Xorbits Inference (Xinference) - AI Inference Platforms Tool

Overview

Xorbits Inference (Xinference) is an open-source Python library designed to simplify deployment and serving of language, speech-recognition, and multimodal models. It focuses on providing a minimal-code migration path so developers can substitute OpenAI GPT endpoints with open-source models while keeping most client-side logic intact. According to the project's GitHub repository, Xinference targets cloud, on-premises, and self-hosted environments to give teams flexibility over where inference runs and how models are served. Xinference emphasizes practical inference features important for production usage: a lightweight API surface compatible with common request patterns, adapters to run different model types, and tooling to package and serve models in a reproducible runtime. The project is distributed via its GitHub repo and is community-driven, aiming to make switching from closed APIs to self-hosted or cloud-hosted open models straightforward for engineering teams and researchers.

Installation

Install via pip:

pip install xinference
git clone https://github.com/xorbitsai/inference.git && cd inference
docker build -t xinference . && docker run -p 8080:8080 xinference

Key Features

  • Serve language, speech-recognition, and multimodal models from a unified interface
  • Minimize code changes when replacing OpenAI GPT with open-source models
  • Deployable to cloud, on-premises, or self-hosted infrastructure
  • Lightweight API for request/response and streaming inference workflows
  • Model packaging and runtime tooling to reproduce serving environments

Community

Xinference is developed openly on GitHub and maintained by Xorbits with community contributions. According to the repository, development is active, issues and pull requests are used for feedback and fixes, and contributors collaborate on model adapters and deployment examples. Users typically discuss usage patterns and deployment questions through the repo's issues and PRs; check the project's GitHub page for the latest activity, contribution guidelines, and release notes.

Last Refreshed: 2026-01-09

Key Information

  • Category: Inference Platforms
  • Type: AI Inference Platforms Tool