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 quality of their custom model.

Meta said it won’t use Llama API customer data to train the company’s own models, and that models built using the Llama API can be transferred to another host.

For devs building on top of Meta’s recently released Llama 4 models specifically, the Llama API offers model-serving options via partnerships with Cerebras and Groq. These “early experimental” options are “available by request” to help developers prototype their AI apps, Meta said.

“By simply selecting the Cerebras or Groq model names in the API, developers can […] enjoy a streamlined experience with all usage tracked in one location,” wrote Meta in a blog post provided to TechCrunch. “[W]e look forward to expanding partnerships with additional providers to bring even more options to build on top of Llama.”

Meta said it will expand access to the Llama API “in the coming weeks and months.”