APIs & Cloud Providers
Every production AI system calls at least one model API. Choosing your provider(s) affects cost, latency, data privacy, compliance, and what models you can access. This section covers the major providers at API-access level — strengths, pricing structures, and when to use each.
For deep dives into each platform's full product ecosystem, see the dedicated sections: Master Claude, OpenAI & ChatGPT, Gemini & Google AI, and AWS AI.
In This Section
OpenAI API & Azure OpenAI
GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, GPT-5, o-series, DALL-E, Whisper — the OpenAI API ecosystem plus Azure OpenAI for enterprise deployments.
Anthropic Claude API
Claude model family, extended thinking, tool use, computer use, and the Messages API — what makes Claude the go-to for long-context and safety-critical workloads.
Google AI Studio & Vertex AI
Gemini 2.5 Pro/Flash, 1M token context, Grounding with Search, and the two Google AI API surfaces (AI Studio for prototyping, Vertex for production).
Alternative Providers
Together.ai, Groq, AWS Bedrock, Hugging Face Inference, Replicate, Mistral API — when to use them and how they compare on price and model access.