GroqCloud vs OpenAI API

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.

OpenAI API

Official OpenAPI document and an llms.txt index. Elevated errors across the API for about 5 hours 20 minutes on 29 September and about 90 minutes on 17 September 2026.

GroqCloud

1. Call /models at start-up. Four model ids stopped working this quarter
2. Read retry-after on a 429 and the x-ratelimit-remaining-tokens header before the next call
3. Free plan allows 8,000 tokens a minute on gpt-oss, so keep prompts small or batch them
4. Don't build on Qwen 3.8 27B. It's a preview and previews can go at short notice
5. Treat a 498 as Flex capacity and retry later; 5xx responses aren't billed

OpenAI API

1. Build on the Responses API. Astra calls tools only there
2. Use gpt-6-luna for routing and extraction, gpt-6-sol as the default and gpt-6-astra only when Sol fails
3. Anything pinned to gpt-5* or o3* stops on 2026-12-11. Move before then
4. Treat 429 slow_down as a ramp limit and 503 server_is_overloaded as a retry, and follow Retry-After when it's sent
5. Prompts over 272K tokens cost double on input. Trim before you pay for it