The Inference Escalation Ladder

The Inference Escalation Ladder An architecture diagram generated by Archify. Rung 1 · Your own hardware · Ollama, llama.cpp/GGUF · Architecture component · $0 forever Rung 1 · Your own hardware Ollama, llama.cpp/GGUF $0 forever Rung 2 · Somebody else's free GPU · ZeroGPU Spaces, Groq free tier · Architecture component · $0 with a leash Rung 2 · Somebody else's free GPU ZeroGPU Spaces, Groq free tier $0 with a leash Rung 3 · Pay per token · Inference Providers, one API, 16 backends · Architecture component · no HF markup Rung 3 · Pay per token Inference Providers, one API, 16 backends no HF markup Rung 4 · Rent a whole machine · Inference Endpoints, vLLM/SGlang/TGI · Architecture component · $0.033 to $40 per hour Rung 4 · Rent a whole machine Inference Endpoints, vLLM/SGlang/TGI $0.033 to $40 per hour Rung 5 · Go around Hugging Face · RunPod / Lambda, raw GPU rental · Architecture component · when the math flips Rung 5 · Go around Hugging Face RunPod / Lambda, raw GPU rental when the math flips Legend Cloud External

Rung 1 · Your own hardware

  • • Most people never need to leave here

Rung 5 · Go around Hugging Face

  • • Convenience premium stops being worth it