Open models have freely available weights, so they can be run on your own hardware or with a provider of your choice, and can be modified. Closed models are available only as a service through the provider's interface. The choice has four aspects. Control over data favours open models, especially for sensitive data that must not leave the company. Performance and quality tend to be higher for the strongest closed models, though the gap is narrowing. Costs depend on volume – for large, steady load, running your own can be cheaper, while for irregular load it can be more expensive. The management burden is substantially higher for open models and requires in-house technical capacity that smaller companies do not have. For most Slovak companies, therefore, a practical solution is a service from a provider with data processing contractually covered.
See also: Local models, Cloud AI platforms, AI tool pricing and tokens.
