Batched Inference
Batch APIs let you submit thousands of prompts for offline processing at 50% of synchronous pricing · turnaround up to 24 hours.
Batch APIs let you submit thousands of prompts for offline processing at 50% of synchronous pricing · turnaround up to 24 hours.
Basic
OpenAI Batch API, Anthropic Message Batches, and Gemini Batch Prediction all offer a tradeoff: submit a JSONL file of prompts, get results back within 24 hours, pay 50% of real-time pricing. Use cases: bulk content generation, offline data labeling, evaluation runs, embedding generation. Not for interactive apps.
Deep
Batch throughput bypasses rate limits · you can submit 50K prompts even if your sync rate limit is 1000 RPM. The 50% discount applies to both input and output tokens. Providers run batches on leftover capacity, which is why the SLA is "up to 24 hours." Typical real-world turnaround: 1-4 hours. Batch pricing combined with prompt caching gives an effective 10-20× cost reduction vs naive synchronous calls.
Expert
Batch is idempotent · provider dedupes by custom_id. Failed items are returned with error codes; no partial charges. Anthropic batch supports cache_control blocks (cache applies across batch). Limits: OpenAI caps at 50K requests or 100MB per batch; Anthropic 100K or 256MB. Cross-provider pattern: use batch for reranking, synthetic data generation, large-scale evaluation. Finops teams now mandate batch for any workflow that can tolerate 1-24h latency.
Depending on why you're here
- ·50% discount on input + output tokens
- ·SLA 24 hours · typical 1-4 hours
- ·Bypasses synchronous rate limits
- ·Use for eval runs, embeddings, bulk generation
- ·JSONL submission · poll until complete
- ·Combine with prompt caching for stacked savings
- ·Batch utilizes spare provider capacity · win-win pricing
- ·Enterprise workloads increasingly shift to batch
- ·Catalyst for very large-scale AI training data generation
- ·A way to ask AI many questions at once for half price · but wait hours for answers
- ·Good for big non-urgent jobs
- ·Not for chat apps
Batch API is the first cost-cutting lever for any non-chat workflow. 50% off is enormous · use it.