# Jais 3 vs SambaCloud

> SambaCloud scores 66.4 (B) 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

SambaCloud scores 66.4 (B) on agent readiness against Jais 3's 51.7 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jais 3 leads on 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
- SambaCloud: grade B, 66.4/100, rank #321 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sambanova.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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

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

### SambaCloud (B)

Good for: Agents that want open-weight models behind an OpenAI or Anthropic client with a free start and prices an agent can read from the API.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 54
- Security & auth, 58 against 31
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 50

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: Production models get a notice of two to three weeks, and 13 model ids were removed between 9 March and 9 June 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jais 3 | SambaCloud | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 85 | SambaCloud +37 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 81 | SambaCloud +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 67 | SambaCloud +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 31 | 58 | SambaCloud +27 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Jais 3 +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 77 | SambaCloud +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 63 | SambaCloud +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **51.7 · D** | **66.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jais 3 | SambaCloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Institute of Foundation Models (MBZUAI) and Inception42 | SambaNova Systems, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.sambanova.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| 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 SambaCloud Terms of Service. The SDKs and the OpenAPI document are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2023-05-27 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 2 stars, 76 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 3.5/5 (4) |

## 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.

**SambaCloud.** Per-token prices and the model list are readable without a key at `/v1/models`, and a free tier needs no card. Production models get two to three weeks' notice before removal, 13 model ids left between March and June 2026, and the docs disagree with the live catalogue on MiniMax-M2.7.

## 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

### SambaCloud

1. Call `GET https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/models` at start-up and use only ids it returns. The docs name models the endpoint no longer lists
2. Read `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests` and `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests-day` on every response. The free tier allows 20 requests a day per model
3. Treat 429 `queue_full` and 503 `maintenance` as retryable after a delay, and 410 `model_deprecated` as a signal to change model
4. Validate JSON output yourself. Schema enforcement is best effort and `strict: true` changes nothing
5. Check `max_completion_tokens` per model. DeepSeek-V3.1 caps output at 7,168 tokens and Llama 3.3 70B at 3,072

## Questions

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

SambaCloud scores 66.4 (B) on agent readiness against Jais 3's 51.7 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jais 3 leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Jais 3 and SambaCloud need an API key?

Jais 3 needs no key. SambaCloud needs an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Jais 3. SambaCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sambanova.ai/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Jais 3 or SambaCloud

- [Claude API vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Claude API vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Antseed vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Antseed vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-sambanova.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-jais-3.md)
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- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-jais-3.md)
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- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-sambanova.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-jais-3.md)
- [DeepInfra vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-sambanova.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Glimpse vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Glimpse vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-sambanova.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-jais-3.md)
- [GroqCloud vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-meta-model-api.md)
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- [Jais 3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-novita-ai.md)
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