> Nscale
Nscale is a European AI hyperscaler providing Serverless Inference for large-scale AI deployment. It offers an OpenAI-compatible API to leading open models like Llama and DeepSeek. New users receive a $5 signup credit to start prototyping without initial cost.
// pros
- Strong institutional backing (Aker, NVIDIA, Dell, Nokia, Point72); not an anonymous individual relay
- Listed as an official Hugging Face Inference Provider, so legitimacy is cross-verifiable
- OpenAI-compatible, no rate limits, no cold starts; officially states request/response data is not logged or used for training
- Low per-token pricing, rated among the most cost-effective by several sources
// cons
- Free access is only a one-time $5 credit; no ongoing free tier, you pay once it's used up
- Signup currently goes mainly through Google SSO
- inference.api.nscale.com requires auth (401); you must register for a key
Good for developers wanting cheap, stable pay-as-you-go access to open-source models; the free credit only covers a brief trial and ongoing use requires payment, but it is more legitimate than a typical relay.
community_reputation
Nscale is a legitimate, well-funded European AI infrastructure company with a positive reputation (cost-effectiveness, HF listing); the free part is just an onboarding credit, not persistently free.
imported analysis — independent third party, not Uprouter editorial · verify before relying on it
How we estimated this: the free allowance is converted to a dollar value using the provider’s own pay-as-you-go rates for the models a typical developer would reach for. When the allowance is metered in requests, tokens or minutes rather than dollars, we assume median usage of the cheapest capable model. Because assumptions are involved, the figure carries the est. flag — treat it as an order of magnitude, not a quote.
note: New users get a one-time $5 free credit to explore the models; after that you add a card to buy more. The core is pay-as-you-go (e.g. GPT-OSS 120B ~$0.1 in / $0.4 out per 1M tokens), with no rate limits and no cold starts.
| Plan | Type | Monthly | Input /1M | Output /1M | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier (source-reported) | free | — | — | — | New users get a one-time $5 free credit to explore the models; after that you add a card to buy more. The core is pay-as-you-go (e.g. GPT-OSS 120B ~$0.1 in / $0.4 out per 1M tokens), with no rate limits and no cold starts. |
| Pay-as-you-go | payg | — | — | — | Token-based pricing for serverless inference. |
Pricing normalized from public sources — always verify with the provider.
// model prices
| Model | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Llama family | — | — | — |
| DeepSeek family | — | — | — |
| gpt-oss-120b | — | — | 131k |
<a href="https://uprouter.online/s/inference-api-nscale-com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://uprouter.online/badge/inference-api-nscale-com.svg" alt="Nscale live status on UPROUTER.ONLINE" height="40"></a>Paste this into your README, docs or status page. The badge shows the same best-effort probe data as the directory, refreshes automatically, and links back to the full Nscale entry — no tracking, no scripts.
$ Does Nscale have a free tier?
Yes — Nscale offers a free tier that we value at roughly $1,089.78 in free credits (estimate — derived from rate-limited usage at pay-as-you-go prices). Always confirm current limits on Nscale's official pricing page — free tiers change without notice.
$ How much does Nscale cost per 1M tokens?
Nscale does not publish simple per-1M-token pricing (it may bill per request, per output, or via a subscription plan). Check their official pricing page for exact figures.
$ Is Nscale safe to use?
Uprouter rates Nscale as low risk. Rated low risk. an official provider with a free tier with pricing, authentication and terms documented on its own site. The model coverage is consistent with a real upstream, so data and reliability risk are modest. Risk ratings are editorial, evidence-based, and never influenced by affiliate relationships.
$ Can I use Nscale through Uprouter Connect?
Yes — Nscale is Connect-compatible. Add your Nscale API key in Uprouter Connect (encrypted at rest) and route requests to it through one OpenAI- and Claude-compatible API, optionally behind failover aliases. Uprouter meters the traffic in compute at the provider's listed rate.
Raw community sentiment, shown unblended. Votes never feed into objective data fields like price, risk, or status — and never into sort order.
No published reviews yet — be the first.
// more_informationprice history · live status · risk & confidence · code snippets
price_history
No recorded changes yet.
live_status
full history →best-effort probes · not a guarantee · last 13h ago
| Checked | Status | Latency |
|---|---|---|
| 13h ago | up | 279ms |
| 14h ago | up | 274ms |
| 1d ago | up | 282ms |
| 2d ago | up | 286ms |
| 3d ago | up | 275ms |
| 4d ago | up | 278ms |
| 12d ago | up | 1561ms |
Uprouter runs its own probes; best-effort, not a guarantee. Probe results depend on our network location and cadence — for production, always use the provider’s own status page.
risk_&_confidence
Rated low risk. an official provider with a free tier with pricing, authentication and terms documented on its own site. The model coverage is consistent with a real upstream, so data and reliability risk are modest.
Confidence reflects how much verifiable evidence (official docs, probe history, community reports) backs this entry. Risk is our editorial assessment of operator reliability and terms — not financial advice.
code_snippets
curl https://uprouter.online/api/connect/v1/chat/completions \ -H "Authorization: Bearer upr_live_YOUR_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{
"model": "llama-family",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello via Nscale" }]
}'Metered in Uprouter compute — the usage log shows which upstream served each request and its exact cost.
Ranked by neutral similarity signals only — live status, Connect compatibility, free-tier shape and free-credit proximity. Commercial relationships never influence this list.