# Jais 3 vs Novita AI

> Novita AI scores 53.5 (D) to Jais 3's 51.7 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Novita AI scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against Jais 3's 51.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Jais 3 leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do llm inference.

- Jais 3: grade D, 51.7/100, rank #839 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jais-3.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jais-3.json
- Novita AI: grade D, 53.5/100, rank #784 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/novita-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/novita-ai.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Jais 3 (D)

Good for: An agent or team that needs Arabic and English reasoning and tool use on its own hardware, from a laptop-sized 0.9B to a cluster-sized 375B, under Apache-2.0.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 48 against 28
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Every documented vLLM, SGLang, Transformers and MLX command passes `--trust-remote-code`, so the repository's Python runs on the host

### Novita AI (D)

Good for: Agents that want many open-weight models at per-token prices behind one OpenAI-style key, with keys that can be limited by model, IP and expiry.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 62 against 54
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 65
- Security & auth, 65 against 31
- Transparency & trust, 56 against 50

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No status page or SLA was found on the home page, the docs index or the docs site map. The home page states 99.5% uptime with no supporting document


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jais 3 | Novita AI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 28 | Jais 3 +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 62 | Novita AI +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 72 | Novita AI +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 31 | 65 | Novita AI +34 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 35 | Jais 3 +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 62 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 56 | Novita AI +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **51.7 · D** | **53.5 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jais 3 | Novita AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Institute of Foundation Models (MBZUAI) and Inception42 | Novita AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.novita.ai/openai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, declared in the metadata of every model card read. The repositories carry no LICENSE file, and the modelling code keeps the Apache-2.0 header of the Qwen3-MoE code it was generated from | Proprietary service under the Novita AI Terms of Service. The agent skill and the MCP server are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-13 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | none | 6 stars, 1.4k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | none |

## Verdicts

**Jais 3.** Jais 3 runs on the owner's hardware through OpenAI-compatible servers in vLLM and SGLang, with tool calls, three reasoning levels and a 512K context, from a 2.2 GB 0.9B model to a 758 GB 375B one. The weights download without sign-up under Apache-2.0, but every launch command trusts remote code, and no technical report or security contact is published.

**Novita AI.** Per-token prices for about 140 language models are public, and each key can carry an expiry, a model allowlist and a source IP allowlist. No status page, SLA or security.txt was found, the per-model rate limit figures are drawn by script, and both vendor SDK repositories are archived while the docs still point to them.

## Before you call either

### Jais 3

1. Start vLLM or SGLang with `--reasoning-parser k2_horizon`, and add `--tool-call-parser k2_horizon` (vLLM also `--enable-auto-tool-choice`) for tools, or tool calls come back as raw text
2. Pass `reasoning_effort` (`high`, `medium` or `low`) and `tool_call_format` inside `chat_template_kwargs`. Other values return a template error
3. Send each earlier assistant turn back with `reasoning_content` as a string, even an empty one. A missing or null thinking field makes the template raise an error
4. Send your own system message, or set `default_system_prompt` to an empty string. Without one the template inserts an identity prompt naming IFM, Inception42 and Cerebras
5. Budget at least 32,768 output tokens at `high` effort, which the cards recommend for every request

### Novita AI

1. Set the OpenAI client base URL to `https://api.novita.ai/openai` and send the key as `Authorization: Bearer`. Keys start with `sk_`
2. Do not close a connection to stop generation. A request that reached the model is billed in full under status 499, so cap output with `max_tokens`
3. On 429, check whether the code is `RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` or `TOKEN_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` and back off exponentially. No `Retry-After` header is documented
4. Read the changelog for retirement notices before pinning a model id. One retirement in October 2026 came with 11 days' notice
5. Ask the account owner for a key with an expiry, a model access policy and an IP allowlist. Keys are created and deleted only in the console

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Jais 3 or Novita AI?

Novita AI scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against Jais 3's 51.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Jais 3 leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do Jais 3 and Novita AI need an API key?

Jais 3 needs no key. Novita AI needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Jais 3 and Novita AI without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Jais 3. Novita AI has a hosted endpoint at https://api.novita.ai/openai.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-novita-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-novita-ai.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "jais-3", "b": "novita-ai"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare jais-3 novita-ai`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jais-3.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/novita-ai.json

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