Baseten
A managed platform for deploying and serving customer-selected machine-learning models through hosted inference APIs.
Score calculation
(2 + 8 + 4 + 1 + 8) ÷ 5 = 4.6
5 of six dimensions rated. Unrated dimensions are excluded from the average.
Full scoring method ↗Setup details
Baseten Model APIs, dedicated inference and asynchronous inference; customer-hosted deployments have separate customer-controlled logging.
What fits your needs
Baseten Model APIs, dedicated inference and asynchronous inference; customer-hosted deployments have separate customer-controlled logging.
Good fit
Use it when an engineering team needs model deployment controls, isolated inference or a deployment inside its own cloud network.
Tradeoffs to expect
Tradeoffs
The published zero-retention commitments vary by product: asynchronous inputs can queue for up to 72 hours and customer configurations affect logging.
How to switch
Switching
Keep model weights, runtime containers and API adapters under your control so you can redeploy on another serving platform.
Practical questions
Before use
Confirm whether the workload uses Model APIs, Dedicated Inference or Asynchronous Inference, then align logging, retention and network settings with its data class.
Baseten has identifiable product documentation, but no measured energy footprint or clean-electricity sourcing evidence for the assessed route.
See the evidence
The official sources describe how Baseten is delivered and used. They provide no dated, quantitative energy or water report for this product and no evidence tying its requests to clean electricity. The pages reviewed also name no energy-saving workload or compute control.
1 + 1 reporting + 0 electricity + 0 controls = 2/10. This grades documented practices and transparency.
Per-request electricity and water use, regional power mix and independently verified clean-electricity sourcing for Baseten remain unpublished.
- Reporting1/3
- The Baseten documentation identifies the service route, but provides no dated, quantitative energy or water report for this product.
- Electricity sourcing0/3
- No reviewed official source ties this workload to metered, regional or hourly clean electricity; this is an evidence gap.
- Resource controls0/3
- The reviewed Baseten documentation names no energy-saving compute or workload setting for this route; no physical savings are inferred from speed, pricing or general configuration choices.
Water disclosure
Water reporting has not been assessed for this choice.
Training-data rights vary with the model selected for Baseten; check that model’s source and license.
See the evidence
Baseten can use different model routes. Its product policy describes how requests are handled, while training-data provenance and permissions depend on the selected model. Review that release’s source disclosure, license and creator controls separately.
The selected model name, version and provider can vary by feature or setting. Those details are needed for a model-specific training-data review.
Baseten promises zero persistent retention for Model APIs and Dedicated Inference; asynchronous inputs can remain queued for up to 72 hours.
See the evidence
Baseten’s September 2026 security terms say it does not use Customer Content to train models and applies zero-retention handling to Model APIs and Dedicated Inference. Asynchronous inputs may be queued for up to 72 hours, and customer-selected logging, runtimes or third-party products can create other data paths.
Confirm the product, customer configuration, backups and log settings in the signed order and technical documentation; this service-level commitment does not control software selected by the customer.
Baseten documents deployment options, security controls and customer VPC deployment, but its managed serving platform is not offered under an open-source license; customer model weights remain separately owned.
See the evidence
The cited product pages do not provide a complete source release, reproducible model pipeline and license package for the full assessed service. Individual model licenses and artifacts can differ.
Public sources for Baseten describe the product, but do not report pay, worker voice or independent safeguards for the people who build and support it.
See the evidence
The official pages reviewed for Baseten do not report worker pay and conditions, representation or independent follow-through across employees, contractors and AI supply-chain workers. The low evidence score records what those sources leave unanswered; it is not a finding of mistreatment.
1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1/10. Documented worker protections; missing disclosure is an evidence gap.
Pay, contractor protections, grievance outcomes and independent checks for Baseten's wider workforce remain unreported in the cited product documentation.
- Pay & conditions0/3
- The reviewed product and legal pages give no qualifying pay or conditions disclosure for AI supply-chain workers.
- Worker voice & remedy0/3
- No worker representation, grievance or remedy mechanism was established in these cited official materials.
- Evidence & follow-through0/3
- No independent worker-level assurance covering the product supply chain was established.
No military relationship was found; the terms restrict specified weapons and intelligence uses.
See the evidence
Baseten requires customer agreements to bar specified weapons work and government intelligence or reconnaissance uses. Customers enforce these terms; Baseten can terminate for material breach. These are bounded contractual safeguards, with no independent enforcement record in the reviewed sources.
7 base + 1 safeguard adjustment = 8/10 (3 of 9 safeguard points; every 3 adds 1). No military relationship was established in the cited sources. This ranks above known defense ties without claiming a verified clean record.
This source review does not cover undisclosed customers, contracts, subcontractors or deployments.
- Use restrictions2/4
- Section 3.3 requires end-user restrictions on nuclear devices, missiles, chemical or biological weapons and intelligence organizations; it is not a general military ban.
- Enforcement & oversight1/3
- Customers enforce end-user terms; section 7.2 permits termination for material breach. No independent outcomes are reported.
- Relationship disclosure0/2
- The reviewed sources provide no defense-relationship disclosure.
The official pages reviewed describe the product, service and user terms; they do not identify a defense relationship or deployment. No identity, nationality or unrelated-company inference is used.
Military rubric ↗Baseten is not named in the two official BNC campaign lists; this is not an endorsement.
See the evidence
The check is limited to the BNC consumer-boycott guide and No Tech campaign. Neither list names Baseten; the result says nothing about other campaigns or suppliers.
This check does not cover every BDS campaign, local campaign, supplier, investment or subsequent list change; it is not an endorsement or clean-record conclusion.