# DeepInfra vs Prism Inference

> DeepInfra scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against Prism Inference's 60.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prism Inference leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do llm inference. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-prism-inference
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-prism-inference.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-prism-inference.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-prism-inference.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: 2026-10-09

DeepInfra scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against Prism Inference's 60.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prism Inference leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do llm inference.

- DeepInfra: grade B, 63/100, rank #371 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepinfra.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepinfra.json
- Prism Inference: grade C, 60.1/100, rank #479 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prism-inference.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prism-inference.json

## Which one, for what

### DeepInfra (B)

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:
- Reliability, 70 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 65 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 61

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

### Prism Inference (C)

Good for: Coding agents that want DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash at a low input price, with no retention, through whichever of the three wire formats the harness already speaks.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 69
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Watch for: Two models. The docs mark Gemma 4 31B as request access per organisation, while llms.txt and the keyless catalogue list it as available


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepInfra | Prism Inference | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 65 | DeepInfra +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 82 | Prism Inference +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 68 | DeepInfra +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 64 | 65 | Prism Inference +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Prism Inference +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 49 | DeepInfra +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 61 | DeepInfra +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **63 · B** | **60.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepInfra | Prism Inference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Deep Infra Inc. | Prism Technologies Inc |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai` | `https://api.prisminference.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the DeepInfra Terms of Service. The Python and Node SDKs and the docs repository are MIT | Proprietary service under Prism's terms of service. The OpenAPI file declares `LicenseRef-Proprietary`. The Hermes provider plugin repository carries no licence file |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-15 | 2026-09-09 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 21 stars, 1.2k npm/wk, 50 PyPI/wk | none |

## 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.

**Prism Inference.** Three wire formats, a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, per-token prices in a keyless catalogue and zero data retention by default on every tier. The service launched on 24 September 2026 with two models, one of them by request, from a two-person company. No rate-limit numbers, SLA document, free tier or deprecation policy was found.

## Before you call either

### DeepInfra

1. Call `GET https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai/models` at start-up for ids, context sizes and prices. No key is needed
2. Check the `model` field of each response. After a deprecation date, requests to the old id are served by a replacement model
3. Ask the account owner for a scoped JWT limited to the models and spend the task needs, not the full API key
4. Stay under 200 concurrent requests per model. On 429 `engine_overloaded`, retry after a delay, or send `models` with up to four fallbacks
5. Never inspect a JWT with `GET /v1/scoped-jwt?jwtoken=`, which puts the token in the URL. Keep credentials in the `Authorization` header

### Prism Inference

1. Call `GET https://api.prisminference.com/v1/models` at start-up, with no key, and use only ids it returns. Expect 403 on `gemma-4-31b` without organisation access
2. Use base URL `https://api.prisminference.com/v1` for OpenAI clients and `https://api.prisminference.com` with no `/v1` for Anthropic clients
3. Read `error.retryable` before retrying, and wait for `Retry-After` on 429, which covers both key limits and model capacity
4. Send `reasoning_effort: "none"` or `low` when latency matters. Reasoning is on by default and its tokens are billed as output
5. Keep conversation state yourself and send `store: false` on Responses. `previous_response_id`, stored responses and hosted tools aren't supported

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeepInfra or Prism Inference?

DeepInfra scores 63 (B) on agent readiness against Prism Inference's 60.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prism Inference leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Do DeepInfra and Prism Inference need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call DeepInfra and Prism Inference without installing anything?

Yes. DeepInfra has a hosted endpoint at https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai and Prism Inference at https://api.prisminference.com/v1.


## For agents

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

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