Nebius AI Cloud vs Replicate Deployments

Nebius AI Cloud

One API definition generates the REST and gRPC interfaces, the CLI, Terraform provider and three SDKs, with a 602-operation OpenAPI document, X-Idempotency-Key and role-scoped service accounts. The status page lists 14 major incidents between 14 July and 8 October 2026, no request rate limits were found, and signup needs a browser and a card.

Replicate Deployments

OpenAPI file, llms.txt and an MCP server with a two-tool code mode. Private instances bill set-up and idle time, H100 at $5.49 an hour.

Nebius AI Cloud

1. Use a service account with an authorised key, then exchange a five-minute RS256 JWT at https://auth.eu.nebius.com/oauth2/token/exchange for a 12-hour Bearer token
2. Send X-Idempotency-Key with a random UUID on every create, update and delete, since a 504 can follow a call that succeeded
3. Poll the returned operation (/ai/v1/endpoints/operations/{id}) until status is set; concurrent operations on one resource are not supported
4. Stop or delete endpoints when idle. A stopped endpoint bills nothing, a stopped Devlab or VM still bills for its disk
5. Check region support first. Serverless AI is absent from eu-south1 and us-north1, and each GPU platform exists in one to four regions
6. Run the beta nebius/mcp-server with safe mode on (the default); nebius_cli_execute can run any CLI command when SAFE_MODE=false

Replicate Deployments

1. List GET /v1/hardware first and use the returned sku in the deployment body
2. Set min_instances to 0 for bursty work; a warm H100 bills $5.49 an hour whether called or not
3. Send Prefer: wait on deployment predictions to block instead of polling
4. Copy outputs within an hour; API prediction data is deleted after that
5. Wait for the reset time in the 429 body before retrying; prediction creates cap at 600 a minute