{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "fireworks-inference", "name": "Fireworks AI Inference", "vendor": "Fireworks.ai, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://fireworks.ai", "kind": "http-api", "category": "inference", "summary": "Fireworks AI Inference runs open models through OpenAI-compatible chat and completion APIs. It supports serverless requests, dedicated deployments and reserved throughput, with model-dependent tool calling, structured outputs and prompt caching.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fireworks-inference", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fireworks-inference.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fireworks-inference.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fireworks-inference.json", "dns": "fireworks-inference.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/fw-ai-external/python-sdk", "license": "Proprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences.", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "fireworks-ai", "main": true } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Bearer API keys can belong to users or service accounts. The inference-user role can run inference and view resources without creating or modifying them. An administrator can create and manage service-account keys.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Prepaid usage with a documented $1 starter credit before adding a payment method. Standard DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is $0.30 input, $0.006 cached input and $1.20 output per million tokens. Batch is half price, and Priority, Fast, US-only and dedicated rates differ. GPT OSS 120B leaves serverless on 7 November 2026.", "priceSummary": "Freemium", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 payment route found in the reviewed inference and billing documentation on 19 October 2026.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 10, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-19" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.fireworks.ai", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.fireworks.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.fireworks.ai/text-completion.openapi.yaml", "capabilities": [ "inference.llm", "inference.open-weights" ], "tags": [ "official", "http-api", "inference", "api-key", "openapi", "llms-txt", "freemium" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-27", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 69.3, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 250, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1486, "categoryRank": 9, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 80, "maintenance": 65, "payments": 40, "reliability": 70, "schema": 93, "security": 77, "transparency": 69 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-01" }, "negative": -3, "negativeNotes": [ "On 2026-08-27 Fireworks removed MiniMax M2.7, GPT OSS 20B, Kimi K2.6 Turbo and Fast, Kimi K2.7 Code Fast and DeepSeek V4 Pro from serverless 'effective August 27, 2026', in a changelog entry posted that day, against its own stated minimum of two weeks' notice (https://docs.fireworks.ai/updates/changelog)" ], "verdict": "Inference-only service accounts, published per-token prices, zero retention for chat inference and terms that rule out training on customer content support production use. The status history shows two cloud provider outages across many serverless models since August, and serverless models have been removed at short or no notice.", "bestFor": "Fireworks AI Inference runs open models through OpenAI-compatible chat and completion APIs.", "strengths": [ "An inference-user role limits service accounts to calling models, with no rights to create or change resources", "Chat inference keeps no prompts or outputs by default, and the terms rule out training on customer content", "Public OpenAPI 3.1, per-model prices, and 429 guidance that names Retry-After and backoff with jitter", "Prompt caching on by default for every serverless model, and batch at half price" ], "weaknesses": [ "Cloud provider outages on 11 August and 14 October hit many serverless models for hours", "Five serverless models were removed on 27 August the day the change was posted, despite a stated two-week minimum", "The Responses API stores conversations for up to 30 days by default unless store is false", "No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found, and the trust centre needs JavaScript" ], "agentNotes": [ "Use an inference-user service account and keep FIREWORKS_API_KEY in a secrets manager.", "Use https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1 for OpenAI-compatible requests and the full accounts/fireworks/models identifier.", "Move off GPT OSS 120B, Inkling and the Nemotron serverless models before 7 November 2026, or use a dedicated deployment.", "Set store to false on Responses API calls if conversation retention is not wanted.", "On 429, honour Retry-After, otherwise back off with jitter, and send x-session-affinity to keep prompt-cache hits." ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 4.3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 69.3 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 80, "maintenance": 65, "payments": 40, "reliability": 70, "schema": 93, "security": 77, "transparency": 65 }, "provenanceScore": 73, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-01", "maintenance": "2026-11-01", "payments": "2026-11-01", "reliability": "2026-11-01", "schema": "2026-11-01", "security": "2026-11-01", "transparency": "2026-11-01" }, "last": "2026-11-01", "lastMoved": "2026-11-01", "oldest": "2026-11-01", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "http": "curl 'https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1/chat/completions' -H \"Authorization: Bearer $FIREWORKS_API_KEY\" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{\"model\": \"accounts/fireworks/models/gpt-oss-120b\", \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"Say hello.\"}], \"max_tokens\": 128}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.llm", "tool": "https://letme.dev/fireworks-inference" }, "sameCompany": [ "fireworks-fine-tuning" ], "area": "models", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "DeepSeek V4.1 Flash input", "unit": "1m-tokens", "usd": 0.3, "note": "Serverless standard rate, per million tokens, checked 1 November 2026" }, { "item": "DeepSeek V4.1 Flash output", "unit": "1m-tokens", "usd": 1.2, "note": "Serverless standard rate, per million tokens, checked 1 November 2026" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Fireworks.ai, Inc.", "domain": "fireworks.ai", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://fireworks.ai/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://fireworks.ai/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.fireworks.ai", "changelog": "https://docs.fireworks.ai/updates/changelog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-11-01", "notes": [ "Legal identity from the terms of service (last updated 10 July 2026), which name Fireworks.ai, Inc. and Delaware law, read on 1 November 2026. Domain registration was not checked.", "The SDK repository is not the source for the hosted inference service.", "fireworks.ai/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 1 November 2026." ], "score": 73 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fireworks-inference.json", "live": { "slug": "fireworks-inference", "probe": { "target": "https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T18:20:25.379330309Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 20, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 9, "p95ms24h": 98, "samples24h": 239, "samples30d": 4786, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-19", "probes": 173, "ok": 173 }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-22", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-23", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-24", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-25", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-26", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-27", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-28", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-29", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-30", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-31", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-11-01", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-11-02", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-11-03", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-11-04", "probes": 246, "ok": 246 }, { "date": "2026-11-05", "probes": 185, "ok": 185 }, { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 241, "ok": 241 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 187, "ok": 187 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.fireworks.ai", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:11.347856656Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "fw-ai-external/python-sdk", "version": "v1.2.32", "released": "2026-11-05", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:26:11.30522379Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "fireworks-ai", "version": "1.2.32", "released": "2026-11-05", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:26:11.102160813Z" } ], "githubStars": 11, "pypiWeekly": 429836, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://fireworks.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:56.750872769Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.fireworks.ai/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:32:31.696218563Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "fireworks.ai", "registered": "2020-03-11", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/fireworks.ai", "checkedAt": "2026-11-01T14:15:39.714966536Z" }, "github": { "repo": "fw-ai-external/python-sdk", "checkedAt": "2026-11-02T08:25:09.70760498Z", "stars": 11, "archived": false, "issuesEnabled": true, "pushedAt": "2026-10-30T04:27:31Z", "openIssues": 2, "openPRs": 2, "issuesOpened90d": 1, "issuesClosed90d": 0, "prsMerged90d": 24, "ci": { "branch": "main", "runs": 50, "success": 50, "failure": 0, "other": 0, "latest": "success", "latestAt": "2026-10-21T21:12:19Z" }, "replies": { "sampled": 3, "unanswered": 2, "medianDays": 17.9 } }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:11.347856656Z" } }, "answer": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Fireworks AI Inference's 69.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Fireworks AI Inference leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "b": { "slug": "xai-api", "name": "xAI API (Grok)", "vendor": "SpaceXSI (xAI)", "vendorUrl": "https://x.ai", "kind": "model", "category": "inference", "summary": "xAI's API for its Grok models (the docs now name the company SpaceXSI), with text, image, video and voice endpoints, server-side search and remote MCP tools, through an OpenAI-compatible REST API or gRPC.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xai-api.json", "dns": "xai-api.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/xai-org/xai-sdk-python", "license": "Proprietary service under xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.x.ai/v1", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "xai-sdk" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "`Authorization: Bearer` with a team API key from console.x.ai. Keys can be limited to endpoints and models by ACL, capped by QPM and TPM, given an expiry, and rotated or disabled through the Management API. mTLS is documented as an option, and GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Prepaid credits, then the default payment method at month end. Grok 4.7 costs $2 input, $0.50 cached input and $6 output per 1M tokens below 200K prompt tokens, and $4/$1/$12 above, applied to the whole request. Batch is 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6, 4.5, 4.3 and the grok-4.20 models. Priority processing 2x, the US regional endpoint 1.1x. Web search, code execution and attachment search $5 per 1,000 calls, collections search $2.50, X search $5 per 1,000 posts. $0.05 fee for a request blocked before generation for a usage-policy violation (https://docs.x.ai/developers/pricing, checked 2026-11-06).", "priceSummary": "from $1.25 / 1M in", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, llms.txt or the OpenAPI spec. Access needs a console account loaded with prepaid credits (checked 2026-11-06).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 597, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": 912149, "asOf": "2026-11-06" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.x.ai", "rateLimitsUrl": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/rate-limits", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.x.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.x.ai/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "inference.llm" ], "tags": [ "official", "hosted", "model", "prepaid", "openapi", "llms-txt", "openai-compatible", "closed-source", "python", "batch", "status-page", "bug-bounty", "soc2" ], "lastRelease": "2026-11-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 71.7, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 151, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1486, "categoryRank": 8, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 90, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 20, "reliability": 55, "schema": 88, "security": 97, "transparency": 63 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-06" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python.", "bestFor": "Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.", "strengths": [ "Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens below 200K prompt tokens, with a 500K context and 20% off through the Batch API", "API keys restricted by endpoint and model ACLs, with QPM and TPM caps, expiry and a rotate endpoint", "Self-serve team-wide zero data retention, confirmed on every response by an `x-zero-data-retention` header", "OpenAPI 3.1 spec, llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page", "security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 and a HackerOne bug bounty" ], "weaknesses": [ "API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August", "No SLA, no free tier for the text API, and no Retry-After header documented for 429s", "No stated minimum notice for retirements, and retired slugs are served by a different model at its price", "Remote MCP doesn't support `require_approval`, so server-side tool calls run without an approval step", "The terms, privacy policy and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block on 6 October and 6 November 2026, so they weren't read" ], "agentNotes": [ "Build on the Responses API at https://api.x.ai/v1. Chat Completions is labelled deprecated and the Anthropic-compatible endpoint fully deprecated", "Pin a dated model slug. A retired slug keeps answering from a replacement model, billed at the replacement's price", "Back off exponentially on 429. The per-second cap is the per-minute budget divided by 48, with a minimum of 2", "Set `allowed_tools` on remote MCP servers. There's no approval step, and every exposed tool enters the context", "Use https://us.api.x.ai/v1 when processing must stay in the US. It costs 1.1x and serves only grok-4.7 and grok-4.6" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 71.7 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 90, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 20, "reliability": 55, "schema": 88, "security": 97, "transparency": 52 }, "provenanceScore": 73, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-06", "maintenance": "2026-11-06", "payments": "2026-11-06", "reliability": "2026-11-06", "schema": "2026-11-06", "security": "2026-11-06", "transparency": "2026-11-06" }, "last": "2026-11-06", "oldest": "2026-11-06", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "pip install xai-sdk # or: pip install openai, with base_url https://api.x.ai/v1", "http": "curl https://api.x.ai/v1/responses \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\":\"grok-4.7\",\"input\":\"What is the meaning of life?\"}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.llm", "tool": "https://letme.dev/xai-api" }, "area": "models", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Web search tool", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 5 }, { "item": "Code execution tool", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 5 }, { "item": "Collections search tool", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 2.5 } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "x.ai", "domainRegistered": "2017-12-16", "domainNote": "x.ai was registered in 2017, before the company, and transferred on 2026-06-02 per RDAP. Every x.ai page except robots.txt and security.txt answered a Cloudflare block page (403) on 2026-11-06, as the legal pages did on 2026-10-06, so the contracting entity wasn't confirmed. The docs now use the name SpaceXSI and the status page SpaceXAI.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://x.ai/legal/terms-of-service-enterprise", "privacy": "https://x.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.x.ai", "changelog": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/release-notes", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-11-06", "notes": [ "x.ai/robots.txt allows all but /tools/, with Content-Signal ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes. docs.x.ai allows all with ai-input=yes. The x.ai pages that robots.txt allows answered a Cloudflare 'Attention Required' page, which we did not try to get past.", "security.txt at x.ai/.well-known/security.txt is valid to 2027-06-29, with vulnerabilities@x.ai and abuse@x.ai." ], "score": 73 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.json", "live": { "slug": "xai-api", "probe": { "target": "https://api.x.ai/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:06.440217402Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 122, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 178, "p95ms24h": 276, "samples24h": 200, "samples30d": 200, "days": [ { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 13, "ok": 13 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 187, "ok": 187 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.x.ai", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T04:49:01.143662157Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "xai-org/xai-sdk-python", "version": "v1.21.0", "released": "2026-10-23", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:18:15.193708838Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "xai-sdk", "version": "1.21.0", "released": "2026-10-23", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:18:15.09038487Z" } ], "githubStars": 598, "pypiWeekly": 912149, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://x.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-06-29T00:00:00.000Z", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:43.978620532Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:34:24.762831371Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/migration/imagine-image-quality-nov-2", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:46.034096807Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "1238569c8142" }, { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/migration/may-15-retirement", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:48.207542223Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "813d0e188a0e" }, { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/release-notes", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:52.143682141Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "7b37cfaf2576" }, { "url": "https://docs.x.ai/developers/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:08:50.158330981Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "a563de9617fe" }, { "url": "https://x.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 403, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:38:04.991061235Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" }, { "url": "https://x.ai/legal/terms-of-service-enterprise", "kind": "terms", "status": 403, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:38:09.200382604Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T18:21:06.440217402Z" } }, "edges": [ { "by": 20, "category": "security", "leads": "xai-api", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "reasons": { "a": "Read by the HTTP API checklist, as for cerebras-inference and together-inference. Service accounts with API keys issued on their behalf, roles assigned at creation and changeable (30). An inference-user role can call models but not create or modify resources (20). No inference prompt-injection mitigation established (0). Enterprise audit logs with a REST API, and cost exports per API key (15). The data-security page states SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 42001, HIPAA support and regular penetration testing, with reports in a Vanta trust centre that renders only with JavaScript. fireworks.ai/.well-known/security.txt answered 404 on 1 November, as on 19 October, and no disclosure policy or bug bounty was found. That matches people-data-labs (12) and launchdarkly (12), which state SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 with no security.txt, disclosure policy or bounty, so the 20 the 19 October check gave is corrected (12). The terms (section 3.6) rule out training on customer content and inference has zero retention by default, recorded for reviewers and not scored on this checklist. 30+20+0+15+12 = 77.", "b": "Model reading. Team API keys with ACLs per endpoint and per model, QPM and TPM caps, expiry, and create, rotate, disable and delete through the Management API, plus documented mTLS. GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys and emails the owner (30). The security FAQ says SpaceXSI never trains on API inputs or outputs without explicit permission (20). Requests and responses are kept 30 days for abuse auditing, then deleted, and team admins can switch on zero data retention themselves, confirmed by an `x-zero-data-retention` header on every response (15). Console audit log and a Management API audit-events endpoint, plus optional per-key request logging (15). security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 with a HackerOne bug bounty and a separate safety contact for prompt-injection issues. SOC 2 Type 2 is claimed in the security FAQ with the reports behind an NDA in the trust centre, so 17 of 20. Remote MCP doesn't support `require_approval`, which the model checklist doesn't score but reviewers should see. New in October, a `guidelines` array lets the caller make the model decline nsfw, violence or profanity content, which the checklist doesn't score." }, "scores": { "a": 77, "b": 97 } }, { "by": 20, "category": "payments", "leads": "fireworks-inference", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "reasons": { "a": "No machine payment protocol in the docs index or billing pages, re-read on 1 November (0). Public per-token prices by model and serving mode (20). The credits FAQ documents a $1 starter credit that runs without a payment method, after which the account is suspended until one is added (20). Account signup and credit purchases need a person (0).", "b": "No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token and per-call prices published without a login on docs.x.ai/developers/pricing (20). No free tier found for the text API, and the quickstart says to load the account with credits (0). Sign-up is in the browser at console.x.ai. The Management API can create keys and top up prepaid credit, but only with a management key made by a person in the console, so no line credit (0)." }, "scores": { "a": 40, "b": 20 } }, { "by": 15, "category": "reliability", "leads": "fireworks-inference", "name": "Reliability", "reasons": { "a": "Public status page at status.fireworks.ai with a component per serverless model (20). The history page, read on 1 November, lists 236 incidents from 3 August to 31 October, nearly all short degradations of a single serverless model. Two hit many serverless models at once. On 11 August a cloud provider outage was 'affecting many of our serverless and dedicated deployments', with five serverless components (GPT OSS 120B, MiniMax M3 and the three Kimi K3 endpoints) in partial outage from 17:15 to 20:55 UTC and again from 01:36 to 01:49 UTC on 12 August, resolved 13 August. On 14 October a cloud provider outage set 18 serverless components to degraded performance, GPT OSS 120B, Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3 among them, from 23:06 UTC, with requests to them that 'may fail', recovery 'across the board' at 00:59 UTC on 15 October and the incident resolved at 01:53. Each is an hour or more of errors across most of the serverless catalogue, so two majors. Two majors sit between the checklist's one major (10) and several (0), so 5, as deepseek-api, black-forest-labs and telnyx-voice are read (5). The 19 October check gave the same 5 because no 90-day history could be read. A 30 October incident on deployment creation, dedicated training and batch inference was still open on 1 November. Numeric adaptive ceilings by model size, 216M total prompt, 54M uncached prompt and 2.16M generated tokens a minute for Small models (15). The rate-limits page says to honour `Retry-After` on 429 and otherwise back off with jitter, and the reliability guide covers timeouts and retries (15). Reserved throughput is 'covered by a throughput SLA' with no figure published (5 of 10). Serverless is generally available (10). 20+5+15+15+5+10 = 70.", "b": "Status page at status.x.ai with components for the global and US API endpoints, voice, the consumer apps and, since the Cursor merger, Cursor's services, with an RSS feed (20). The feed, read on 6 November, now holds 267 incidents back to 11 August, so the whole 90-day window is readable. On the API components there were high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 from 21:57 to 23:28 UTC on 17 August (about 90 minutes) and a models outage on the global and US endpoints from 13:30 to 17:09 UTC on 3 September (about 3 hours 40 minutes), so several majors. A 26-minute datacenter outage across the API on 22 September, voice disruptions of 12 and 28 minutes on 10 September and 6 October, a 63-minute voice and Imagine degradation on 30 October and a 37-second model degradation on 24 October add to the record (0). Rate limits published per model and tier, grok-4.7 at Tier 0 is 150 requests a second and 50M TPM, with the per-second cap derived as RPM divided by 48 (15). The rate-limits page shows exponential backoff on 429, but no Retry-After header or overload guidance was found (10 of 15). No SLA found in the docs or llms.txt (0). The Responses API has been GA since September 2025 and grok-4.7 carries no preview label (10)." }, "scores": { "a": 70, "b": 55 } }, { "by": 12, "category": "maintenance", "leads": "xai-api", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "reasons": { "a": "Read by the HTTP API checklist, as for cerebras-inference and together-inference. Rune 26B-A4B joined serverless on 27 October, five days before this check (30). Dated changelog entries several times a month, among them 27, 21, 19 and 18 October (20). Support replies not tested (0). Official Python SDK current, v1.2.30 tagged on 21 October after eleven tags from 1 October, no official TypeScript SDK (15). Dependency health not audited (0). The serverless overview promises 'at least 2 weeks advance notice' before a model is removed, and the 27 August removals were posted the day they took effect (see the deduction). 30+20+0+15+0 = 65.", "b": "Model reading. grok-imagine-image-quality and grok-imagine-image-pro retired on 2 November 2026 as announced in September, Grok Voice 3.0 and custom moderation controls in October, Grok 4.7 on 21 September (30). No minimum notice period found. Retirements come as dated migration guides, retired slugs redirect to a replacement rather than failing, billed at the replacement's price, and grok-voice-2.0 was deprecated in October with no end date (4 of 12). Shutdowns in the last 90 days with dates given in advance, `grok-voice-transcribe-1.0` on 2 October and `grok-imagine-image-quality` on 2 November (8 of 8). Release notes several times a month but dated only by month, support by email and a Discord #help channel, not tested. On xai-sdk-python a collaborator commented on 2 of the 16 most recent threads with replies, and most outside pull requests since 23 October are open without a maintainer reply (10 of 15, down from 12). The repository has CI, release and version-bump workflows (5 of 10). One current first-party SDK, `xai-sdk` 1.21.0 tagged on 23 October, Python only (10 of 15). Supported runtimes stated, Python 3.10 or later (10)." }, "scores": { "a": 65, "b": 77 } }, { "by": 10, "category": "ergonomics", "leads": "xai-api", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "reasons": { "a": "Read by the HTTP API checklist, as for cerebras-inference and together-inference. Compact model API with bounded output, `max_tokens` and streaming (25). Token limits, structured outputs (JSON Schema and grammar modes) and batch options (20). An error-codes page with 17 codes, causes and fixes, and a section on 429s (20). Retry guidance without a general deduplication guarantee (5 of 20). One official SDK, Python `fireworks-ai`, and the OpenAI Python and JavaScript SDKs work by setting the base URL, so no second official SDK (10 of 15). Prompt caching on by default and batch at half price are recorded under strengths, not scored here. 25+20+20+5+10 = 80.", "b": "Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with parallel calls on by default and `tool_choice` of auto, required, none or a named function (20). Guaranteed structured outputs (15). Automatic prompt caching, cached input at 0.25x on grok-4.7 ($0.50 per million) and 0.16x on grok-4.3 (15). 500,000-token context on grok-4.7 and 1,000,000 on grok-4.3, 13 of 15 for the default model's 500K. The Batch API is now 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 as well as the older models, with batch requests outside the rate limits (10 of 10, up from 5 on 6 October). One first-party SDK, `xai-sdk` for Python, with the OpenAI SDKs and Vercel's AI SDK documented as alternatives (5 of 10). Status codes documented with fixes, no Retry-After header found (12 of 15)." }, "scores": { "a": 80, "b": 90 } }, { "by": 6, "category": "transparency", "leads": "fireworks-inference", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "reasons": { "a": "Proprietary service, Apache-2.0 Python SDK. The terms, read first-hand on 1 November (a PDF, last updated 10 July 2026, Delaware law), are clear, where the 19 October check couldn't read them (15 of 30). The data-handling page and section 3.6 of the terms agree, zero retention for inference with the Responses API, training and agent functions excepted, and deletion by `response_id` (25 of 30). Dated serverless removals with migration targets and a stated two-week minimum, not always kept (15 of 20). Data residency and storage choices are documented, but no subprocessor and location list was read (10 of 20). 15+25+15+10 = 65.", "b": "Closed service under xAI's enterprise terms, with the Python SDK under Apache-2.0 (15). The docs agree with each other on no training, 30-day abuse retention, 30-day storage of stateful responses and the ZDR route, but the privacy policy, enterprise terms and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block page on 6 October and again on 6 November, so they couldn't be compared (15 of 30). Dated migration guides and redirect tables for each retirement, but no written deprecation policy, and Chat Completions, Anthropic compatibility and grok-voice-2.0 are labelled deprecated with no date (12 of 20). The US regional endpoint states what stays in the US, the global endpoint guarantees no region, and no subprocessor list was readable (10 of 20)." }, "scores": { "a": 69, "b": 63 } } ], "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "Model API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Fireworks.ai, Inc.", "b": "SpaceXSI (xAI)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1", "b": "https://api.x.ai/v1", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "API key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Proprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences.", "b": "Proprietary service under xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-27", "b": "2026-11-02", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "couldn't be read", "b": "2026-10-27", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2026-10-27", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "couldn't be read", "b": "yes", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "couldn't be read", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "couldn't be read", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "couldn't be read", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "couldn't be read", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "10 stars", "b": "597 stars, 912k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "4.3/5 (4)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Fireworks AI Inference's 69.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Fireworks AI Inference leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Fireworks AI Inference or xAI API (Grok)?" }, { "answer": "Both need an API key.", "question": "Do Fireworks AI Inference and xAI API (Grok) need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Fireworks AI Inference has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1 and xAI API (Grok) at https://api.x.ai/v1.", "question": "Can an agent call Fireworks AI Inference and xAI API (Grok) without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 70 against 55", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 93 against 88", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 69 against 63" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Fireworks AI Inference runs open models through OpenAI-compatible chat and completion APIs.", "slug": "fireworks-inference", "watchFor": "Cloud provider outages on 11 August and 14 October hit many serverless models for hours" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Agent ergonomics, 90 against 80", "Security \u0026 auth, 97 against 77", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 77 against 65" ], "also": [ "Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better", "No incidents deducted, where Fireworks AI Inference loses 3 points for them" ], "goodFor": "Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.", "slug": "xai-api", "watchFor": "API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August" } ], "history": { "fireworks-inference": [ { "causes": [ "evidence", "correction", "event" ], "date": "2026-11-01", "delta": -4.2, "from": 73.5, "fromGrade": "BB", "to": 69.3, "toGrade": "B" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-28", "delta": 0, "from": 73.5, "fromGrade": "BB", "to": 73.5, "toGrade": "BB" } ], "xai-api": null }, "job": { "capability": "inference.llm", "name": "LLM inference" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-fireworks-inference.json", "title": "Amazon Bedrock vs Fireworks AI Inference", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-fireworks-inference" }, { "json": 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"https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Jais 3 vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Meta Model API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "MiniMax API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Mistral AI API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Muse Spark Open vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Novita AI vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "OpenAI API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "OpenRouter vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Prism Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Router.com (Ramp Router) vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Beam 1.0 vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "RouterPlus vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "SambaCloud vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "SiliconFlow vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Simplismart vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "StepFun API vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "SWE-2 Flash vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Together AI Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Vercel AI Gateway vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api.json", "title": "Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api" } ], "panel": null, "scores": [ { "by": 15, "edge": "fireworks-inference", "fireworks-inference": 70, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16, "xai-api": 55 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 5, "edge": "fireworks-inference", "fireworks-inference": 93, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13, "xai-api": 88 }, { "by": 10, "edge": "xai-api", "fireworks-inference": 80, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13, "xai-api": 90 }, { "by": 20, "edge": "xai-api", "fireworks-inference": 77, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14, "xai-api": 97 }, { "by": 20, "edge": "fireworks-inference", "fireworks-inference": 40, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10, "xai-api": 20 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 12, "edge": "xai-api", "fireworks-inference": 65, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7, "xai-api": 77 }, { "by": 6, "edge": "fireworks-inference", "fireworks-inference": 69, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7, "xai-api": 63 } ], "summary": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Fireworks AI Inference's 69.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Fireworks AI Inference leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do llm inference.", "tasks": null, "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "fireworks-inference": "Inference-only service accounts, published per-token prices, zero retention for chat inference and terms that rule out training on customer content support production use. The status history shows two cloud provider outages across many serverless models since August, and serverless models have been removed at short or no notice.", "xai-api": "Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api.min.md" }, "markdown": "xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Fireworks AI Inference's 69.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Fireworks AI Inference leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do llm inference.\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #250 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fireworks-inference.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fireworks-inference.json\n- xAI API (Grok): grade BB, 71.7/100, rank #151 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/xai-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xai-api.json\n- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md\n- All 830 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Fireworks AI Inference (B)\n\nGood for: Fireworks AI Inference runs open models through OpenAI-compatible chat and completion APIs.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 70 against 55\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 93 against 88\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 69 against 63\n\nWatch for: Cloud provider outages on 11 August and 14 October hit many serverless models for hours\n\n### xAI API (Grok) (BB)\n\nGood for: Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.\n\nAhead on:\n- Agent ergonomics, 90 against 80\n- Security \u0026 auth, 97 against 77\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 77 against 65\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better\n- No incidents deducted, where Fireworks AI Inference loses 3 points for them\n\nWatch for: API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Security \u0026 auth: xAI API (Grok) +20\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference (77): Read by the HTTP API checklist, as for cerebras-inference and together-inference. Service accounts with API keys issued on their behalf, roles assigned at creation and changeable (30). An inference-user role can call models but not create or modify resources (20). No inference prompt-injection mitigation established (0). Enterprise audit logs with a REST API, and cost exports per API key (15). The data-security page states SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 42001, HIPAA support and regular penetration testing, with reports in a Vanta trust centre that renders only with JavaScript. fireworks.ai/.well-known/security.txt answered 404 on 1 November, as on 19 October, and no disclosure policy or bug bounty was found. That matches people-data-labs (12) and launchdarkly (12), which state SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 with no security.txt, disclosure policy or bounty, so the 20 the 19 October check gave is corrected (12). The terms (section 3.6) rule out training on customer content and inference has zero retention by default, recorded for reviewers and not scored on this checklist. 30+20+0+15+12 = 77.\n- xAI API (Grok) (97): Model reading. Team API keys with ACLs per endpoint and per model, QPM and TPM caps, expiry, and create, rotate, disable and delete through the Management API, plus documented mTLS. GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys and emails the owner (30). The security FAQ says SpaceXSI never trains on API inputs or outputs without explicit permission (20). Requests and responses are kept 30 days for abuse auditing, then deleted, and team admins can switch on zero data retention themselves, confirmed by an `x-zero-data-retention` header on every response (15). Console audit log and a Management API audit-events endpoint, plus optional per-key request logging (15). security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 with a HackerOne bug bounty and a separate safety contact for prompt-injection issues. SOC 2 Type 2 is claimed in the security FAQ with the reports behind an NDA in the trust centre, so 17 of 20. Remote MCP doesn't support `require_approval`, which the model checklist doesn't score but reviewers should see. New in October, a `guidelines` array lets the caller make the model decline nsfw, violence or profanity content, which the checklist doesn't score.\n\n### Payments \u0026 pricing: Fireworks AI Inference +20\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference (40): No machine payment protocol in the docs index or billing pages, re-read on 1 November (0). Public per-token prices by model and serving mode (20). The credits FAQ documents a $1 starter credit that runs without a payment method, after which the account is suspended until one is added (20). Account signup and credit purchases need a person (0).\n- xAI API (Grok) (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token and per-call prices published without a login on docs.x.ai/developers/pricing (20). No free tier found for the text API, and the quickstart says to load the account with credits (0). Sign-up is in the browser at console.x.ai. The Management API can create keys and top up prepaid credit, but only with a management key made by a person in the console, so no line credit (0).\n\n### Reliability: Fireworks AI Inference +15\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference (70): Public status page at status.fireworks.ai with a component per serverless model (20). The history page, read on 1 November, lists 236 incidents from 3 August to 31 October, nearly all short degradations of a single serverless model. Two hit many serverless models at once. On 11 August a cloud provider outage was 'affecting many of our serverless and dedicated deployments', with five serverless components (GPT OSS 120B, MiniMax M3 and the three Kimi K3 endpoints) in partial outage from 17:15 to 20:55 UTC and again from 01:36 to 01:49 UTC on 12 August, resolved 13 August. On 14 October a cloud provider outage set 18 serverless components to degraded performance, GPT OSS 120B, Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3 among them, from 23:06 UTC, with requests to them that 'may fail', recovery 'across the board' at 00:59 UTC on 15 October and the incident resolved at 01:53. Each is an hour or more of errors across most of the serverless catalogue, so two majors. Two majors sit between the checklist's one major (10) and several (0), so 5, as deepseek-api, black-forest-labs and telnyx-voice are read (5). The 19 October check gave the same 5 because no 90-day history could be read. A 30 October incident on deployment creation, dedicated training and batch inference was still open on 1 November. Numeric adaptive ceilings by model size, 216M total prompt, 54M uncached prompt and 2.16M generated tokens a minute for Small models (15). The rate-limits page says to honour `Retry-After` on 429 and otherwise back off with jitter, and the reliability guide covers timeouts and retries (15). Reserved throughput is 'covered by a throughput SLA' with no figure published (5 of 10). Serverless is generally available (10). 20+5+15+15+5+10 = 70.\n- xAI API (Grok) (55): Status page at status.x.ai with components for the global and US API endpoints, voice, the consumer apps and, since the Cursor merger, Cursor's services, with an RSS feed (20). The feed, read on 6 November, now holds 267 incidents back to 11 August, so the whole 90-day window is readable. On the API components there were high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 from 21:57 to 23:28 UTC on 17 August (about 90 minutes) and a models outage on the global and US endpoints from 13:30 to 17:09 UTC on 3 September (about 3 hours 40 minutes), so several majors. A 26-minute datacenter outage across the API on 22 September, voice disruptions of 12 and 28 minutes on 10 September and 6 October, a 63-minute voice and Imagine degradation on 30 October and a 37-second model degradation on 24 October add to the record (0). Rate limits published per model and tier, grok-4.7 at Tier 0 is 150 requests a second and 50M TPM, with the per-second cap derived as RPM divided by 48 (15). The rate-limits page shows exponential backoff on 429, but no Retry-After header or overload guidance was found (10 of 15). No SLA found in the docs or llms.txt (0). The Responses API has been GA since September 2025 and grok-4.7 carries no preview label (10).\n\n### Maintenance \u0026 community: xAI API (Grok) +12\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference (65): Read by the HTTP API checklist, as for cerebras-inference and together-inference. Rune 26B-A4B joined serverless on 27 October, five days before this check (30). Dated changelog entries several times a month, among them 27, 21, 19 and 18 October (20). Support replies not tested (0). Official Python SDK current, v1.2.30 tagged on 21 October after eleven tags from 1 October, no official TypeScript SDK (15). Dependency health not audited (0). The serverless overview promises 'at least 2 weeks advance notice' before a model is removed, and the 27 August removals were posted the day they took effect (see the deduction). 30+20+0+15+0 = 65.\n- xAI API (Grok) (77): Model reading. grok-imagine-image-quality and grok-imagine-image-pro retired on 2 November 2026 as announced in September, Grok Voice 3.0 and custom moderation controls in October, Grok 4.7 on 21 September (30). No minimum notice period found. Retirements come as dated migration guides, retired slugs redirect to a replacement rather than failing, billed at the replacement's price, and grok-voice-2.0 was deprecated in October with no end date (4 of 12). Shutdowns in the last 90 days with dates given in advance, `grok-voice-transcribe-1.0` on 2 October and `grok-imagine-image-quality` on 2 November (8 of 8). Release notes several times a month but dated only by month, support by email and a Discord #help channel, not tested. On xai-sdk-python a collaborator commented on 2 of the 16 most recent threads with replies, and most outside pull requests since 23 October are open without a maintainer reply (10 of 15, down from 12). The repository has CI, release and version-bump workflows (5 of 10). One current first-party SDK, `xai-sdk` 1.21.0 tagged on 23 October, Python only (10 of 15). Supported runtimes stated, Python 3.10 or later (10).\n\n### Agent ergonomics: xAI API (Grok) +10\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference (80): Read by the HTTP API checklist, as for cerebras-inference and together-inference. Compact model API with bounded output, `max_tokens` and streaming (25). Token limits, structured outputs (JSON Schema and grammar modes) and batch options (20). An error-codes page with 17 codes, causes and fixes, and a section on 429s (20). Retry guidance without a general deduplication guarantee (5 of 20). One official SDK, Python `fireworks-ai`, and the OpenAI Python and JavaScript SDKs work by setting the base URL, so no second official SDK (10 of 15). Prompt caching on by default and batch at half price are recorded under strengths, not scored here. 25+20+20+5+10 = 80.\n- xAI API (Grok) (90): Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with parallel calls on by default and `tool_choice` of auto, required, none or a named function (20). Guaranteed structured outputs (15). Automatic prompt caching, cached input at 0.25x on grok-4.7 ($0.50 per million) and 0.16x on grok-4.3 (15). 500,000-token context on grok-4.7 and 1,000,000 on grok-4.3, 13 of 15 for the default model's 500K. The Batch API is now 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 as well as the older models, with batch requests outside the rate limits (10 of 10, up from 5 on 6 October). One first-party SDK, `xai-sdk` for Python, with the OpenAI SDKs and Vercel's AI SDK documented as alternatives (5 of 10). Status codes documented with fixes, no Retry-After header found (12 of 15).\n\n### Transparency \u0026 trust: Fireworks AI Inference +6\n\n- Fireworks AI Inference (69): Proprietary service, Apache-2.0 Python SDK. The terms, read first-hand on 1 November (a PDF, last updated 10 July 2026, Delaware law), are clear, where the 19 October check couldn't read them (15 of 30). The data-handling page and section 3.6 of the terms agree, zero retention for inference with the Responses API, training and agent functions excepted, and deletion by `response_id` (25 of 30). Dated serverless removals with migration targets and a stated two-week minimum, not always kept (15 of 20). Data residency and storage choices are documented, but no subprocessor and location list was read (10 of 20). 15+25+15+10 = 65.\n- xAI API (Grok) (63): Closed service under xAI's enterprise terms, with the Python SDK under Apache-2.0 (15). The docs agree with each other on no training, 30-day abuse retention, 30-day storage of stateful responses and the ZDR route, but the privacy policy, enterprise terms and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block page on 6 October and again on 6 November, so they couldn't be compared (15 of 30). Dated migration guides and redirect tables for each retirement, but no written deprecation policy, and Chat Completions, Anthropic compatibility and grok-voice-2.0 are labelled deprecated with no date (12 of 20). The US regional endpoint states what stays in the US, the global endpoint guarantees no region, and no subprocessor list was readable (10 of 20).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Fireworks AI Inference | xAI API (Grok) | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 55 | Fireworks AI Inference +15 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 93 | 88 | Fireworks AI Inference +5 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 90 | xAI API (Grok) +10 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 97 | xAI API (Grok) +20 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Fireworks AI Inference +20 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 77 | xAI API (Grok) +12 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 63 | Fireworks AI Inference +6 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **69.3 · B** | **71.7 · BB** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Fireworks AI Inference | xAI API (Grok) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |\n| Vendor | Fireworks.ai, Inc. | SpaceXSI (xAI) |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1` | `https://api.x.ai/v1` |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | API key |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Proprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences. | Proprietary service under xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-27 | 2026-11-02 |\n| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-27 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-10-27 |\n| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes |\n| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |\n| Popularity | 10 stars | 597 stars, 912k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 4.3/5 (4) | none |\n\n## How the scores have moved\n\n### Fireworks AI Inference\n\n- -4.2 on 1 November 2026 (BB to B): new evidence, correction, negative event\n- no change on 28 October 2026: checklist\n\n### xAI API (Grok)\n\nNo score change since it was listed.\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Fireworks AI Inference.** Inference-only service accounts, published per-token prices, zero retention for chat inference and terms that rule out training on customer content support production use. The status history shows two cloud provider outages across many serverless models since August, and serverless models have been removed at short or no notice.\n\n**xAI API (Grok).** Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Fireworks AI Inference\n\n1. Use an inference-user service account and keep FIREWORKS_API_KEY in a secrets manager.\n2. Use https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1 for OpenAI-compatible requests and the full accounts/fireworks/models identifier.\n3. Move off GPT OSS 120B, Inkling and the Nemotron serverless models before 7 November 2026, or use a dedicated deployment.\n4. Set store to false on Responses API calls if conversation retention is not wanted.\n5. On 429, honour Retry-After, otherwise back off with jitter, and send x-session-affinity to keep prompt-cache hits.\n\n### xAI API (Grok)\n\n1. Build on the Responses API at https://api.x.ai/v1. Chat Completions is labelled deprecated and the Anthropic-compatible endpoint fully deprecated\n2. Pin a dated model slug. A retired slug keeps answering from a replacement model, billed at the replacement's price\n3. Back off exponentially on 429. The per-second cap is the per-minute budget divided by 48, with a minimum of 2\n4. Set `allowed_tools` on remote MCP servers. There's no approval step, and every exposed tool enters the context\n5. Use https://us.api.x.ai/v1 when processing must stay in the US. It costs 1.1x and serves only grok-4.7 and grok-4.6\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Fireworks AI Inference or xAI API (Grok)?\n\nxAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Fireworks AI Inference's 69.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Fireworks AI Inference leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Do Fireworks AI Inference and xAI API (Grok) need an API key?\n\nBoth need an API key.\n\n### Can an agent call Fireworks AI Inference and xAI API (Grok) without installing anything?\n\nYes. Fireworks AI Inference has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1 and xAI API (Grok) at https://api.x.ai/v1.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"fireworks-inference\", \"b\": \"xai-api\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare fireworks-inference xai-api`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fireworks-inference.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/xai-api.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Fireworks AI Inference or xAI API (Grok)\n\n- [Amazon Bedrock vs Fireworks AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-fireworks-inference.md)\n- [Amazon Bedrock vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Claude API vs Fireworks AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-fireworks-inference.md)\n- [Claude API vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Antseed vs Fireworks AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-fireworks-inference.md)\n- [Antseed vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs Fireworks 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(Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [OpenRouter vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Prism Inference vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Router.com (Ramp Router) vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-router-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Beam 1.0 vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [RouterPlus vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [SambaCloud vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [SiliconFlow vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Simplismart vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simplismart-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [StepFun API vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [SWE-2 Flash vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/swe-2-flash-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Together AI Inference vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Vercel AI Gateway vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-ai-gateway-vs-xai-api.md)\n- [Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) vs xAI API (Grok)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vertex-ai-vs-xai-api.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link the page or API address you took it from (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-11-07", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.7", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Fireworks AI Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "url": "" } ], "description": "xAI scores 71.7 (BB) to Fireworks AI Inference's 69.3 (B) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Fireworks AI Inference B 69.3", "xAI API (Grok) BB 71.7", "scores" ], "h1": "Fireworks AI Inference vs xAI API (Grok)", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/default.png", "path": "/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Fireworks AI Inference vs xAI for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-11-07", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-xai-api" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 7150, "slim": 3580 }, "version": 1 }