# Cerebrium vs Vast.ai

> Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cerebrium's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cerebrium leads on payments & pricing. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cerebrium's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cerebrium leads on payments & pricing. Both do compute gpu.

- Cerebrium: grade C, 55.3/100, rank #512 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cerebrium.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cerebrium.json
- Vast.ai: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #331 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vast-ai.json

## Which one, for what

### Cerebrium (C)

Good for: Teams serving their own models as real-time endpoints (voice, LLM, image) who want per-second billing, multi-region placement and a scriptable management API.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Watch for: `disable_auth` defaults to true, so a deployed endpoint answers without a token unless the owner changes it

### Vast.ai (B)

Good for: Cost-sensitive training, batch work and self-managed inference where the agent can search listings, set a price cap and tolerate host variance or interruption.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 70
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 49
- Security & auth, 72 against 60
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 75

Watch for: No SLA. The terms say availability is not guaranteed and the service can change without notice


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cerebrium | Vast.ai | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 65 | Vast.ai +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 78 | Vast.ai +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 57 | Vast.ai +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 72 | Vast.ai +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | Cerebrium +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 81 | Vast.ai +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 62 | Cerebrium +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **62.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cerebrium | Vast.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cerebrium Inc. | Vast.ai Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://rest.cerebrium.ai` | `https://console.vast.ai/api/v0` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cerebrium's terms of service. The CLI is MIT | Proprietary service under Vast.ai's Terms of Use Agreement. The `vastai` CLI and Python SDK on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-06-18 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 920 PyPI/wk | 223 stars, 33k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Cerebrium.** Per-second GPU prices are public, a 94-operation OpenAPI spec covers the management API, and service account tokens expire and are limited to named projects. Deployed endpoints are callable without a token unless `disable_auth = false` is set, and no request rate limits, 429 handling or SLA were found in the reviewed documentation.

**Vast.ai.** API keys can be limited by permission category and by resource ID, the REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, and the CLI ships weekly with a skill file for coding agents. Machines belong to independent hosts, prices move with the market, rate-limit thresholds are unpublished, and there is no SLA or free tier.

## Before you call either

### Cerebrium

1. Set `disable_auth = false` in `cerebrium.toml` before deploying. The default leaves the endpoint callable by anyone with the URL
2. Authenticate headless with `CEREBRIUM_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN`. `cerebrium login` opens a browser
3. Raise `response_grace_period` for long work. It defaults to 15 minutes and async runs stop at 12 hours
4. Send `?async=true` to get a `run_id` with HTTP 202, and add `webhookEndpoint` because async calls return no result to the caller
5. Check the plan before choosing hardware. A100, H100, H200, B200 and RTX PRO 6000 need Standard, and `protected` compute bills at twice the listed rate

### Vast.ai

1. Create a scoped key with `vastai create api-key --permissions` for the agent. A default key has full account access, billing and key management included
2. Pass `--raw` on every CLI command for JSON output, and `-y` on `vastai destroy instance`, which otherwise waits for a confirmation prompt
3. Register an SSH key with `vastai create ssh-key` before creating an instance, or the host is unreachable
4. Destroy instances when finished. A stopped instance still bills storage, and a zero balance without a saved card leads to deletion
5. Back off on HTTP 429 yourself when calling REST directly. The CLI retries 429 three times from 0.15 seconds
6. Filter searches with `verified=true` or the Secure Cloud option for sensitive data, and set a `dph_total` price cap

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cerebrium or Vast.ai?

Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cerebrium's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cerebrium leads on payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call Cerebrium and Vast.ai without installing anything?

Yes. Cerebrium has a hosted endpoint at https://rest.cerebrium.ai and Vast.ai at https://console.vast.ai/api/v0.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cerebrium", "b": "vast-ai"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cerebrium vast-ai`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cerebrium.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vast-ai.json

## Other comparisons with Cerebrium or Vast.ai

- [Baseten vs Cerebrium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-cerebrium.md)
- [Baseten vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Beam vs Cerebrium](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-cerebrium.md)
- [Beam vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-vast-ai.md)
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- [Cerebrium vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-lambda.md)
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- [Cerebrium vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-northflank.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-replicate-deploy.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-runpod.md)
- [CoreWeave vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Koyeb vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Lambda Cloud vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Modal vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Northflank vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Replicate Deployments vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/replicate-deploy-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Runpod vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-vast-ai.md)