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Baseten vs Braintrust

Baseten logo

Baseten

Software Development

Inference is everything

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Braintrust logo

Braintrust

Software Development

The active observability platform for agents

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Baseten pro and Enterprise pricing not published; requires contacting sales; Braintrust enterprise plan pricing not published, requires custom quote
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Baseten and Braintrust actually diverge.

Attributes where Baseten and Braintrust differ
AttributeBasetenBraintrust
Pricing modelusage-basedfreemium

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Software Development).

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Baseten

  • Custom model deploymentnot Braintrust
  • Fine-tuned LLM hostingnot Braintrust
  • Inference API scalingnot Braintrust

Braintrust

  • Monitoring production AI agents for qualitynot Baseten
  • Detecting patterns in agent failuresnot Baseten
  • Defining quality expectations before shipping agentsnot Baseten
  • Tracking prompts and tool calls in productionnot Baseten

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Baseten

  • Pro and Enterprise pricing not published; requires contacting sales
  • Pricing varies significantly by compute type and model

Braintrust

  • Enterprise plan pricing not published, requires custom quote
  • Pro plan includes 6-12 months free discount for startups only

Pricing, plan by plan

Baseten

Free
  • BasicFree
    • Pay-as-you-go deployments
    • Dedicated model APIs
    • SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance
  • Pro$null/month
    • Priority GPU access
    • Unlimited autoscaling
    • Volume discounts available
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Self-hosted options
    • Custom SLAs
    • Data residency control

Braintrust

Free
  • StarterFree
    • $10 model credits monthly included
    • 1 GB processed data monthly
    • 10000 scores monthly
  • Pro$249/month
    • $249 model credits monthly included
    • 5 GB processed data monthly
    • 50000 scores monthly
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Custom data retention and export capabilities
    • RBAC and premium support
    • On-premises or hosted solutions available

Which should you pick?

Choose Baseten if

  • You want to start without paying.
Baseten review

Choose Braintrust if

  • You want to start without paying.
Braintrust review

Questions people ask

Is Baseten or Braintrust better?
Neither clearly leads. Baseten starts at Free and Braintrust at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Baseten or Braintrust?
Baseten starts at Free and Braintrust at Free.
Does Baseten or Braintrust run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Baseten for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Baseten best used for?
Baseten is most often used for custom model deployment, fine-tuned llm hosting, inference api scaling. Of those, custom model deployment and fine-tuned llm hosting are not what Braintrust is typically brought in for.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Baseten: Does Baseten have a free tier?

Yes, Baseten's Basic plan is free with a pay-as-you-go model for dedicated deployments and model APIs.

Source
Braintrust: Does Braintrust have a free plan?

Braintrust Starter plan is free and includes $10 model credits monthly, 1 GB processed data, 10000 scores monthly, and 14-day data retention with unlimited users and projects. No credit card required.

Source
Baseten: How are GPU instances priced on Baseten?

GPU instances are priced per minute: T4 at $0.01052/min, H100 at $0.10833/min, and B200 at $0.16633/min. CPU instances range from $0.00058 to $0.01382 per minute.

Source
Braintrust: How much does the Braintrust Pro plan cost?

Braintrust Pro plan costs $249 per month and includes $249 model credits, 5 GB processed data, 50000 scores monthly, and 30-day data retention. Qualifying startups receive 6-12 months free.

Source
Baseten: What are Model API costs on Baseten?

Model API pricing varies by model: DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.13 per million input tokens and $0.028 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.15 and $0.03 respectively.

Source
Braintrust: What are Braintrust's overage charges?

Braintrust charges overage rates after monthly allocations: model credits beyond monthly allotment are charged at token rates, data overage is $4 per GB on Starter or $3 per GB on Pro, scores overage is $2.50 per 1000 on Starter or $1.50 per 1000 on Pro. Extended data retention beyond the included period costs $0.50 per GB per month.

Source
Baseten: Does Baseten charge for idle compute time?

No, Baseten does not charge for idle time; billing only covers active compute usage on deployments.

Source
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