{"rid":"inference/huggingface-inference","card":{"rid":"inference/huggingface-inference","eid":"huggingface","topic":"inference","slug":"huggingface-inference","provider":"Hugging Face Inference Providers","url":"https://router.huggingface.co/v1","domain":"huggingface.co","category":"inference endpoint, platform allocation","tier":null,"verdict":"paid-only","vorder":3,"grp":"paid","confidence":"unverified","binding":"none","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest","egress_metered":0,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-22T04:42:43.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-23","stale_on":"2026-11-06","n_evidence":2,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"no monthly credits on a free account. 'Free users can use Inference Providers by purchasing credits, or by upgrading to PRO'; monthly credits are granted to ...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":1},"record":{"topic":"inference","per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable: an inference endpoint stores nothing for the caller"},"retention":{"stated":"not applicable"},"egress":{"terms":"the response is the payload; no separate egress term is published","metered":false},"interface":["rest"],"tooling":"any OpenAI-compatible client","chaining":"pairs with an agent through the router; the scarce link is the monthly credit, and the 401-as-HTML shape means a body-classifying client fails before it reads the quota","limits":[{"kind":"request-rate","value":"a monthly inference credit allowance on the free account; the amount was not read","source":"probe:https://router.huggingface.co/v1/chat/completions, 2026-10-22"}],"slug":"huggingface-inference","provider":"Hugging Face Inference Providers","url":"https://router.huggingface.co/v1","category":"inference endpoint, platform allocation","free_tier":{"stated":"no monthly credits on a free account. 'Free users can use Inference Providers by purchasing credits, or by upgrading to PRO'; monthly credits are granted to PRO and to Team or Enterprise organizations","unit":"none","metered_on":"none","source_url":"https://huggingface.co/docs/inference-providers/pricing","read_on":"2026-10-22","notes":"the pricing doc's eligibility row reads 'Free Users: yes (credits purchase required)'. So the router is reachable to a free account and only by paying, which is the same shape as a paid-only product with a free door"},"limits_note":"the monthly credits granted to PRO, Team and Enterprise are shared among all members of an organisation and applied before any pay-as-you-go usage is billed; none of them is available to a free account","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"a Hugging Face account plus purchased credits, or a PRO subscription; a free account is refused by price rather than by key","country":null},"reliability_note":"the router returns its 401 as an HTML document rather than JSON, so a probe that classifies on body shape mis-handles it","confidence":"unverified","confidence_note":"the eligibility text, the PRO and organisation credit grant and the router's 401 shape are all from pages read 2026-10-22. The 401 was re-probed at 2026-10-22T04:42:43Z and returned an HTML document rather than JSON.","evidence":[{"url":"probe:https://router.huggingface.co/v1/chat/completions","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"an unauthenticated POST returned 401 with a 3087-byte body, an HTML document, not JSON. The endpoint exists and gates on a key; no key existed here, so no quota was read"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/docs/inference-providers/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'PRO users and Team or Enterprise organizations receive monthly credits to use with Inference Providers. Free users can use Inference Providers by purchasing credits, or by upgrading to PRO'; the eligibility table reads 'Free Users — yes (credits purchase required)'"}],"verdict":"paid-only","verified_at":"2026-10-22T04:42:43.000Z","binding":"none","notes":"It does not: the pricing documentation grants monthly credits to PRO and to Team or Enterprise only, and a free user reaches the router by purchasing credits. The verdict moves from qualifies-with-caveat to paid-only. The 401-as-HTML finding stands and is unchanged. Hugging Face also sells Jobs containers in the compute topic on the same account.","binding_note":"no free allowance exists to bind: the free account can call the router only against purchased credits, so there is no ceiling on a free tier to name"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:request-rate","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.retention.stated","not-applicable"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}