# Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) vs Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning

> Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) scores 61.1 (C) on agent readiness against Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning's 47.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning leads on maintenance & community. Both do finetune sft. Category scores…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) scores 61.1 (C) on agent readiness against Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning's 47.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning leads on maintenance & community. Both do finetune sft.

- Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI): grade C, 61.1/100, rank #434 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-foundry-fine-tuning.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-foundry-fine-tuning.json
- Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning: grade D, 47.7/100, rank #738 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.json

## Which one, for what

### Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) (C)

Good for: Teams that must tune an OpenAI model, need Azure's compliance and regional controls, and will serve the result on Azure.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 45
- Security & auth, 85 against 52
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 0
- Transparency & trust, 84 against 79

Watch for: No weight export; checkpoints copy only between Azure resources

### Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning (D)

Good for: Teams that want supervised LoRA or full fine-tuning of a wide list of open models, up to Qwen3 Coder 480B and DeepSeek, through OpenAI-style calls, with EU storage and the weights to take away.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 61 against 55

Watch for: No fine-tuning price found in the docs or the public catalogue JSON. The price page is a script-drawn console page that robots.txt disallows


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) | Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 45 | Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 68 | Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 51 | Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 85 | 52 | Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 0 | Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 61 | Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 79 | Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **61.1 · C** | **47.7 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) | Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Microsoft Azure | Nebius |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1` | `https://api.tokenfactory.nebius.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service (cookbook examples MIT) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-28 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-01 | 2026-09-23 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 47.2M npm/wk, 72.1M PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI).** SFT, DPO and RFT on GPT-4.1 and o4-mini through the OpenAI-shaped /openai/v1 API. No weight export; checkpoints copy only between Azure resources.

**Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning.** Supervised fine-tuning on 49 open base models through OpenAI-style `/v1/fine_tuning/jobs` calls, with LoRA or full weights and every checkpoint file downloadable. No fine-tuning price was found outside the script-drawn console, and the docs say tuned models deploy only to dedicated endpoints, with custom weights in beta on request.

## Before you call either

### Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI)

1. Point the OpenAI SDK at https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1 with the `api-key` header or an Entra token; job, file and checkpoint calls are the OpenAI shapes
2. Read prices from the Azure Retail Prices API (meters named like 'gpt-4.1 FT Training global'), not the pricing page, which needs a browser
3. Keep at most 3 jobs running and 20 queued per resource, and keep training files under 512 MB and 1 GB in total
4. Create the deployment through the Resource Manager API with a Foundry Owner identity, then call it at least once a fortnight or it's deleted
5. Query the Models API for `deprecationDate` before choosing a base model

### Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning

1. Use the OpenAI client with `base_url` `https://api.tokenfactory.nebius.com/v1/` and `NEBIUS_API_KEY`. Upload JSONL with `purpose=fine-tune`, then create the job.
2. Set `hyperparameters.lora` to true for an adapter. The default is false, which runs full fine-tuning.
3. Poll `GET /v1/fine_tuning/jobs/{job_id}` no faster than every 15 seconds. There is no idempotency key, so list jobs before recreating one after a timeout.
4. Download every ID in a checkpoint's `result_files` before relying on hosted copies. The terms allow deletion of tuned models at three days' notice.
5. The spec requires `wandb.api_key` although the guide omits it, and it also accepts `mlflow` and `hf` integrations. Check the price in the console before starting a job.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) or Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning?

Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) scores 61.1 (C) on agent readiness against Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning's 47.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) and Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning need an API key?

Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) and Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning without installing anything?

Yes. Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) has a hosted endpoint at https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1 and Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning at https://api.tokenfactory.nebius.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "azure-foundry-fine-tuning", "b": "nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare azure-foundry-fine-tuning nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-foundry-fine-tuning.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.json

## Other comparisons with Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) or Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning

- [Amazon Bedrock model customisation vs Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-customization-vs-azure-foundry-fine-tuning.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock model customisation vs Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-customization-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.md)
- [Axolotl vs Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axolotl-vs-azure-foundry-fine-tuning.md)
- [Axolotl vs Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axolotl-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.md)
- [Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) vs Fireworks AI Fine-tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-fireworks-fine-tuning.md)
- [Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) vs Tinker](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-tinker.md)
- [Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) vs Together AI Fine-tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-together-fine-tuning.md)
- [Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) vs Unsloth](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-unsloth.md)
- [Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) vs Vertex AI Gemini tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-foundry-fine-tuning-vs-vertex-ai-tuning.md)
- [Fireworks AI Fine-tuning vs Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-fine-tuning-vs-nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning.md)
- [Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning vs Tinker](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning-vs-tinker.md)
- [Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning vs Together AI Fine-tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning-vs-together-fine-tuning.md)
- [Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning vs Unsloth](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning-vs-unsloth.md)
- [Nebius Token Factory fine-tuning vs Vertex AI Gemini tuning](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nebius-token-factory-fine-tuning-vs-vertex-ai-tuning.md)