$0
Starting price
open weights; you pay compute or per-token hosting
Report
Should I Use Llama?
Meta's family of open-weight AI models
Depends
DependsTake it if you have engineers who want self-hosting control over cost, privacy, or fine-tuning — the weights are free.
Powerful, free open-weight LLMs — but 'free' means you run the servers. Non-technical teams: use ChatGPT or Claude.
Confidence: Medium
Yes
Free tier
download and self-host under Meta's license
2,289
US companies using it
tracked by TheirStack
No
Open-source status
custom Meta license, not OSI-approved
Value for money
5
Free weights; pay only compute or tokens
Ease of use
2
Self-hosting needs vLLM, GPUs, ML ops
Feature depth
4
Model sizes for every scale plus safety tooling
Security posture
2
Critical CVEs in Meta repo and llama.cpp
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- highYou patch your own stack: critical CVEs in and Meta's reference code10
- mediumLicense restricts some uses; not OSI open source — get legal review before commercial products⁹
- mediumSelf-hosting 70B-class models needs costly GPUs; may beat API pricing only at scale⁸
- mediumNo security page on and no official support channel
Best for
- Privacy-sensitive teams self-hosting
- Cost-driven AI product builders
- Fine-tuning on proprietary data
- Enterprises deploying via Bedrock or Azure
Not for
- Non-technical users wanting a ready chatbot — buy ChatGPT
- Teams without DevOps skills or GPU budget
- Projects needing true OSI open-source licensing
- Buyers who need vendor SLAs and a support desk
Companies that use it
- Shopify14
- Nomura
- Smartly
Pricing
Self-hosted
$0 license + compute
- Download weights, run anywhere
- You manage GPUs, scaling, security
Hosted APIs (Azure, Bedrock, DeepInfra)
Pay per token
- No infrastructure work
- Cloud vendor handles support
Security
Model weights are fine, but surrounding tooling carries real CVEs — and llama.com has no security page.
- CVE-2024-50050: critical vulnerability in meta-llama repoOligo Security disclosed a critical flaw in Meta's Llama code.10
- CVE-2026-27940: llama.cpp buffer overflowBuffer overflow in, the most common local inference engine.11
- CVE-2026-21869: llama.cppAdditional vulnerability tracked by NIST.
- Meta Llama framework flaw exposed AI systemsReported January 2025; affected systems exposed to compromise.12
What users say
Users loved Llama 3's quality and cost but many felt Llama 4 was a step back.
“I'm incredibly disappointed with Llama-4”
“Llama 3 is out of competition.”
“Anyone else find Llama 3.1 models kinda underwhelming?”
Alternatives
Compare Llama with each alternative.
Ollama
Easiest way to run Llama locally, no setup pain
Llama vs OllamaChatGPT
Managed AI with zero infrastructure; simplest for most teams
Llama vs ChatGPTClaude
Managed assistant when quality matters more than control
Llama vs ClaudeDeepInfra
Hosted Llama APIs; skip owning GPUs entirely
Llama vs DeepInfraFull analysis
Based on 15+ public sources; many 'llama' results were unrelated products (LlamaIndex, EasyLlama, a snowboard, a board game) and were excluded.
Sources
- Llama Pros and Cons — G2g2.comreview
review
news
- Meta's Llama on Amazon Bedrock — AWSaws.amazon.comofficial
- Llama pricing — Azure AI Foundryazure.microsoft.comofficial
- Cost of self-hosting Llama-3 8B — Hacker Newsnews.ycombinator.comnews
- Meta's LLaMA license is still not Open Source — OSIopensource.orgnews
- CVE-2024-50050 in meta-llama — Oligo Securityoligo.securitysecurity
- CVE-2026-27940: llama.cpp buffer overflow — SentinelOnesentinelone.comsecurity
- Meta's Llama Framework Flaw — The Hacker Newsthehackernews.comsecurity
- LlamaFirewall — Meta Purple Llamameta-llama.github.ioofficial
- Case Studies — Meta for Developersdeveloper.meta.comofficial
- 2289 companies use Meta Llama in the US — TheirStacktheirstack.comnews
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