New models ship every few months. The best choice for production is rarely the newest one—it's the one that fits your constraints and delivers consistent results.
Consider latency. Customer-facing chat needs sub-second response; internal summarization can batch and wait. Match model size and routing (e.g. fast model for routing, larger model for complex queries) to your SLA.
Consider cost. Token pricing varies widely. A cheap model that needs 10x more tokens may cost more than a premium one. Run experiments with real traffic patterns before committing.
Consider data sensitivity. PII, health data, or trade secrets may require private deployment (your VPC, your keys) rather than third-party APIs. Document where data flows and who can access it.
Consider vendor lock-in. Proprietary APIs are convenient but tie you to one provider. Open models and standard interfaces (e.g. OpenAI-compatible endpoints) give flexibility to switch or self-host later.
We help teams evaluate and select models for production: benchmarking, cost modeling, and architecture decisions so you choose confidently.