# GroqCloud vs Beam 1.0

> GroqCloud scores 74.5 (BB) to Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

GroqCloud scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Beam 1.0 leads on schema & documentation. Both do llm inference.

- GroqCloud: grade BB, 74.5/100, rank #70 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq.json
- Beam 1.0: grade D, 53.4/100, rank #786 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/reflection-beam.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-beam.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### 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, 90 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 67
- Security & auth, 82 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 68

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice

### Beam 1.0 (D)

Good for: An OpenAI-compatible endpoint for a large open-weight coding and agent model, for builders who want the same model hosted or self-hosted under Apache-2.0.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 64

Watch for: The API is a public beta with no SLA, and per-organisation rate limits and the daily allocation are not published as numbers


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GroqCloud | Beam 1.0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 40 | GroqCloud +50 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 84 | Beam 1.0 +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 67 | GroqCloud +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 82 | 46 | GroqCloud +36 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | GroqCloud +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 50 | GroqCloud +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 68 | GroqCloud +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.5 · BB** | **53.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GroqCloud | Beam 1.0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Groq | Reflection |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | `https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | Weights under Apache-2.0. The hosted Reflection API is a closed service under Reflection AI, Inc.'s commercial terms of service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-21 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-22 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-12 |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 619 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (8) | 2.5/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Beam 1.0.** The Reflection API is OpenAI-compatible, with an OpenAPI document, strict structured outputs and tool calls, and error codes that say when to retry, and the weights are Apache-2.0. It is a free public beta with unpublished daily limits and no per-token price, reasoning can't be turned off, and three API incidents were posted between 14 and 16 October 2026.

## Before you call either

### GroqCloud

1. Call `/models` at start-up. Four model ids stopped working between July and September
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; server errors aren't billed

### Beam 1.0

1. Send `reasoning_effort` `low` or `medium` for short tasks. The default is `max`, and `none` or `minimal` return `400 unsupported_value`
2. Return every assistant message with its `reasoning_content` unchanged. If a turn comes back without it, start a new conversation, since later requests fail with `missing_required_parameter`
3. Don't rely on `stop` or `seed`. Both are accepted and ignored, so truncate output in your own code
4. Honour `x-should-retry: false` on a 429. It means a daily limit is spent and `Retry-After` counts to 00:00 UTC
5. Set `max_completion_tokens` yourself on long prompts. The default budget isn't reduced to fit the prompt and includes reasoning tokens

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, GroqCloud or Beam 1.0?

GroqCloud scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Beam 1.0 leads on schema & documentation.

### Do GroqCloud and Beam 1.0 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call GroqCloud and Beam 1.0 without installing anything?

Yes. GroqCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 and Beam 1.0 at https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with GroqCloud or Beam 1.0

- [Claude API vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-groq.md)
- [Claude API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Antseed vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-groq.md)
- [Antseed vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-groq.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-groq.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-groq.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-groq.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepInfra vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-groq.md)
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- [DeepSeek API vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-groq.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Glimpse vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-groq.md)
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