Meta previews an API for its Llama AI models

At its inaugural LlamaCon AI developer conference on Tuesday, Meta announced an API for its Llama series of AI models: the Llama API. Available in limited preview, the Llama API lets developers explore and experiment with products powered by different Llama models, per Meta. Paired with Meta’s SDKs, it allows developers to build Llama-driven services, tools and applications. Meta didn’t immediately share the API’s pricing with TechCrunch. The rollout of the API comes as Meta looks to maintain a lead in the fiercely competitive open model space. While Llama models have racked up more than a billion downloads to date, according to Meta, rivals such as DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen threaten to upend Meta’s efforts to establish a far-reaching ecosystem with Llama. The Llama API offers tools to fine-tune and evaluate the performance of Llama models, starting with Llama 3.3 8B. Customers can generate data, train on it, and then use Meta’s evaluation suite in the Llama API to test the qualit ... Read full article.