Hugging Face Inference Alternative | unoblox

The Hugging Face Hub is where most open-weight models live, and Inference Endpoints or the serverless Inference API are the usual way to serve them — either billed by the hour for a dedicated endpoint, or rate-limited on the shared tier, both settled internationally. unoblox serves the same class of open-weight families — Qwen, Llama, DeepSeek, Gemma — behind one key, priced per token, in rupees.

What Hugging Face Inference covers

The Hub hosts nearly every open checkpoint that matters, and Inference Endpoints turn one into a dedicated, autoscaling API — genuinely useful for a custom or fine-tuned checkpoint that isn't available anywhere else. The serverless Inference API is the lighter-weight option for experimentation, with its own rate limits.

Where Indian teams feel it

A dedicated endpoint billed by the hour keeps costing whether traffic is steady or not, and moving a serverless prototype into production usually means switching to dedicated — and the billing shift that comes with it. Either way, the charge settles internationally, and finance ends up reconciling an international payment rather than reading a domestic GST invoice.

The same open-weight families, per token

Model	Input ₹ / 1M tokens	Output ₹ / 1M tokens
Qwen3.8-27B (open weights, vision)	₹16.32	₹48.96
Llama 4 Maverick	₹20.16	₹80.64
Llama 4 Scout	₹10.08	₹30.24
Gemma 4 31B	₹13.10	₹38.30
Qwen3 1.7B	Free (₹0)	Free (₹0)

One key, no dedicated endpoint to provision

curl https://api.unoblox.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ub-gw-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"qwen/qwen3.8-27b","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Extract the key dates from this contract excerpt."}]}'

There's no autoscaling configuration to set up first — the model is already live behind the endpoint above.

When a dedicated Hugging Face endpoint still makes sense

If you've fine-tuned your own checkpoint and it isn't part of any hosted catalog anywhere, a Hugging Face dedicated endpoint is still the right tool — it exists precisely for that case, and no gateway with a fixed catalog can substitute for it. unoblox is the better fit once the model you need is a well-known open-weight family already on the catalog, and you'd rather pay per token in rupees than provision and pay for hardware by the hour.

Frequently asked questions

Are these literally the same open weights as on Hugging Face? Yes — Qwen, Llama, Gemma and DeepSeek are the same open model families, served behind a managed endpoint instead of one you provision and scale yourself.

Do I still need a Hugging Face account? No, unoblox is a separate, standalone gateway.

Can I run a checkpoint I fine-tuned myself? Not currently — unoblox serves the curated catalog listed on /models, not arbitrary uploaded checkpoints.

Is there a free option to start with? Yes, Qwen3 1.7B is free (₹0).

How does billing actually differ? Per token, in rupees, on one monthly GST invoice — no hourly dedicated-endpoint commitment and no international settlement.

Is data for these models processed in India? Only select unoblox-hosted small models run on India infrastructure. Most catalog models don't guarantee residency by default — check /models for specifics before assuming either way.

Get started in rupees → https://unoblox.ai/sign-in