When your data can't go to an outside provider, when your volume makes per-token pricing expensive, or when you need control over speed and uptime. For a prototype, or for the hardest reasoning, a hosted API is often the better start, and we'll say so. Many teams end up hybrid: private for sensitive and routine work, hosted for the rest.
Can it run on our own servers, or with no internet at all?
Yes. We deploy on-premise, in your own cloud account or fully air-gapped. For an air-gapped install, the models, their dependencies and every update are brought in offline, and the servers have no route out.
Which open models do you use, and are they as good as GPT or Claude?
Llama, Qwen, Mistral, Gemma and DeepSeek, among others. The best open models now match hosted ones on many everyday tasks, and a fine-tuned model can beat them on yours — but not on everything. We test candidates on your own examples first, so you see the gap before you decide.
What hardware do we need?
It depends on the model's size and your traffic. A small model runs on a single GPU; a large one needs several, or a quantised version that fits on fewer. We size the hardware to your workload before anything is bought, and can work with servers you already have.
Do we need fine-tuning, or is RAG enough?
For answering from your documents, RAG is usually enough, and it keeps facts current. Fine-tuning suits a format, a tone or a narrow task, and lets a smaller model do a bigger one's job. Training a model from scratch is rarely worth it; we'll tell you if your case is the exception.
What data does fine-tuning need, and where does it go?
Usually a few hundred to a few thousand good examples of the task, which we help you collect and clean. Training runs on your infrastructure or in your cloud account, so the data never leaves it, and personal data can be removed first.
Can it work with our documents and systems?
Yes. The model serves an OpenAI-compatible API, so most tools and code connect as they are. On top of it we build private RAG over your documents, assistants for your teams and AI agents that act in your systems.
How is our data protected?
Prompts, files and answers stay inside your network. People sign in through your single sign-on, each team reaches only what it should, every request is logged, and the deployment is tested for prompt injection and data leaks before launch.
Who owns the model and the code?
Usually you do: for client work, the fine-tuned weights, the training data, the code and the configuration are yours, as set out in our agreement, and run on infrastructure you control. Open model licences differ, and we check that each one fits your use.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
Testing models on your cases and sizing the hardware takes one to two weeks, a first deployment two to six, and fine-tuning a few weeks more where it pays. Running cost is mostly the hardware or cloud GPUs, a fixed cost rather than a bill per token. After a first call we send a written estimate.