Category
LLM API providers: what they are and who makes them
OpenAI API, Anthropic API, Google Gemini API and 7 more, sorted into types, with the company behind each and where it is based.
Types of LLM API providers
First-party model makers
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, Cohere and DeepSeek build the models they sell. You get the newest releases first and one vendor to blame, and you accept that vendor's pricing and data terms. Each has its own request format, though several now accept OpenAI-style calls.
Open-model hosts
Groq, Together AI and Fireworks AI run open-weight models such as gpt-oss on their own hardware and charge per token or per GPU hour. They suit teams that care about speed or price, and they keep a path open to self-hosting the same weights.
Cloud marketplaces
Amazon Bedrock puts models from many vendors behind one AWS account, with AWS billing, IAM and compliance controls. It fits companies that already buy infrastructure from that cloud, want procurement to stay in one contract, and need existing access controls and audit trails to apply to model calls.
Retrieval and enterprise stacks
Cohere sells embedding, rerank and document parsing models next to its generation models, with private deployment options. This type matters when the job is search over company documents, such as support archives or contracts, rather than open-ended chat, and when the data cannot leave your own network.
Facts at a glance
| Tool | Publisher | Based in | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI API | OpenAI | United States | Paid + API |
| Anthropic API | Anthropic | United States | Paid + API |
| Google Gemini API | United States | Free tier + API | |
| Mistral AI | Mistral AI | France | Free tier + API |
| Cohere | Cohere Inc. | Canada | Trial + API |
| Groq | Groq | United States | Free tier + API |
| Together AI | Together Computer, Inc. | United States | Paid + API |
| Fireworks AI | Fireworks AI, Inc. | United States | Paid + API |
| Amazon Bedrock | Amazon Web Services | United States | Paid + API |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek | China | Paid + API |
