# Prism Inference vs Beam 1.0

> Prism Inference scores 60.1 (C) 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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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Prism Inference scores 60.1 (C) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Beam 1.0 leads on transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.

- Prism Inference: grade C, 60.1/100, rank #581 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prism-inference.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prism-inference.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

### 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:
- Reliability, 65 against 40
- Security & auth, 65 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.5 out of 5

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

### 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:
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 61

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 | Prism Inference | Beam 1.0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 40 | Prism Inference +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 84 | Beam 1.0 +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 67 | Prism Inference +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 46 | Prism Inference +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | Prism Inference +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 50 | Beam 1.0 +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 68 | Beam 1.0 +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.1 · C** | **53.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Prism Inference | Beam 1.0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Prism Technologies Inc | Reflection |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.prisminference.com/v1` | `https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Prism's terms of service. The OpenAPI file declares `LicenseRef-Proprietary`. The Hermes provider plugin repository carries no licence file | 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 | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-09 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-09 |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Prism Inference or Beam 1.0?

Prism Inference scores 60.1 (C) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Beam 1.0 leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Prism Inference and Beam 1.0 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Prism Inference has a hosted endpoint at https://api.prisminference.com/v1 and Beam 1.0 at https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Prism Inference or Beam 1.0

- [Claude API vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Claude API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Antseed vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Antseed vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-prism-inference.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 Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Glimpse vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Glimpse vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Meta Model API vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Meta Model API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Novita AI vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-prism-inference.md)
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- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-prism-inference.md)
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