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Baseten vs Anthropic

A comparison of Baseten and Anthropic built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 12 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Pick Baseten if
Teams that want per-token APIs and dedicated GPUs from one vendor with no plan fee — minute-granularity billing means a model that runs for ten minutes costs ten minutes.
Pick Anthropic if
Teams that want the full 1M-token window at the standard per-token rate rather than a long-context surcharge, and that can use caching and batch to cut a frontier-model bill roughly in half.

6 sourced criteria separate them:

Pricing model
Baseten: No platform fee: per-token Model APIs for open models, and dedicated deployments billed per minute of compute with volume discounts. The Pro tier buys priority access to high-demand GPUs rather than a lower rate.
Anthropic: Per million tokens, priced separately for input and output and per model, with multipliers stacked on top: prompt caching, a 50% batch discount, a 1.1x uplift for US-only inference on Claude 4.6 and later, and a fast-mode premium.
Input price, top model
Baseten: $1.40 per million input tokens for GLM-5.3, with cached input at $0.14 and output at $4.40. GLM-5.2 Fast, a speed variant, is $2.10.
Anthropic: $10 per million input tokens for Claude Fable 5.1, the most capable model. Claude Opus 5 is $5 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.
Output price, top model
Baseten: $4.40 per million output tokens for GLM-5.3.
Anthropic: $50 per million output tokens for Claude Fable 5.1. Claude Opus 5 is $25 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.
Input price, cheapest model
Baseten: $0.10 per million input tokens for GPT OSS 120B, with output at $0.50. GLM-5.3-Flash is $0.15 in and $0.50 out.
Anthropic: $1 per million input tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5, the cheapest current model, with output at $5.
Context window
Baseten: 1,048K tokens on the DeepSeek V4 line and the GLM 5.2/5.3 family, the widest it serves; 262K on the Kimi K2 models, 200K on GLM 4.7 and 128K on GPT OSS 120B. Baseten's table publishes these in thousands, so the magnitude is 1,048,000 rather than the 1,048,576 a power-of-two reading would give — the vendor's own figure, not a conversion of it.
Anthropic: 1M tokens on Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5; 200K on Claude Haiku 4.5. Anthropic states the full 1M window is billed at standard per-token rates.
Max output tokens
Baseten: 262K tokens on most models, and it is a separate ceiling from the context window rather than the remainder of it: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 allows 384K output inside a 1,048K window, while GLM 4.7, Nemotron Ultra and GPT OSS 120B cap output at their full context. The Inkling models are the outlier at 32K.
Anthropic: 128K tokens on the top three models, 64K on Claude Haiku 4.5. The Batch API supports up to 300K output tokens on several models behind a beta header.

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionBasetenAnthropic
Pricing
Pricing modelNo platform fee: per-token Model APIs for open models, and dedicated deployments billed per minute of compute with volume discounts. The Pro tier buys priority access to high-demand GPUs rather than a lower rate.Per million tokens, priced separately for input and output and per model, with multipliers stacked on top: prompt caching, a 50% batch discount, a 1.1x uplift for US-only inference on Claude 4.6 and later, and a fast-mode premium.
Inference
Input price, top model
$1.40 per million input tokens for GLM-5.3, with cached input at $0.14 and output at $4.40. GLM-5.2 Fast, a speed variant, is $2.10.
$10 per million input tokens for Claude Fable 5.1, the most capable model. Claude Opus 5 is $5 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.
Output price, top model
$4.40 per million output tokens for GLM-5.3.
$50 per million output tokens for Claude Fable 5.1. Claude Opus 5 is $25 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.
Input price, cheapest model
$0.10 per million input tokens for GPT OSS 120B, with output at $0.50. GLM-5.3-Flash is $0.15 in and $0.50 out.
$1 per million input tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5, the cheapest current model, with output at $5.
Context window
1,048K tokens on the DeepSeek V4 line and the GLM 5.2/5.3 family, the widest it serves; 262K on the Kimi K2 models, 200K on GLM 4.7 and 128K on GPT OSS 120B. Baseten's table publishes these in thousands, so the magnitude is 1,048,000 rather than the 1,048,576 a power-of-two reading would give — the vendor's own figure, not a conversion of it.
1M tokens on Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5; 200K on Claude Haiku 4.5. Anthropic states the full 1M window is billed at standard per-token rates.
Max output tokens
262K tokens on most models, and it is a separate ceiling from the context window rather than the remainder of it: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 allows 384K output inside a 1,048K window, while GLM 4.7, Nemotron Ultra and GPT OSS 120B cap output at their full context. The Inkling models are the outlier at 32K.
128K tokens on the top three models, 64K on Claude Haiku 4.5. The Batch API supports up to 300K output tokens on several models behind a beta header.
Prompt cachingSupportedSupported

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Pricing model

Baseten
No platform fee: per-token Model APIs for open models, and dedicated deployments billed per minute of compute with volume discounts. The Pro tier buys priority access to high-demand GPUs rather than a lower rate.
Anthropic
Per million tokens, priced separately for input and output and per model, with multipliers stacked on top: prompt caching, a 50% batch discount, a 1.1x uplift for US-only inference on Claude 4.6 and later, and a fast-mode premium.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Baseten ↗

    “$0 per month, pay as you go [...] Only pay for the compute you use, down to the minute. Volume discounts available [...] Pro Unlimited autoscaling and priority compute access [...] Priority access to high-demand GPUs”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Pricing — Claude Docs ↗

    “This page provides detailed pricing information for Anthropic's models and features. All prices are in USD. [...] These multipliers stack with other pricing modifiers, including the Batch API discount and data residency. [...] specifying US-only inference through the inference_geo parameter incurs a 1.1x multiplier on all token pricing categories”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Input price, top model

Baseten
$1.40 per million input tokens for GLM-5.3, with cached input at $0.14 and output at $4.40. GLM-5.2 Fast, a speed variant, is $2.10.
Anthropic
$10 per million input tokens for Claude Fable 5.1, the most capable model. Claude Opus 5 is $5 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Baseten ↗

    “GLM-5.3 GLM-5.3 $1.40 $1.40 $0.14 $0.14 $4.40 [...] GLM-5.2 Fast GLM-5.2 Fast $2.10 $2.10 $0.21”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Pricing — Claude Docs ↗

    “Claude Fable 5.1 | $10 / MTok | $12.50 / MTok | $20 / MTok | $0.25 / MTok | $50 / MTok [...] Claude Opus 5 | $5 / MTok [...] Claude Sonnet 5 | $2 / MTok”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Output price, top model

Baseten
$4.40 per million output tokens for GLM-5.3.
Anthropic
$50 per million output tokens for Claude Fable 5.1. Claude Opus 5 is $25 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Baseten ↗

    “GLM-5.3 GLM-5.3 $1.40 $1.40 $0.14 $0.14 $4.40”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Pricing — Claude Docs ↗

    “Claude Fable 5.1 | $10 / MTok | [...] | $50 / MTok [...] Claude Opus 5 | [...] $25 / MTok [...] Claude Sonnet 5 | [...] $10 / MTok”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Input price, cheapest model

Baseten
$0.10 per million input tokens for GPT OSS 120B, with output at $0.50. GLM-5.3-Flash is $0.15 in and $0.50 out.
Anthropic
$1 per million input tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5, the cheapest current model, with output at $5.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Baseten ↗

    “GPT OSS 120B GPT OSS 120B $0.10 $0.10 - - $0.50 [...] GLM-5.3-Flash GLM-5.3-Flash $0.15 $0.15 $0.03 $0.03 $0.50”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Pricing — Claude Docs ↗

    “Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1 / MTok | $1.25 / MTok | $2 / MTok | $0.10 / MTok | $5 / MTok”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Context window

Baseten

1,048K tokens on the DeepSeek V4 line and the GLM 5.2/5.3 family, the widest it serves; 262K on the Kimi K2 models, 200K on GLM 4.7 and 128K on GPT OSS 120B. Baseten's table publishes these in thousands, so the magnitude is 1,048,000 rather than the 1,048,576 a power-of-two reading would give — the vendor's own figure, not a conversion of it.

Anthropic

1M tokens on Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5; 200K on Claude Haiku 4.5. Anthropic states the full 1M window is billed at standard per-token rates.

Sources (2) →
  • Model APIs overview — Baseten Docs ↗

    “SupportedModelsTable [...] model: "DeepSeek V4 Pro", context: 1048, maxOutput: 262 [...] model: "GLM 5.3", context: 1048, maxOutput: 262 [...] model: "GLM 4.7", context: 200, maxOutput: 200 [...] model: "OpenAI GPT 120B", context: 128, maxOutput: 128”

    Read 2026-09-08 · official docs

  • Models overview — Claude Docs ↗

    “Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens | 1M tokens | 200K tokens”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official docs

Max output tokens

Baseten

262K tokens on most models, and it is a separate ceiling from the context window rather than the remainder of it: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 allows 384K output inside a 1,048K window, while GLM 4.7, Nemotron Ultra and GPT OSS 120B cap output at their full context. The Inkling models are the outlier at 32K.

Anthropic

128K tokens on the top three models, 64K on Claude Haiku 4.5. The Batch API supports up to 300K output tokens on several models behind a beta header.

Sources (2) →
  • Model APIs overview — Baseten Docs ↗

    “SupportedModelsTable [...] model: "DeepSeek V4 Pro", context: 1048, maxOutput: 262 [...] model: "GLM 5.3", context: 1048, maxOutput: 262 [...] model: "GLM 4.7", context: 200, maxOutput: 200 [...] model: "OpenAI GPT 120B", context: 128, maxOutput: 128”

    Read 2026-09-08 · official docs

  • Models overview — Claude Docs ↗

    “Max output | 128K tokens | 128K tokens | 128K tokens | 64K tokens [...] On the Message Batches API, Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5 [...] support up to 300k output tokens with the output-300k-2026-03-24 beta header.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official docs

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Which should you choose?

Choose Baseten if…

Teams that want per-token APIs and dedicated GPUs from one vendor with no plan fee — minute-granularity billing means a model that runs for ten minutes costs ten minutes.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Anthropic if…

Teams that want the full 1M-token window at the standard per-token rate rather than a long-context surcharge, and that can use caching and batch to cut a frontier-model bill roughly in half.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Baseten: Its dedicated H100 works out at $6.50 an hour, roughly three times DeepInfra's, so steady GPU workloads pay a premium for the platform around them.
  • Anthropic: Its cheapest model is $1 per million input tokens, several times what the budget tiers at Google, OpenAI and DeepSeek charge, so high-volume simple work is priced against you.
04.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

Entry paid planBaseten: $0 per month on the Basic plan — pay as you go, with dedicated deployments, model APIs and training included rather than gated behind a fee.
Batch discountAnthropic: 50% off both input and output tokens through the Batch API, for asynchronous processing.
Rate limitsBaseten: Two limits, requests and tokens per minute, set by account status rather than spend: an unverified Basic account gets 15 RPM and 100,000 TPM, a verified Basic or Pro account 120 RPM and 500,000 TPM, Enterprise custom. Cached input counts toward TPM at full weight even though it is billed cheaper.
H100 SXM, per GPU-hourBaseten: $6.50 per hour for a dedicated H100 80GB. Baseten publishes $0.10833 per MINUTE — the hourly figure is that times 60, ours rather than Baseten's, and the page offers an hourly toggle. A100 80GB is $0.06667 a minute and B200 $0.16633.
Largest GPU offeredBaseten: 180GB per GPU on a B200, at $0.16633 per minute — $9.98 an hour.
05.

Questions this comparison answers.

Should I choose Baseten or Anthropic?

Pick Baseten if Teams that want per-token APIs and dedicated GPUs from one vendor with no plan fee — minute-granularity billing means a model that runs for ten minutes costs ten minutes.

Pick Anthropic if Teams that want the full 1M-token window at the standard per-token rate rather than a long-context surcharge, and that can use caching and batch to cut a frontier-model bill roughly in half.

Every page here is sourced and dated.