# What BitsRun is

> BitsRun runs open AI models as your own private API that sleeps when nobody uses it, so you pay by the second only while it is awake.

Source: https://bitsrun.com/docs/get-started/
Updated: 2026-11-09

## In two sentences

BitsRun takes an open model you name, such as `qwen3:8b` from Ollama or a repo from Hugging Face, and gives you a private web address (an endpoint) that answers like the OpenAI API. It puts the model on a GPU when a request arrives, puts it to sleep when requests stop, and bills by the second only while it is awake.

## Words you will see

| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Model | The AI that writes answers or turns text into numbers. Open models are free to download and run, for example Qwen, Llama, Mistral or Gemma. |
| Endpoint | Your private web address for one model, for example `https://01k8y4000d3m00000000000011.endpoint.bitsrun.com/v1`. |
| GPU | The graphics chip that runs the model. BitsRun offers NVIDIA L4 (24 GB), L40S (48 GB) and 4x L4 (96 GB). |
| API key | A secret your code sends with each request to prove it is allowed to call your endpoint. |
| Cold start | The wait while a sleeping endpoint wakes up: a GPU starts and the model loads. It is never billed. |
| Credit | Your prepaid balance in US dollars. Everything you run draws from it. |

## What you can run

- **Chat and text models** for assistants, agents, summaries and coding. Many support tool calling (the model asks your code to run a function and uses the result).
- **Embedding models** that turn text into numbers for search and retrieval (RAG).

Models come from three places: an [Ollama name](https://bitsrun.com/docs/models/#ollama-names), a [Hugging Face repo](https://bitsrun.com/docs/models/#hugging-face-repos), or a file you [upload](https://bitsrun.com/docs/models/uploads/).

## What it costs

You pay per second while the endpoint is awake. On an NVIDIA L4 that is $0.000264 a second ($0.95 an hour). Starting a GPU, loading the model and sleeping cost nothing. The full picture, with examples, is in [How billing works](https://bitsrun.com/docs/billing/).

## How it works, step by step

1. You deploy a model. BitsRun checks its size and picks the smallest GPU that fits.
2. Your code sends a request to the endpoint with an API key.
3. If the endpoint sleeps, BitsRun starts a GPU and loads the model. The request waits.
4. The model answers. Billing runs by the second.
5. When no request arrives for your chosen time (60 seconds to 1 hour, default 2 minutes), the endpoint goes back to sleep and billing stops.

## Privacy in one line

Your prompts and the model's answers are never logged or stored, and every endpoint is yours alone. See [Privacy and your data](https://bitsrun.com/docs/account/privacy/).

## Next step

[Create your account](https://bitsrun.com/docs/get-started/create-account/). It takes about a minute.