Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run
DeepInfra vs GroqCloud
GroqCloud scores 75.6 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepInfra's 63 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. DeepInfra leads on schema & documentation. Both do llm inference.
Which one, for what
Good for Agents that want many open-weight models, embeddings, image and speech behind one OpenAI-style key at low per-token prices, with spend-capped tokens.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 69 against 64
Watch for
A deprecated model gets at least one week's notice, and requests are then forwarded to a replacement model under the old id
GroqCloud BB
Good for Many small, latency-sensitive calls on open-weight models, routing, extraction and classification, and agents that need to start free.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 100 against 70
- Security & auth, 77 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 67
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | DeepInfra | GroqCloud | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 100 | GroqCloud +30 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 69 | 64 | DeepInfra +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 77 | 80 | GroqCloud +3 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 64 | 77 | GroqCloud +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 40 | GroqCloud +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 65 | 72 | GroqCloud +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 67 | 85 | GroqCloud +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 63 · B | 75.6 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | DeepInfra | GroqCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Deep Infra Inc. | Groq |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai | https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the DeepInfra Terms of Service. The Python and Node SDKs and the docs repository are MIT | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-21 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-17 | 2026-06-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-15 | 2025-11-12 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 21 stars, 1.2k npm/wk, 50 PyPI/wk | 619 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (8) |
Verdicts
DeepInfra
The model list, context sizes and per-token prices are readable without a key, and keys can carry an IP allowlist, a monthly spending cap and model-limited JWTs. Deprecated models get one week's notice and are then redirected to another model, there is no changelog or SLA, and an account needs a card or prepayment before any call.
GroqCloud
Free plan with no card, at 30 requests a minute and 1,000 a day on gpt-oss. Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice.
Before you call either
DeepInfra
- Call
GET https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai/modelsat start-up for ids, context sizes and prices. No key is needed - Check the
modelfield of each response. After a deprecation date, requests to the old id are served by a replacement model - Ask the account owner for a scoped JWT limited to the models and spend the task needs, not the full API key
- Stay under 200 concurrent requests per model. On 429
engine_overloaded, retry after a delay, or sendmodelswith up to four fallbacks - Never inspect a JWT with
GET /v1/scoped-jwt?jwtoken=, which puts the token in the URL. Keep credentials in theAuthorizationheader
GroqCloud
- Call
/modelsat start-up. Four model ids stopped working this quarter - Read
retry-afteron a 429 and thex-ratelimit-remaining-tokensheader before the next call - Free plan allows 8,000 tokens a minute on gpt-oss, so keep prompts small or batch them
- Don't build on Qwen 3.8 27B. It's a preview and previews can go at short notice
- Treat a 498 as Flex capacity and retry later; 5xx responses aren't billed
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, DeepInfra or GroqCloud?
GroqCloud scores 75.6 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepInfra's 63 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. DeepInfra leads on schema & documentation.
Do DeepInfra and GroqCloud need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call DeepInfra and GroqCloud without installing anything?
Yes. DeepInfra has a hosted endpoint at https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai and GroqCloud at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/deepinfra-vs-groq.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/deepinfra.json·/api/v1/tools/groq.json - From a terminal
anchor compare deepinfra groq(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "deepinfra", "b": "groq"}at/mcp, no key