# Baseten vs OpenAI

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/baseten-vs-openai/

Every value below is read from Baseten's and OpenAI's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Baseten | OpenAI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | 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. | Per million tokens, with a second rate above the short-context threshold — long-context input and output cost roughly double. Batch, Flex, Fast and standard tiers are priced separately, and regional processing adds a 10% uplift on models released from March 2026. |
| 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 gpt-6-astra at short context, rising to $20 above the short-context threshold. gpt-5.6-sol is $4 and gpt-5.6-terra $2. |
| Output price, top model | $4.40 per million output tokens for GLM-5.3. | $50 per million output tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, $75 at long context. |
| 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. | $0.20 per million input tokens for gpt-5.6-luna at short context, with output at $1.20. |
| 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. | 1,050,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra, of which at most 922,000 may be input. |
| 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. | 128,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra. |
| Prompt caching | Supported | Supported |

## 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. ([source](https://www.baseten.co/pricing/))
- OpenAI: Per million tokens, with a second rate above the short-context threshold — long-context input and output cost roughly double. Batch, Flex, Fast and standard tiers are priced separately, and regional processing adds a 10% uplift on models released from March 2026. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/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. ([source](https://www.baseten.co/pricing/))
- OpenAI: $10 per million input tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, rising to $20 above the short-context threshold. gpt-5.6-sol is $4 and gpt-5.6-terra $2. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing))

### Output price, top model

- Baseten: $4.40 per million output tokens for GLM-5.3. ([source](https://www.baseten.co/pricing/))
- OpenAI: $50 per million output tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, $75 at long context. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/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. ([source](https://www.baseten.co/pricing/))
- OpenAI: $0.20 per million input tokens for gpt-5.6-luna at short context, with output at $1.20. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/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. ([source](https://docs.baseten.co/inference/model-apis/overview))
- OpenAI: 1,050,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra, of which at most 922,000 may be input. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-6-astra))

### 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. ([source](https://docs.baseten.co/inference/model-apis/overview))
- OpenAI: 128,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-6-astra))

## Which should you choose?

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 OpenAI if Work that fits inside the short-context rate, where the cheapest tier is $0.20 per million input tokens and the batch tier halves everything above it.

Consider something else: 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.

Consider something else: OpenAI — Long prompts cross into the long-context rate and roughly double the bill, which is a cliff the flat-rate vendors do not have.

## Documented by only one

- Entry paid plan: Baseten: $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 discount: OpenAI: 50% off input and output through the Batch API: gpt-6-astra falls from $10/$50 to $5/$25 at short context.
- Rate limits: Baseten: 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-hour: Baseten: $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 offered: Baseten: 180GB per GPU on a B200, at $0.16633 per minute — $9.98 an hour.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose Baseten or OpenAI?**

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 OpenAI if Work that fits inside the short-context rate, where the cheapest tier is $0.20 per million input tokens and the batch tier halves everything above it.