When we launched flash-1-mini, it was free under Apache 2.0. The plan was to charge for the two larger models behind it — flash-1 at $99, flash-1-pro at $499, one-time. We've changed our mind.
From today, every model SimpleDirect releases is free — forever. No paywall, no per-seat license, no tier you have to upgrade into. Download the weights, run them on your own hardware, and keep them.
Why a paywall never fit
We ask people to own their AI — to hold the weights, run them offline, and answer to no vendor. Putting the most capable versions of that behind a price quietly undercuts the whole idea. The best model shouldn't be the one you can't have.
We sat with it for a while, and the answer was simple. Giving the research and the models to the community — all of it — is the right thing to do. The work is worth more in more hands than it is behind a price.
How SimpleDirect stays in business
Free models don't mean no business. We make money in ways that don't require holding the models back:
- APIs. Some teams would rather call a hosted, managed endpoint than run their own — for the security and convenience of letting someone else operate it. We bill for that usage, transparently.
- Apps, if we build them. If and when we ship our own inference apps, we may charge for the product — for the software and the experience, not the model underneath.
- Enterprise and public sector. We help larger organizations and governments bring SimpleDirect into their own environments, so they own their data and run the models themselves. That's deployment work, not a fee on the weights.
None of that needs a paywall on the research or the models. So there won't be one.
What this means for you
flash-1 and flash-1-pro will ship free, the same way flash-1-mini did — same open releases, same weights, nothing held back for a paid tier. If you already build on flash-1-mini, nothing changes. If you were waiting to see what the bigger models would cost, the answer is nothing.
Every model, free forever. That's the whole point of AI you can own.
Where to next