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LLM inference in the European Union with local hosting

EU users feel network delay first. Put your endpoint in the EU, stream tokens, and keep prompts short. You will see faster first tokens and steadier costs. Keep data in‑region by design, not by promise.

Enterprise organizations in the EU are seeing increasing demand for compliant LLM hosting solutions. It is crucial to choose cloud providers with EU-based data centers to ensure optimal performance, meet strict location and regulatory requirements, and remain compliant with EU laws.

Try Compute today: Launch a vLLM inference server on Compute in France (EU). You get a dedicated HTTPS endpoint that works with OpenAI SDKs. Set context and output caps, then measure TTFT/TPS with your own prompts.

Where to deploy for EU traffic

  • Nearest region: France (EU)
  • Alternate region(s): UAE (Middle East proximity), USA (for transatlantic teams)
  • When to choose an alternate: Mixed user base across regions, disaster recovery, or contractual constraints. Keep EU workloads on EU endpoints by default.
  • Cross border transfers of data between countries require careful documentation and legal safeguards to address compliance with EU data residency regulations.

Keep endpoints sticky to a region. Cross‑region calls add latency quickly and force you to raise token caps.

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Privacy and data residency in the EU

  • Keep inference in‑region: deploy in France (EU) and store logs locally.
  • Log counts and timings, not raw text (prompt_tokens, output_tokens, TTFT, TPS).
  • Set short retention (7–30 days) with automatic deletion.
  • If you must store text for debugging, sample sparingly and redact.
  • Document controller/processor roles and sign DPAs with any subprocessors.
  • For cross‑border needs, use valid transfer mechanisms and document them.
  • Organizations must comply with GDPR requirements and regulations when processing and transferring certain data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), using legal mechanisms such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) to ensure GDPR compliance.
  • Prioritize data privacy and data security by supporting robust methods and technologies—such as encryption, data masking, and privacy vaults—to protect your organization's data, analyze compliance with data privacy laws, and mitigate risks of unauthorized access or data breaches.
  • Document the processing of personal data and implement appropriate methods and technologies to support compliance with data privacy laws and data security regulations.

Data Protection Principles

Data protection principles form the bedrock of smart data handling under GDPR. If you're running AI infrastructure in the EU, these principles aren't just guidelines—they're your roadmap to keeping personal and sensitive data safe while meeting strict data residency rules and protecting data sovereignty.

GDPR lays out several key principles you need to follow:

  • Lawfulness, Fairness, and Transparency: You must handle personal and sensitive data in ways that are legal, fair, and clear. People should understand exactly how you're using their data.
  • Purpose Limitation: Collect and use data only for specific, clear, and legitimate reasons. Don't stretch that data into uses that don't match your original purpose.
  • Data Minimization: Grab only what you actually need for your intended purpose. Less data means less risk and exposure.
  • Accuracy: Keep personal data accurate and current. When you spot mistakes, fix or delete them quickly.
  • Storage Limitation: Don't hang onto personal and sensitive data longer than necessary. Set clear retention policies and use automatic deletion to stay compliant.
  • Integrity and Confidentiality (Security): Protect data from unauthorized access, loss, or damage. Use strong security measures and secure infrastructure.
  • Accountability: You're responsible for proving you follow all data protection principles. Keep records and documentation that show GDPR compliance.

For AI infrastructure and LLM inference in the EU, you need to build these data protection principles right into your system design and daily operations. This means storing and processing data within specific geographic boundaries, meeting strict data residency and sovereignty requirements, and putting strong security controls in place. When you follow these principles, you protect personal and sensitive data, cut compliance risk, and earn trust from users and regulators across Europe.

Language and tokenization notes (multilingual EU)

  • French/Spanish/Italian/English. Whitespace‑separated languages; watch diacritics and apostrophes (e.g., l’ in French) when normalizing.
  • German/Dutch. Compound words can inflate token counts; chunk content with subheads and hyphenation where appropriate.
  • Code‑switching. Be explicit about the target output language in the system prompt.
  • Prefer models with strong multilingual coverage; include one in‑language example when needed.

Implementation quickstart (OpenAI‑compatible)

Python

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://YOUR-france-ENDPOINT/v1", api_key="YOUR_KEY")

with client.chat.completions.stream(
   model="f3-7b-instruct",
   messages=[{"role":"user","content":"Écris un bref compte‑rendu en français."}],
   max_tokens=200,
) as stream:
   for event in stream:
       if event.type == "token":
           print(event.token, end="")

Node

import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({ baseURL: "https://YOUR-france-ENDPOINT/v1", apiKey: process.env.KEY });

const stream = await client.chat.completions.create({
 model: "f3-7b-instruct",
 messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Schreibe eine kurze Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch." }],
 stream: true,
 max_tokens: 200
});
for await (const chunk of stream) {
 const delta = chunk.choices?.[0]?.delta?.content;
 if (delta) process.stdout.write(delta);
}

Monitoring and SLOs for EU users

  • Track TTFT p50/p95, TPS p50/p95, queue length, and GPU memory headroom per region.
  • Alert when TTFT p95 > target for 5 minutes at steady RPS.
  • Keep failover docs: how to move traffic from France (EU) to UAE or USA‑East if needed.
  • Monitor real-time inference performance on each instance to ensure low latency and meet user expectations.

Local resources

  • Communities: Paris ML, Berlin NLP, MLOps London
  • Datasets: EuroParl, OPUS, EU open data portals
  • Standards/Guidance: EDPB guidelines, national DPAs (CNIL, BfDI, AEPD)
    • Sector-specific guidance for regulated domains such as healthcare and large enterprises, including compliance requirements for cloud environments, secure file handling, and specialized services to meet data residency and sovereignty obligations.
Try Compute today: Deploy a vLLM endpoint on Compute in France (EU) for European users. Keep traffic local, stream tokens, and cap outputs to control cost.

Host LLMs in the EU with low latency and clear privacy

Place the endpoint in France (EU), log numbers—not text—set short retention, and use streaming with strict caps. Track TTFT and tokens/second. These basics improve UX and answer most privacy questions up front.

FAQ

Can we keep all data in the EU?

Yes. Run inference and store logs in‑region. Data residency depends on the physical or geographical location of storage and processing. If you need cross‑border analytics, document safeguards and contracts, and ensure that any data transfers to another country or cloud environment comply with EU regulations.

How do we estimate latency before launch?

Run synthetic checks from major EU cities, then validate with real user data after go‑live. Watch TTFT p95.

Do we need multi‑region from day one?

No. Start in France (EU). Add UAE or USA‑East for redundancy or to serve nearby users when needed.

Which models handle EU languages best?

Test a short multilingual eval set. Prefer multilingual instruct models; measure quality and TTFT together.

How do we prove privacy to customers?

Publish your region choice, logging/retention policy, and subprocessor list. Offer a short data‑flow diagram on request. Document your compliance with data privacy laws, referencing any record fines or enforcement actions as benchmarks for best practices.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is practical engineering guidance. Work with counsel for your specific obligations, especially regarding collecting data from data subjects and the deployment of AI models in different countries.

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