# Comparisons: how Akumi compares

Akumi against Azure OpenAI, going direct to a provider, self-hosting, and the other EU platforms. What each one is good at, and what it costs you.

## See how Akumi compares.

Most AI platforms make you choose between EU residency and a stack you can actually build on. Akumi gives you both: EU-resident models, controls enforced in code, and an OpenAI-compatible API you can be running against this afternoon.

## Five ways teams solve this, and what each one costs.

Every one of these is the right answer for somebody. Each page says what the alternative is genuinely good at, and the thing it asks you to give up.

### Azure OpenAI

An EU region under a Microsoft contract, against an EU-resident platform with the controls built in.

### Going direct to a provider

Calling OpenAI or Anthropic yourself: fastest to start, hardest to defend at the compliance review.

### Self-hosting open models

Your own GPUs give the strongest residency answer and a permanent operational bill.

### Aimable

Redact and forward to a US frontier model, against EU-resident models with non-EU egress off by default.

### Zylon

A private platform deployed inside your perimeter, against a managed EU platform behind an API.

## The three questions every comparison comes down to.

Whichever option you weigh Akumi against, the argument lands in the same three places. They are worth asking of any platform, including this one.

### What happens by default?

Not what is possible, but what happens on a request nobody thought about. A control that is off until someone remembers is not a control.

### Can you show it afterwards?

A reviewer does not want the architecture diagram. They want the record of what ran, where, and under which policy, for a date range they choose.

### What does leaving cost?

An OpenAI-compatible endpoint means leaving is one base_url away. Anything that needs a rewrite to exit is a decision you make once.

## Stop comparing. Start building.

Change one base_url and send a real request against your own workload. No sales call, no procurement cycle, no quota request.