Minibase Beta: Build and deploy small AI models from your browser
We're launching a public (and free) beta.
The most widely used AI models today are massive; they have billions of parameters and are shipped as black boxes from distant data centers. The only practical way to use them is to send your data over an API to a server in Texas (or somewhere like it.) That works fine for broad, general tasks. But the moment you need control over the model’s behavior, cost, latency, or data privacy, then it starts to feel like you’re renting someone else’s brain on their terms.
This arrangement does not make sense, whatsoever, for most tasks. If you need fine-grained control or care about where your data lives, you run into limits fast. The big models from OpenAI and Anthropic are also largely uninterpretable, so it’s rarely clear why they give the outputs they do. And because their training is so broad and diffuse, they often stumble on narrow, tightly scoped jobs.
For most tasks, small models are not only more accurate than the big foundation models; they are also cheap to train and serve, quick to start, and compact enough to run on a laptop or phone with predictable latency and costs. And because small models are trained on a well-defined task, they’re much easier to fine-tune on your data, easier to debug, and less likely to drift off-task. You can also keep them private so your data never leaves your own environment.
That’s why we built Minibase.ai, which is now in public beta. Minibase is an all-in-one place to design, train, and deploy small models that do one thing exceptionally well. Everything runs in your browser, with no code required, and your datasets are private by default. When you finish fine-tuning, you can run the model in Minibase Cloud or download it to run locally. Either way, you control everything you create and share.
While we’re in beta, it’s entirely free to create an account, invite up to twenty teammates, upload datasets, and train and deploy models. In return, all we want is your feedback. Kick the tires around, join our Discord, and tell us what to build next!
It’s easy to get started. Sign up with your email, log in, and you’ll see two tabs: MODELS and DATASETS. These hold everything you’ve uploaded and everything you’ve trained. Click + Train New Model to start an automated workflow, where you can pick a base model, attach a dataset, and fine-tune the model to make your own custom creation. A progress bar tracks training progress. And when it’s done, you can chat with your model in the browser, see how it behaves, and tune settings before you deploy.
Minibase currently has four different models. The Task Base model handles tight, structured inputs and outputs — summaries, translations, labeling, extraction, and instruction-following. The Language Base model gives you more context length, for when inputs are longer. The Micro Base model is our smallest; it’s best for short, repeatable tasks and can run on a smartphone. And finally, the Chat Base model supports multi-turn conversation and simple reasoning. It’s great for lightweight bots and assistants. You can find more details on each Base Model in our Help Center.
When you’re ready to ship a model, you also have many options. You can immediately test the model in your browser (through a chat box) and then deploy to Minibase Cloud to call it from your app via API. Or, you can just download the model in its entirety and run it on your own hardware. Again, you own what you create.
Most AI platforms are built around massive, opaque systems. Those platforms strip power from the users and aggregate it in the hands of a massive corporation. Minibase is built around small, interpretable models that you can actually understand. These mini models are trained on your data. You can run them on your laptop or phone. And you don’t have to trade control for capability. If that sounds like the future you want, sign up and start building small models today. Tell us what’s missing, and we’ll add it.
— The Minibase Engineers