, Groq, Cohere, LM Studio, OpenRouter and Perplexity AI have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.