AI Glossary

Inference

What does “Inference” mean?

Inference: The stage where an already-trained model is put to work: it receives a new input and produces an output. No learning happens during ordinary inference; the model simply applies what it learned in training. Every chatbot reply you receive is a round of inference.

Inference visual guide: The stage where an already-trained model is put to work: it receives a new input and produces an output. No learning happens during ordinary inference; the model simply applies what it learned in training. Every chatbot reply you receive is a round of inference.
Visual guide Open full size (new tab)

What is an example of “Inference”?

Training a model happens once, but inference runs millions of times as people use it, which is why running costs matter.