{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "sambanova", "name": "SambaCloud", "vendor": "SambaNova Systems, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://sambanova.ai", "kind": "model", "category": "inference", "summary": "SambaCloud is SambaNova's hosted inference API for open-weight models running on its own RDU processors. It answers OpenAI-style chat, completions and Responses calls and Anthropic-style Messages calls, with Python and TypeScript SDKs.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sambanova.json", "dns": "sambanova.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/sambanova/sambanova-python", "license": "Proprietary service under the SambaCloud Terms of Service. The SDKs and the OpenAPI document are Apache-2.0", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.sambanova.ai/v1", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "sambanova" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "sambanova" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Self-serve Bearer key from the SambaCloud console at https://cloud.sambanova.ai/apis after a browser sign-up. The Messages routes also take the same key in `x-api-key`. Up to 25 keys per user, shown once, with no scopes.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Free tier with no payment method, at 20 requests a minute, 20 requests a day and 200,000 tokens a day per model. Linking a card moves the account to the Developer tier, billed per token through Stripe, from $0.22 in and $0.59 out per 1M tokens on gpt-oss-120b (https://cloud.sambanova.ai/plans/pricing, checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "from $0.22 / 1M in", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs index, the OpenAPI document or the pricing page (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 2, "npmWeekly": 76, "pypiWeekly": 6129, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/get-started/overview", "rateLimitsUrl": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/models/rate-limits", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sambanova/sambanova-inference-api-spec/refs/heads/main/openapi.documented.json", "capabilities": [ "inference.llm", "inference.open-weights", "inference.fast" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "model", "open-weights", "free-tier", "no-card", "openapi", "llms-txt", "openai-compatible", "anthropic-compatible", "python", "typescript", "status-page", "soc2" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-27", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 64.9, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 444, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1486, "categoryRank": 18, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 40, "reliability": 85, "schema": 81, "security": 61, "transparency": 73 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-01" }, "negative": -5, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-10-08. The models and rate-limit pages listed `MiniMax-M2.7` as a production model a week after its 1 October removal from SambaCloud, and the July 2026 release notes say `Mistral-Large-3-675B-Instruct-2512` was promoted to production. Neither was on the pricing page or in `/v1/models`, and the deprecations page has no entry for Mistral Large 3. Two points, since a keyed call was not made to confirm the ids fail; the docs couldn't be re-read on 1 November (https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/models/sambacloud-models, https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/models).", "2026-10-27, -3. Python SDK 1.14.0 and TypeScript SDK 1.11.0, 1.x minor releases filed under `Features`, removed the documented `do_sample` parameter from the create methods and deleted the audio transcription and translation streaming types, so existing Python callers passing either now get a TypeError. Neither changelog, README nor commit gives notice, and 1.13.0 carried no deprecation warning. Read as box-api's unannounced breaking changes in minor SDK releases, the two packages folded into one term. The docs' release notes and deprecations page couldn't be read on 1 November (bot check); a dated notice there would lift it (https://github.com/sambanova/sambanova-python/commit/8b7cc8b44a82726ff1e759c65f4541adbebb464e, https://github.com/sambanova/sambanova-typescript/commit/128023023eb6ec3b63cabe1c45f0941eb9ba4b8d)" ], "verdict": "Per-token prices are readable without a login, a free tier needs no card, and no incident has been posted since 25 June 2026. A Data Processing Addendum now names 24 sub-processors. Production models get two to three weeks' notice before removal, 13 model ids left between March and June 2026, and the product page's privacy claim contradicts the terms.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "Public OpenAPI 3.1.1 document for all 10 operations, plus `llms.txt` and a Markdown copy of every docs page", "Per-token prices for every model on a pricing page that needs no login, and `GET /v1/models` answered without a key on 8 October 2026", "Free tier with no payment method at 20 requests a minute, 20 requests a day and 200,000 tokens a day per model", "One key works with the OpenAI client, the Anthropic client (`/v1/messages`, `x-api-key`) and SambaNova's own SDKs", "Status page with a component per model and no incident posted since 25 June 2026" ], "weaknesses": [ "Production models get a notice of two to three weeks, and 13 model ids were removed between 9 March and 9 June 2026", "The docs listed `MiniMax-M2.7` as a production model on 8 October 2026, a week after it left SambaCloud", "`strict: true` on a JSON schema is accepted and has no effect, and the July 2026 notes record failing structured output on DeepSeek-V3.2", "Keys carry no scopes or project limits, and no key rotation guidance was found in the reviewed documentation", "The privacy policy dates from May 2023, and the product page says prompts are never collected while the DPA keeps them up to 30 days" ], "agentNotes": [ "Call `GET https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/models` at start-up and use only ids it returns. The docs and status page have named models the API no longer serves", "Read `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests` and `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests-day` on every response. The free tier allows 20 requests a day per model", "Treat 429 `queue_full` and 503 `maintenance` as retryable after a delay, and 410 `model_deprecated` as a signal to change model", "Validate JSON output yourself. Schema enforcement is best effort and `strict: true` changes nothing", "Drop `do_sample` before moving to Python SDK 1.14.0 or TypeScript 1.11.0. Those releases removed it" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 3.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 64.9 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 40, "reliability": 85, "schema": 81, "security": 61, "transparency": 63 }, "provenanceScore": 82, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-01", "maintenance": "2026-11-01", "payments": "2026-11-01", "reliability": "2026-11-01", "schema": "2026-11-01", "security": "2026-11-01", "transparency": "2026-11-01" }, "last": "2026-11-01", "lastMoved": "2026-11-01", "oldest": "2026-11-01", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "pip install sambanova # or: npm install sambanova", "http": "curl https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/chat/completions \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $SAMBANOVA_API_KEY\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\":\"gpt-oss-120b\",\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"hello\"}]}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.llm", "tool": "https://letme.dev/sambanova" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "SambaNova Systems, Inc.", "domain": "sambanova.ai", "domainRegistered": "2017-12-18", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://sambanova.ai/cloud-end-user-license-agreement", "privacy": "https://sambanova.ai/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.sambanova.ai", "changelog": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/release-notes/sambacloud", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-11-01", "notes": [ "The SambaCloud Terms of Service name SambaNova Systems, Inc., a Delaware corporation at 2460 N. First St, Suite #100, San Jose, CA 95131, and define the Service as the SambaCloud platform. The page carries no date. The legal index says it was last updated on 5 February 2026.", "The privacy policy is the company's only one. Its last revision is dated 27 May 2023, it covers the website, communications and related services, and it does not name SambaCloud or API inputs.", "A Data Processing Addendum (undated, with a sub-processor list) is linked from https://sambanova.ai/legal-agreements on 1 November 2026. No SLA or acceptable use policy is linked.", "https://sambanova.ai/.well-known/security.txt returns 404 (1 November 2026).", "RDAP for sambanova.ai gives a registration date of 2017-12-18.", "The API answers at api.sambanova.ai and the console at cloud.sambanova.ai.", "docs.sambanova.ai, which holds the changelog, answered robots.txt with a bot check on 1 November 2026; the changelog URL is kept from 8 October." ], "score": 82 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova.json", "live": { "slug": "sambanova", "probe": { "target": "https://api.sambanova.ai/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T18:20:52.074450103Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 405, "lastMs": 523, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 99.63, "p50ms24h": 430, "p95ms24h": 4167, "samples24h": 239, "samples30d": 7289, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 169, "ok": 169 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 244 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-16", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-17", "probes": 253, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-18", "probes": 256, "ok": 254 }, { "date": "2026-10-19", "probes": 255, "ok": 255 }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-22", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-23", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-24", "probes": 251, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-25", "probes": 250, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-26", "probes": 252, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-27", "probes": 249, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-28", "probes": 250, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-29", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-30", "probes": 249, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-31", "probes": 251, "ok": 246 }, { "date": "2026-11-01", "probes": 249, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-11-02", "probes": 250, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-11-03", "probes": 248, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-11-04", "probes": 246, "ok": 246 }, { "date": "2026-11-05", "probes": 185, "ok": 185 }, { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 241, "ok": 238 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 187, "ok": 187 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.sambanova.ai", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:59.778916552Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "sambanova/sambanova-python", "version": "v1.14.0", "released": "2026-10-27", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:02:53.850481118Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "sambanova", "version": "1.11.0", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:02:52.055877697Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "sambanova", "version": "1.14.0", "released": "2026-10-27", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:02:51.843088379Z" } ], "githubStars": 2, "npmWeekly": 184, "pypiWeekly": 6594, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://sambanova.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:00:51.384515092Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:33:52.353741246Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "sambanova.ai", "registered": "2017-12-18", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/sambanova.ai", "checkedAt": "2026-11-01T14:19:26.553450436Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/release-notes/sambacloud", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:07:53.11787435Z", "changedAt": "2026-11-07T14:07:53.11787435Z", "fingerprint": "639e478e95cf" }, { "url": "https://docs.sambanova.ai/docs/en/models/deprecations", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:07:50.629389308Z", "changedAt": "2026-11-07T14:07:50.629389308Z", "fingerprint": "c32bdc3792a4" }, { "url": "https://cloud.sambanova.ai/plans/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:01:14.694665067Z", "changedAt": "2026-11-04T08:16:38.36121287Z", "fingerprint": "e3fafef6d55a" }, { "url": "https://sambanova.ai/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:18:57.305436961Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-31T06:20:00.89176957Z", "fingerprint": "c3c533d959fb" }, { "url": "https://sambanova.ai/cloud-end-user-license-agreement", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:18:55.127900045Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-31T06:19:58.778199001Z", "fingerprint": "3a3a2cdc3ec3" } ], "github": { "repo": "sambanova/sambanova-python", "checkedAt": "2026-11-02T09:23:31.903210325Z", "stars": 2, "archived": false, "issuesEnabled": false, "pushedAt": "2026-10-27T18:08:31Z", "openIssues": 0, "openPRs": 0, "issuesOpened90d": 0, "issuesClosed90d": 0, "prsMerged90d": 5, "ci": { "branch": "main", "runs": 50, "success": 28, "failure": 0, "other": 22, "latest": "skipped", "latestAt": "2026-10-27T18:08:25Z" } }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:59.778916552Z" } }, "answer": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against SambaCloud's 64.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. SambaCloud leads on reliability, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "b": { "slug": "xai-api", "name": "xAI API (Grok)", "vendor": "SpaceXSI (xAI)", "vendorUrl": "https://x.ai", "kind": "model", "category": "inference", "summary": "xAI's API for its Grok models (the docs now name the company SpaceXSI), with text, image, video and voice endpoints, server-side search and remote MCP tools, through an OpenAI-compatible REST API or gRPC.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xai-api.json", "dns": "xai-api.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/xai-org/xai-sdk-python", "license": "Proprietary service under xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.x.ai/v1", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "xai-sdk" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "`Authorization: Bearer` with a team API key from console.x.ai. Keys can be limited to endpoints and models by ACL, capped by QPM and TPM, given an expiry, and rotated or disabled through the Management API. mTLS is documented as an option, and GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Prepaid credits, then the default payment method at month end. Grok 4.7 costs $2 input, $0.50 cached input and $6 output per 1M tokens below 200K prompt tokens, and $4/$1/$12 above, applied to the whole request. Batch is 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6, 4.5, 4.3 and the grok-4.20 models. Priority processing 2x, the US regional endpoint 1.1x. Web search, code execution and attachment search $5 per 1,000 calls, collections search $2.50, X search $5 per 1,000 posts. $0.05 fee for a request blocked before generation for a usage-policy violation (https://docs.x.ai/developers/pricing, checked 2026-11-06).", "priceSummary": "from $1.25 / 1M in", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, llms.txt or the OpenAPI spec. Access needs a console account loaded with prepaid credits (checked 2026-11-06).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 597, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": 912149, "asOf": "2026-11-06" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.x.ai", "rateLimitsUrl": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/rate-limits", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.x.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.x.ai/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "inference.llm" ], "tags": [ "official", "hosted", "model", "prepaid", "openapi", "llms-txt", "openai-compatible", "closed-source", "python", "batch", "status-page", "bug-bounty", "soc2" ], "lastRelease": "2026-11-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 71.7, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 151, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1486, "categoryRank": 8, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 90, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 20, "reliability": 55, "schema": 88, "security": 97, "transparency": 63 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-06" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python.", "bestFor": "Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.", "strengths": [ "Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens below 200K prompt tokens, with a 500K context and 20% off through the Batch API", "API keys restricted by endpoint and model ACLs, with QPM and TPM caps, expiry and a rotate endpoint", "Self-serve team-wide zero data retention, confirmed on every response by an `x-zero-data-retention` header", "OpenAPI 3.1 spec, llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page", "security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 and a HackerOne bug bounty" ], "weaknesses": [ "API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August", "No SLA, no free tier for the text API, and no Retry-After header documented for 429s", "No stated minimum notice for retirements, and retired slugs are served by a different model at its price", "Remote MCP doesn't support `require_approval`, so server-side tool calls run without an approval step", "The terms, privacy policy and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block on 6 October and 6 November 2026, so they weren't read" ], "agentNotes": [ "Build on the Responses API at https://api.x.ai/v1. Chat Completions is labelled deprecated and the Anthropic-compatible endpoint fully deprecated", "Pin a dated model slug. A retired slug keeps answering from a replacement model, billed at the replacement's price", "Back off exponentially on 429. The per-second cap is the per-minute budget divided by 48, with a minimum of 2", "Set `allowed_tools` on remote MCP servers. There's no approval step, and every exposed tool enters the context", "Use https://us.api.x.ai/v1 when processing must stay in the US. It costs 1.1x and serves only grok-4.7 and grok-4.6" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 71.7 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 90, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 20, "reliability": 55, "schema": 88, "security": 97, "transparency": 52 }, "provenanceScore": 73, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-06", "maintenance": "2026-11-06", "payments": "2026-11-06", "reliability": "2026-11-06", "schema": "2026-11-06", "security": "2026-11-06", "transparency": "2026-11-06" }, "last": "2026-11-06", "oldest": "2026-11-06", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "pip install xai-sdk # or: pip install openai, with base_url https://api.x.ai/v1", "http": "curl https://api.x.ai/v1/responses \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\":\"grok-4.7\",\"input\":\"What is the meaning of life?\"}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.llm", "tool": "https://letme.dev/xai-api" }, "area": "models", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Web search tool", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 5 }, { "item": "Code execution tool", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 5 }, { "item": "Collections search tool", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 2.5 } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "x.ai", "domainRegistered": "2017-12-16", "domainNote": "x.ai was registered in 2017, before the company, and transferred on 2026-06-02 per RDAP. Every x.ai page except robots.txt and security.txt answered a Cloudflare block page (403) on 2026-11-06, as the legal pages did on 2026-10-06, so the contracting entity wasn't confirmed. The docs now use the name SpaceXSI and the status page SpaceXAI.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://x.ai/legal/terms-of-service-enterprise", "privacy": "https://x.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.x.ai", "changelog": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/release-notes", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-11-06", "notes": [ "x.ai/robots.txt allows all but /tools/, with Content-Signal ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes. docs.x.ai allows all with ai-input=yes. The x.ai pages that robots.txt allows answered a Cloudflare 'Attention Required' page, which we did not try to get past.", "security.txt at x.ai/.well-known/security.txt is valid to 2027-06-29, with vulnerabilities@x.ai and abuse@x.ai." ], "score": 73 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.json", "live": { "slug": "xai-api", "probe": { "target": "https://api.x.ai/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:06.440217402Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 122, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 178, "p95ms24h": 276, "samples24h": 200, "samples30d": 200, "days": [ { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 13, "ok": 13 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 187, "ok": 187 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.x.ai", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T04:49:01.143662157Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "xai-org/xai-sdk-python", "version": "v1.21.0", "released": "2026-10-23", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:18:15.193708838Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "xai-sdk", "version": "1.21.0", "released": "2026-10-23", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:18:15.09038487Z" } ], "githubStars": 598, "pypiWeekly": 912149, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://x.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-06-29T00:00:00.000Z", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:43.978620532Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:34:24.762831371Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/migration/imagine-image-quality-nov-2", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:46.034096807Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "1238569c8142" }, { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/migration/may-15-retirement", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:48.207542223Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "813d0e188a0e" }, { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/release-notes", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:52.143682141Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "7b37cfaf2576" }, { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:50.158330981Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "a563de9617fe" }, { "url": "https://x.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 403, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:38:04.991061235Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" }, { "url": "https://x.ai/legal/terms-of-service-enterprise", "kind": "terms", "status": 403, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:38:09.200382604Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:06.440217402Z" } }, "edges": [ { "by": 36, "category": "security", "leads": "xai-api", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "reasons": { "a": "Model reading. Bearer keys from the console, up to 25 per user and shown once. No scopes, project limits or rotation guidance were found, and the key travels in a header, never in the URL (18 of 30). The terms let SambaNova access, store and process Customer Content solely to supply the service and for no other purposes, which rules out training without naming it (18 of 20). The DPA's Annex I, read on 1 November, keeps prompts, inputs and completions no more than 30 days for security, fraud and abuse monitoring. No zero-retention option was found in the pages read, and the product page says SambaCloud never sees or collects prompts, against that retention and terms that grant a right to store content and to use query logs (10 of 15, between deepseek-api's 5 and siliconflow's 6 with no period stated and the 15 groq, mistral-api and xai-api take for 30 days with a zero-retention route). The console has a Usage page. No request logs or audit log were found in the docs (5 of 15). The trust centre states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty was found, and the SDK's SECURITY.md sends service reports to a general address (10 of 20).", "b": "Model reading. Team API keys with ACLs per endpoint and per model, QPM and TPM caps, expiry, and create, rotate, disable and delete through the Management API, plus documented mTLS. GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys and emails the owner (30). The security FAQ says SpaceXSI never trains on API inputs or outputs without explicit permission (20). Requests and responses are kept 30 days for abuse auditing, then deleted, and team admins can switch on zero data retention themselves, confirmed by an `x-zero-data-retention` header on every response (15). Console audit log and a Management API audit-events endpoint, plus optional per-key request logging (15). security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 with a HackerOne bug bounty and a separate safety contact for prompt-injection issues. SOC 2 Type 2 is claimed in the security FAQ with the reports behind an NDA in the trust centre, so 17 of 20. Remote MCP doesn't support `require_approval`, which the model checklist doesn't score but reviewers should see. New in October, a `guidelines` array lets the caller make the model decline nsfw, violence or profanity content, which the checklist doesn't score." }, "scores": { "a": 61, "b": 97 } }, { "by": 30, "category": "reliability", "leads": "sambanova", "name": "Reliability", "reasons": { "a": "Hosted reading. Status page at status.sambanova.ai on Statuspage, with components for the API gateway, the Playground and each model, read from the page itself on 1 November (20). Its history.atom feed, read on 1 November (the 8 October reading came from the /api/ path, which robots.txt disallows, and is struck), has nothing newer than an 8-minute Playground login fault on 25 June 2026, so nothing is posted for the window from 3 August (30). Limits published per model and tier, 20 requests a minute and 20 a day on the free tier, 60 and 12,000 on the Developer tier, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (15). `x-ratelimit-*` headers on every response, the error table says to retry `queue_full` after a delay, and the SDKs retry 429 and server errors twice with backoff, per the 8 October check. No `Retry-After` header was found in the docs or the OpenAPI document (10 of 15). No SLA found on the legal page, re-read on 1 November, or in the terms (0). Three production models are generally available, the rest previews, per the 8 October check (10). 20+30+15+10+0+10 = 85.", "b": "Status page at status.x.ai with components for the global and US API endpoints, voice, the consumer apps and, since the Cursor merger, Cursor's services, with an RSS feed (20). The feed, read on 6 November, now holds 267 incidents back to 11 August, so the whole 90-day window is readable. On the API components there were high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 from 21:57 to 23:28 UTC on 17 August (about 90 minutes) and a models outage on the global and US endpoints from 13:30 to 17:09 UTC on 3 September (about 3 hours 40 minutes), so several majors. A 26-minute datacenter outage across the API on 22 September, voice disruptions of 12 and 28 minutes on 10 September and 6 October, a 63-minute voice and Imagine degradation on 30 October and a 37-second model degradation on 24 October add to the record (0). Rate limits published per model and tier, grok-4.7 at Tier 0 is 150 requests a second and 50M TPM, with the per-second cap derived as RPM divided by 48 (15). The rate-limits page shows exponential backoff on 429, but no Retry-After header or overload guidance was found (10 of 15). No SLA found in the docs or llms.txt (0). The Responses API has been GA since September 2025 and grok-4.7 carries no preview label (10)." }, "scores": { "a": 85, "b": 55 } }, { "by": 23, "category": "ergonomics", "leads": "xai-api", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "reasons": { "a": "Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with `tool_choice` to force a function, on six listed models, and a July 2026 fix for tool calls that were buffered when streaming (17 of 20). `json_object` and `json_schema` output, best effort only, with a known failure on DeepSeek-V3.2 recorded in July 2026 (8 of 15). Automatic prompt caching on the MiniMax models only, with cached input on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash at a tenth of the input price on the 1 November pricing page, a 4,096-token minimum and no guaranteed persistence (10 of 15). 131,072-token context on four of six models, 1M on the MiniMax-M3 preview, and output capped at 7,168 tokens on DeepSeek and 3,072 on Llama 3.3 70B (8 of 15). No batch API found in the docs index or the OpenAPI document (0 of 10). Official SDKs for Python and TypeScript, and the OpenAI and Anthropic clients work with a changed base URL (10). Errors carry `type`, `param`, `code` and `request_id` (14 of 15).", "b": "Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with parallel calls on by default and `tool_choice` of auto, required, none or a named function (20). Guaranteed structured outputs (15). Automatic prompt caching, cached input at 0.25x on grok-4.7 ($0.50 per million) and 0.16x on grok-4.3 (15). 500,000-token context on grok-4.7 and 1,000,000 on grok-4.3, 13 of 15 for the default model's 500K. The Batch API is now 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 as well as the older models, with batch requests outside the rate limits (10 of 10, up from 5 on 6 October). One first-party SDK, `xai-sdk` for Python, with the OpenAI SDKs and Vercel's AI SDK documented as alternatives (5 of 10). Status codes documented with fixes, no Retry-After header found (12 of 15)." }, "scores": { "a": 67, "b": 90 } }, { "by": 20, "category": "payments", "leads": "sambanova", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "reasons": { "a": "No machine payment protocol (0). Per-token prices on the pricing page, read without a login on 1 November, such as gpt-oss-120b at $0.22 in and $0.59 out per 1M tokens (20). Free tier with no payment method, per the 8 October check (20). A person signs up in the console to get a key (0).", "b": "No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token and per-call prices published without a login on docs.x.ai/developers/pricing (20). No free tier found for the text API, and the quickstart says to load the account with credits (0). Sign-up is in the browser at console.x.ai. The Management API can create keys and top up prepaid credit, but only with a management key made by a person in the console, so no line credit (0)." }, "scores": { "a": 40, "b": 20 } }, { "by": 10, "category": "transparency", "leads": "sambanova", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "reasons": { "a": "Closed service with clear terms that name the entity and the governing law, and Apache-2.0 SDKs and OpenAPI document (15). The privacy policy is still dated 27 May 2023 and doesn't name SambaCloud or API inputs. A Data Processing Addendum, part of the Terms of Service, is now linked from the legal page (undated). It limits processing of customer personal data to the agreement, its Annex I says prompts, inputs and completions are processed transiently and kept no more than 30 days for security, fraud and abuse monitoring, then deleted, and it deletes customer personal data within 30 days of termination and from backups within 90. The product page's claim, re-read on 1 November, that SambaCloud 'never sees or collects any of your data or user prompts' sits beside that 30-day retention and terms that allow storing content and using query logs (16 of 30, as novita-ai's stated retention periods, below mistral-api's 18 where the DPA and other pages agree). A deprecations page with notice and removal dates back to April 2025, recording MiniMax-M2.7's 1 October removal with a 1 September notice per the 27 October read, though nothing for Mistral Large 3, per the 8 October check (14 of 20). The DPA's Annex III names 24 sub-processors with purpose and location (USA, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia) and promises 30 days' notice of changes, though it doesn't say where inference runs for a given request (18 of 20). 15+16+14+18 = 63.", "b": "Closed service under xAI's enterprise terms, with the Python SDK under Apache-2.0 (15). The docs agree with each other on no training, 30-day abuse retention, 30-day storage of stateful responses and the ZDR route, but the privacy policy, enterprise terms and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block page on 6 October and again on 6 November, so they couldn't be compared (15 of 30). Dated migration guides and redirect tables for each retirement, but no written deprecation policy, and Chat Completions, Anthropic compatibility and grok-voice-2.0 are labelled deprecated with no date (12 of 20). The US regional endpoint states what stays in the US, the global endpoint guarantees no region, and no subprocessor list was readable (10 of 20)." }, "scores": { "a": 73, "b": 63 } }, { "by": 7, "category": "schema", "leads": "xai-api", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "reasons": { "a": "Public OpenAPI 3.1.1 document, still labelled version 1.2.0 though its content changed on 27 October 2026, with 10 operations and 165 schemas (25). `llms.txt` at docs.sambanova.ai/docs/llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each page, per the 8 October check (docs.sambanova.ai answered robots.txt with a bot check on 1 November, so it wasn't read) (10). 718 descriptions in the document, with pages for function calling, Responses, Messages and caching. When not to use a route is rarely stated (15 of 20). Typed parameters with 150 enums, and request bodies now declare `additionalProperties: false`, but JSON schema output is best effort and `strict: true` has no effect (10 of 15). Code examples in Python and TypeScript, and an errors page with 13 codes and a recovery suggestion for each, per the 8 October check (13 of 15). The spec is versioned in its repository, but the version label didn't move with the 27 October changes, the newest SambaCloud release note seen is 7 July 2026, and the models page disagreed with `/v1/models` on 8 October (8 of 15). 25+10+15+10+13+8 = 81.", "b": "OpenAPI 3.1 document at docs.x.ai/openapi.json, 39 paths and 205 schemas on 6 November, covering Responses, Chat Completions, files, images, videos and models. The batch endpoints documented in the REST reference still aren't in it (20 of 25, applied as for gemini-api's missing Interactions API). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every page, plus a docs MCP server (10). The models page says which model to use for code, chat, images, video and voice, and reference pages list each parameter. Reference not read in full (18 of 20). Structured outputs are guaranteed to match the schema for supported keywords, and tool arguments always conform with `strict` implicitly true (15). Examples in Python, JavaScript and curl on every guide. The debugging page lists status codes with fixes, but the cause cells for 400, 403, 404 and 415 are still empty (13 of 15). Release notes are grouped by month without day dates, and model slugs come as aliases and dated versions (12 of 15)." }, "scores": { "a": 81, "b": 88 } } ], "facts": [ { "a": "Model API", "b": "Model API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "SambaNova Systems, Inc.", "b": "SpaceXSI (xAI)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.sambanova.ai/v1", "b": "https://api.x.ai/v1", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "API key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Proprietary service under the SambaCloud Terms of Service. The SDKs and the OpenAPI document are Apache-2.0", "b": "Proprietary service under xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-27", "b": "2026-11-02", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2026-10-27", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2023-05-27", "b": "2026-10-27", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "2 stars, 76 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk", "b": "597 stars, 912k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3.5/5 (4)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against SambaCloud's 64.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. SambaCloud leads on reliability, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, SambaCloud or xAI API (Grok)?" }, { "answer": "Both need an API key.", "question": "Do SambaCloud and xAI API (Grok) need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Yes. SambaCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sambanova.ai/v1 and xAI API (Grok) at https://api.x.ai/v1.", "question": "Can an agent call SambaCloud and xAI API (Grok) without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 85 against 55", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 73 against 63" ], "also": [ "Free to start without a card" ], "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "sambanova", "watchFor": "Production models get a notice of two to three weeks, and 13 model ids were removed between 9 March and 9 June 2026" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 88 against 81", "Agent ergonomics, 90 against 67", "Security \u0026 auth, 97 against 61" ], "also": [ "Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better", "No incidents deducted, where SambaCloud loses 5 points for them" ], "goodFor": "Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.", "slug": "xai-api", "watchFor": "API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August" } ], "history": { "sambanova": [ { "causes": [ "evidence", "event" ], "date": "2026-11-01", "delta": -1.5, "from": 66.4, "fromGrade": "B", "to": 64.9, "toGrade": "B" }, { "causes": [ "correction" ], "date": "2026-10-28", "delta": -0.1, "from": 66.5, "fromGrade": "B", "to": 66.4, "toGrade": "B" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-27", "delta": 0.1, "from": 66.4, "fromGrade": "B", "to": 66.5, "toGrade": "B" } ], "xai-api": null }, "job": { "capability": "inference.llm", "name": "LLM inference" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Amazon Bedrock vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Amazon Bedrock vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Claude API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Claude API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Antseed vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Antseed vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "BlockRun.AI vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "BlockRun.AI vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Cerebras Inference vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Cerebras Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Cloudflare AI Gateway vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Cloudflare AI Gateway vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Cloudflare Workers AI vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Cloudflare Workers AI vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "DeepInfra vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "DeepInfra vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "DeepSeek API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "DeepSeek API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Eden AI vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Eden AI vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eden-ai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Glimpse vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Glimpse vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Fireworks AI Inference vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Fireworks AI Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Gemini Developer API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Gemini Developer API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "GroqCloud vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "GroqCloud vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-providers-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Hugging Face Inference Providers vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-providers-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-providers-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Hugging Face Inference Providers vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-providers-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Inkling 2 Small vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Jais 3 vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Jais 3 vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Meta Model API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Meta Model API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "MiniMax API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "MiniMax API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Mistral AI API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Mistral AI API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Muse Spark Open vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Muse Spark Open vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Novita AI vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Novita AI vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "OpenAI API vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "OpenAI API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "OpenRouter vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "OpenRouter vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Prism Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Router.com (Ramp Router) vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Router.com (Ramp Router) vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Beam 1.0 vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Beam 1.0 vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "RouterPlus vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "RouterPlus vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-siliconflow.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs SiliconFlow", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-siliconflow" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-simplismart.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs Simplismart", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-simplismart" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-stepfun-api.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs StepFun API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-stepfun-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-swe-2-flash.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs SWE-2 Flash", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-swe-2-flash" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-tencent-tokenhub.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-tencent-tokenhub" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-together-inference.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs Together AI Inference", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-together-inference" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs Vercel AI Gateway", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vercel-ai-gateway" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vertex-ai.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vertex-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "SiliconFlow vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Simplismart vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "StepFun API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "SWE-2 Flash vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Together AI Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Vercel AI Gateway vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-sambanova" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-sambanova.json", "title": "Prism Inference vs SambaCloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-sambanova" } ], "panel": null, "scores": [ { "by": 30, "edge": "sambanova", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "sambanova": 85, "weight": 16, "xai-api": 55 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 7, "edge": "xai-api", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "sambanova": 81, "weight": 13, "xai-api": 88 }, { "by": 23, "edge": "xai-api", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "sambanova": 67, "weight": 13, "xai-api": 90 }, { "by": 36, "edge": "xai-api", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "sambanova": 61, "weight": 14, "xai-api": 97 }, { "by": 20, "edge": "sambanova", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "sambanova": 40, "weight": 10, "xai-api": 20 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 0, "edge": "", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "sambanova": 77, "weight": 7, "xai-api": 77 }, { "by": 10, "edge": "sambanova", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "sambanova": 73, "weight": 7, "xai-api": 63 } ], "summary": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against SambaCloud's 64.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. SambaCloud leads on reliability, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do llm inference.", "tasks": [ { "a": "$2.39", "b": "$21.76", "cheaper": "sambanova", "task": "Research a product and write a sourced report", "what": "gpt-oss-120b on SambaCloud, grok-4.7 on xAI API (Grok)" }, { "a": "$0.53", "b": "$4.85", "cheaper": "sambanova", "task": "Build a small four-page website", "what": "gpt-oss-120b on SambaCloud, grok-4.7 on xAI API (Grok)" }, { "a": "$0.12", "b": "$1.07", "cheaper": "sambanova", "task": "Find and fix a bug in a large codebase", "what": "gpt-oss-120b on SambaCloud, grok-4.7 on xAI API (Grok)" } ], "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "sambanova": "Per-token prices are readable without a login, a free tier needs no card, and no incident has been posted since 25 June 2026. A Data Processing Addendum now names 24 sub-processors. Production models get two to three weeks' notice before removal, 13 model ids left between March and June 2026, and the product page's privacy claim contradicts the terms.", "xai-api": "Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.min.md" }, "markdown": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against SambaCloud's 64.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. SambaCloud leads on reliability, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do llm inference.\n\n- SambaCloud: grade B, 64.9/100, rank #444 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sambanova.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sambanova.json\n- xAI API (Grok): grade BB, 71.7/100, rank #151 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xai-api.json\n- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md\n- All 830 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### SambaCloud (B)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 85 against 55\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 73 against 63\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: Production models get a notice of two to three weeks, and 13 model ids were removed between 9 March and 9 June 2026\n\n### xAI API (Grok) (BB)\n\nGood for: Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 88 against 81\n- Agent ergonomics, 90 against 67\n- Security \u0026 auth, 97 against 61\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better\n- No incidents deducted, where SambaCloud loses 5 points for them\n\nWatch for: API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Security \u0026 auth: xAI API (Grok) +36\n\n- SambaCloud (61): Model reading. Bearer keys from the console, up to 25 per user and shown once. No scopes, project limits or rotation guidance were found, and the key travels in a header, never in the URL (18 of 30). The terms let SambaNova access, store and process Customer Content solely to supply the service and for no other purposes, which rules out training without naming it (18 of 20). The DPA's Annex I, read on 1 November, keeps prompts, inputs and completions no more than 30 days for security, fraud and abuse monitoring. No zero-retention option was found in the pages read, and the product page says SambaCloud never sees or collects prompts, against that retention and terms that grant a right to store content and to use query logs (10 of 15, between deepseek-api's 5 and siliconflow's 6 with no period stated and the 15 groq, mistral-api and xai-api take for 30 days with a zero-retention route). The console has a Usage page. No request logs or audit log were found in the docs (5 of 15). The trust centre states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty was found, and the SDK's SECURITY.md sends service reports to a general address (10 of 20).\n- xAI API (Grok) (97): Model reading. Team API keys with ACLs per endpoint and per model, QPM and TPM caps, expiry, and create, rotate, disable and delete through the Management API, plus documented mTLS. GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys and emails the owner (30). The security FAQ says SpaceXSI never trains on API inputs or outputs without explicit permission (20). Requests and responses are kept 30 days for abuse auditing, then deleted, and team admins can switch on zero data retention themselves, confirmed by an `x-zero-data-retention` header on every response (15). Console audit log and a Management API audit-events endpoint, plus optional per-key request logging (15). security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 with a HackerOne bug bounty and a separate safety contact for prompt-injection issues. SOC 2 Type 2 is claimed in the security FAQ with the reports behind an NDA in the trust centre, so 17 of 20. Remote MCP doesn't support `require_approval`, which the model checklist doesn't score but reviewers should see. New in October, a `guidelines` array lets the caller make the model decline nsfw, violence or profanity content, which the checklist doesn't score.\n\n### Reliability: SambaCloud +30\n\n- SambaCloud (85): Hosted reading. Status page at status.sambanova.ai on Statuspage, with components for the API gateway, the Playground and each model, read from the page itself on 1 November (20). Its history.atom feed, read on 1 November (the 8 October reading came from the /api/ path, which robots.txt disallows, and is struck), has nothing newer than an 8-minute Playground login fault on 25 June 2026, so nothing is posted for the window from 3 August (30). Limits published per model and tier, 20 requests a minute and 20 a day on the free tier, 60 and 12,000 on the Developer tier, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (15). `x-ratelimit-*` headers on every response, the error table says to retry `queue_full` after a delay, and the SDKs retry 429 and server errors twice with backoff, per the 8 October check. No `Retry-After` header was found in the docs or the OpenAPI document (10 of 15). No SLA found on the legal page, re-read on 1 November, or in the terms (0). Three production models are generally available, the rest previews, per the 8 October check (10). 20+30+15+10+0+10 = 85.\n- xAI API (Grok) (55): Status page at status.x.ai with components for the global and US API endpoints, voice, the consumer apps and, since the Cursor merger, Cursor's services, with an RSS feed (20). The feed, read on 6 November, now holds 267 incidents back to 11 August, so the whole 90-day window is readable. On the API components there were high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 from 21:57 to 23:28 UTC on 17 August (about 90 minutes) and a models outage on the global and US endpoints from 13:30 to 17:09 UTC on 3 September (about 3 hours 40 minutes), so several majors. A 26-minute datacenter outage across the API on 22 September, voice disruptions of 12 and 28 minutes on 10 September and 6 October, a 63-minute voice and Imagine degradation on 30 October and a 37-second model degradation on 24 October add to the record (0). Rate limits published per model and tier, grok-4.7 at Tier 0 is 150 requests a second and 50M TPM, with the per-second cap derived as RPM divided by 48 (15). The rate-limits page shows exponential backoff on 429, but no Retry-After header or overload guidance was found (10 of 15). No SLA found in the docs or llms.txt (0). The Responses API has been GA since September 2025 and grok-4.7 carries no preview label (10).\n\n### Agent ergonomics: xAI API (Grok) +23\n\n- SambaCloud (67): Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with `tool_choice` to force a function, on six listed models, and a July 2026 fix for tool calls that were buffered when streaming (17 of 20). `json_object` and `json_schema` output, best effort only, with a known failure on DeepSeek-V3.2 recorded in July 2026 (8 of 15). Automatic prompt caching on the MiniMax models only, with cached input on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash at a tenth of the input price on the 1 November pricing page, a 4,096-token minimum and no guaranteed persistence (10 of 15). 131,072-token context on four of six models, 1M on the MiniMax-M3 preview, and output capped at 7,168 tokens on DeepSeek and 3,072 on Llama 3.3 70B (8 of 15). No batch API found in the docs index or the OpenAPI document (0 of 10). Official SDKs for Python and TypeScript, and the OpenAI and Anthropic clients work with a changed base URL (10). Errors carry `type`, `param`, `code` and `request_id` (14 of 15).\n- xAI API (Grok) (90): Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with parallel calls on by default and `tool_choice` of auto, required, none or a named function (20). Guaranteed structured outputs (15). Automatic prompt caching, cached input at 0.25x on grok-4.7 ($0.50 per million) and 0.16x on grok-4.3 (15). 500,000-token context on grok-4.7 and 1,000,000 on grok-4.3, 13 of 15 for the default model's 500K. The Batch API is now 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 as well as the older models, with batch requests outside the rate limits (10 of 10, up from 5 on 6 October). One first-party SDK, `xai-sdk` for Python, with the OpenAI SDKs and Vercel's AI SDK documented as alternatives (5 of 10). Status codes documented with fixes, no Retry-After header found (12 of 15).\n\n### Payments \u0026 pricing: SambaCloud +20\n\n- SambaCloud (40): No machine payment protocol (0). Per-token prices on the pricing page, read without a login on 1 November, such as gpt-oss-120b at $0.22 in and $0.59 out per 1M tokens (20). Free tier with no payment method, per the 8 October check (20). A person signs up in the console to get a key (0).\n- xAI API (Grok) (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token and per-call prices published without a login on docs.x.ai/developers/pricing (20). No free tier found for the text API, and the quickstart says to load the account with credits (0). Sign-up is in the browser at console.x.ai. The Management API can create keys and top up prepaid credit, but only with a management key made by a person in the console, so no line credit (0).\n\n### Transparency \u0026 trust: SambaCloud +10\n\n- SambaCloud (73): Closed service with clear terms that name the entity and the governing law, and Apache-2.0 SDKs and OpenAPI document (15). The privacy policy is still dated 27 May 2023 and doesn't name SambaCloud or API inputs. A Data Processing Addendum, part of the Terms of Service, is now linked from the legal page (undated). It limits processing of customer personal data to the agreement, its Annex I says prompts, inputs and completions are processed transiently and kept no more than 30 days for security, fraud and abuse monitoring, then deleted, and it deletes customer personal data within 30 days of termination and from backups within 90. The product page's claim, re-read on 1 November, that SambaCloud 'never sees or collects any of your data or user prompts' sits beside that 30-day retention and terms that allow storing content and using query logs (16 of 30, as novita-ai's stated retention periods, below mistral-api's 18 where the DPA and other pages agree). A deprecations page with notice and removal dates back to April 2025, recording MiniMax-M2.7's 1 October removal with a 1 September notice per the 27 October read, though nothing for Mistral Large 3, per the 8 October check (14 of 20). The DPA's Annex III names 24 sub-processors with purpose and location (USA, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia) and promises 30 days' notice of changes, though it doesn't say where inference runs for a given request (18 of 20). 15+16+14+18 = 63.\n- xAI API (Grok) (63): Closed service under xAI's enterprise terms, with the Python SDK under Apache-2.0 (15). The docs agree with each other on no training, 30-day abuse retention, 30-day storage of stateful responses and the ZDR route, but the privacy policy, enterprise terms and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block page on 6 October and again on 6 November, so they couldn't be compared (15 of 30). Dated migration guides and redirect tables for each retirement, but no written deprecation policy, and Chat Completions, Anthropic compatibility and grok-voice-2.0 are labelled deprecated with no date (12 of 20). The US regional endpoint states what stays in the US, the global endpoint guarantees no region, and no subprocessor list was readable (10 of 20).\n\n### Schema \u0026 documentation: xAI API (Grok) +7\n\n- SambaCloud (81): Public OpenAPI 3.1.1 document, still labelled version 1.2.0 though its content changed on 27 October 2026, with 10 operations and 165 schemas (25). `llms.txt` at docs.sambanova.ai/docs/llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each page, per the 8 October check (docs.sambanova.ai answered robots.txt with a bot check on 1 November, so it wasn't read) (10). 718 descriptions in the document, with pages for function calling, Responses, Messages and caching. When not to use a route is rarely stated (15 of 20). Typed parameters with 150 enums, and request bodies now declare `additionalProperties: false`, but JSON schema output is best effort and `strict: true` has no effect (10 of 15). Code examples in Python and TypeScript, and an errors page with 13 codes and a recovery suggestion for each, per the 8 October check (13 of 15). The spec is versioned in its repository, but the version label didn't move with the 27 October changes, the newest SambaCloud release note seen is 7 July 2026, and the models page disagreed with `/v1/models` on 8 October (8 of 15). 25+10+15+10+13+8 = 81.\n- xAI API (Grok) (88): OpenAPI 3.1 document at docs.x.ai/openapi.json, 39 paths and 205 schemas on 6 November, covering Responses, Chat Completions, files, images, videos and models. The batch endpoints documented in the REST reference still aren't in it (20 of 25, applied as for gemini-api's missing Interactions API). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every page, plus a docs MCP server (10). The models page says which model to use for code, chat, images, video and voice, and reference pages list each parameter. Reference not read in full (18 of 20). Structured outputs are guaranteed to match the schema for supported keywords, and tool arguments always conform with `strict` implicitly true (15). Examples in Python, JavaScript and curl on every guide. The debugging page lists status codes with fixes, but the cause cells for 400, 403, 404 and 415 are still empty (13 of 15). Release notes are grouped by month without day dates, and model slugs come as aliases and dated versions (12 of 15).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | SambaCloud | xAI API (Grok) | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 55 | SambaCloud +30 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 88 | xAI API (Grok) +7 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 90 | xAI API (Grok) +23 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 97 | xAI API (Grok) +36 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | SambaCloud +20 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 77 | even |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 63 | SambaCloud +10 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **64.9 · B** | **71.7 · BB** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | SambaCloud | xAI API (Grok) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | SambaNova Systems, Inc. | SpaceXSI (xAI) |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.sambanova.ai/v1` | `https://api.x.ai/v1` |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | API key |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Proprietary service under the SambaCloud Terms of Service. The SDKs and the OpenAPI document are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-27 | 2026-11-02 |\n| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-10-27 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2023-05-27 | 2026-10-27 |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |\n| Popularity | 2 stars, 76 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk | 597 stars, 912k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |\n\n## What the same task costs\n\n| Task | SambaCloud | xAI API (Grok) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Research a product and write a sourced report | $2.39 | $21.76 |\n| Build a small four-page website | $0.53 | $4.85 |\n| Find and fix a bug in a large codebase | $0.12 | $1.07 |\n\n## How the scores have moved\n\n### SambaCloud\n\n- -1.5 on 1 November 2026: new evidence, negative event\n- -0.1 on 28 October 2026: correction\n- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist\n\n### xAI API (Grok)\n\nNo score change since it was listed.\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**SambaCloud.** Per-token prices are readable without a login, a free tier needs no card, and no incident has been posted since 25 June 2026. A Data Processing Addendum now names 24 sub-processors. Production models get two to three weeks' notice before removal, 13 model ids left between March and June 2026, and the product page's privacy claim contradicts the terms.\n\n**xAI API (Grok).** Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### SambaCloud\n\n1. Call `GET https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/models` at start-up and use only ids it returns. The docs and status page have named models the API no longer serves\n2. Read `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests` and `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests-day` on every response. The free tier allows 20 requests a day per model\n3. Treat 429 `queue_full` and 503 `maintenance` as retryable after a delay, and 410 `model_deprecated` as a signal to change model\n4. Validate JSON output yourself. Schema enforcement is best effort and `strict: true` changes nothing\n5. Drop `do_sample` before moving to Python SDK 1.14.0 or TypeScript 1.11.0. Those releases removed it\n\n### xAI API (Grok)\n\n1. Build on the Responses API at https://api.x.ai/v1. Chat Completions is labelled deprecated and the Anthropic-compatible endpoint fully deprecated\n2. Pin a dated model slug. A retired slug keeps answering from a replacement model, billed at the replacement's price\n3. Back off exponentially on 429. The per-second cap is the per-minute budget divided by 48, with a minimum of 2\n4. Set `allowed_tools` on remote MCP servers. There's no approval step, and every exposed tool enters the context\n5. Use https://us.api.x.ai/v1 when processing must stay in the US. It costs 1.1x and serves only grok-4.7 and grok-4.6\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, SambaCloud or xAI API (Grok)?\n\nxAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against SambaCloud's 64.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. SambaCloud leads on reliability, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Do SambaCloud and xAI API (Grok) need an API key?\n\nBoth need an API key.\n\n### Can an agent call SambaCloud and xAI API (Grok) without installing anything?\n\nYes. SambaCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sambanova.ai/v1 and xAI API (Grok) at https://api.x.ai/v1.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"sambanova\", \"b\": \"xai-api\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare sambanova xai-api`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sambanova.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xai-api.json\n\n## Other comparisons with SambaCloud or xAI API (Grok)\n\n- [Amazon Bedrock vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-sambanova.md)\n- [Amazon Bedrock vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Claude API vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-sambanova.md)\n- [Claude API vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Antseed vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-sambanova.md)\n- [Antseed vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-sambanova.md)\n- [Azure OpenAI in 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