Short answer
FirstCoreAI, FirstNet's AI business unit, bills sovereign AI in South African rand on a workload-based model, so costs are predictable and not exposed to exchange-rate movements. Pricing is discussed during scoping with FirstCoreAI.
In detail
Offshore AI services are typically metered per token in dollars, so the bill moves with both usage and the exchange rate. Running open-weight models on local hardware in FirstNet's South African data centre turns that into predictable, rand-denominated spend that finance teams can actually forecast.
Because commercials are workload-based, the starting point is the workload itself: a document pipeline, call archive, chatbot, internal assistant or a model you want to host. On InfraAI, FirstCoreAI's GPU and inference service, you can choose dedicated or shared GPU capacity, sized to that workload and billed in rand.
Every model on the AI Factory is also benchmarked against frontier APIs for cost per unit of work, alongside accuracy, latency and concurrency, so you can compare the economics with evidence before committing.
To get a rand figure for your own workload, book a scoping call with FirstCoreAI, or talk to FirstNet on 0861 989 896.
Source: FirstNet Sovereign AI service page →
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