Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

SiliconFlow vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub

Tencent Cloud TokenHub scores 59.5 (C) on agent readiness against SiliconFlow's 46.8 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 529 models comparisons

Which one, for what

SiliconFlow D

Best for Agents that want recent open-weight chat models, plus image, video and speech, behind one OpenAI-style key at low per-token prices, and can live without a status page or SLA.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Tencent Cloud TokenHub loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No status page, incident history or SLA was found, and the terms disclaim any uptime or availability commitment

Tencent Cloud TokenHub C

Best for Teams in or near Tencent Cloud that want one key and bill for Tencent's Hy models and Chinese open-weight models (DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, Qwen, MiMo) with per-key limits and CNY billing.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 46 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 73 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 83 against 60
  • Security & auth, 71 against 39
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 47

Watch for

Sign-up needs a Tencent Cloud account with real-name verification. The international site answered with a bot check, so access from outside China was not established

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Security & auth Tencent Cloud TokenHub +32

SiliconFlow 39

Model reading. Bearer keys created in the console. No scopes, expiry, per-key limits or rotation are documented, and deletion of a key was not confirmed because the console was not read (15 of 30). The terms say Interaction Data is used only to supply the service and is not used or disclosed without authorisation. No statement on model training was found (12 of 20). The terms say there is no obligation to store Interaction Data. No retention period or zero-retention option is stated, and clause 5.11 allows communications to be recorded and passed to the authorities (6 of 15). The release note of 26 March 2026 describes usage and cost breakdowns and invoice export, and the pricing FAQ says monthly spending limits can be set. No audit log was found (6 of 15). No security.txt (404), disclosure policy, bug bounty or named certification was found on the pages read. The product introduction says the service complies with industry standards and names none (0 of 20).

Tencent Cloud TokenHub 71

Router, read on the model lines. Bearer keys can be limited to chosen models and inference services, up to 200 source IP ranges and daily, monthly or total token quotas, can be disabled or deleted, and can be created in code through CreateApiKey with signed Tencent Cloud credentials. Keys are long-lived with no expiry setting or built-in rotation (26 of 30). Clause 2.17 of the terms says inputs are not used to train Tencent Cloud's own models, and the FAQ says data is not used for training. Inputs to third-party deployed models (DeepSeek's directly supplied ones) go to DeepSeek under its terms (14 of 20). Clause 2.14 keeps data only as long as the service needs, with no periods stated. When a customer asks for generated content without AI labels, Tencent Cloud keeps logs of who received it for at least six months. No zero-retention option was found (7 of 15). Per-call audit logs (request ID, key, client IP, status, tokens, latency) and optional full call logs go to the customer's CLS, billed separately, with usage by key and a monitoring dashboard (14 of 15). No security.txt on cloud.tencent.com, www.tencent.com or tokenhub.tencentmaas.com (404). Tencent's bug bounty through TSRC lists Tencent Cloud in scope. No certification for TokenHub was checked (10 of 20).

Maintenance & community Tencent Cloud TokenHub +26

SiliconFlow 47

Model reading. Hy4-preview is listed as released on 14 September 2026 and the blog's newest posts are dated 28 September 2026 (30). No notice period is stated. Six removal notices from 31 December 2025 to 11 June 2026 are dated the day of removal, and two in March 2026 gave six and seven days (2 of 12). The release notes record about 60 model ids removed in ten notices over the last twelve months (2 of 8). The release notes stop at 11 June 2026 while nine chat models were added afterwards. Support is by email and Discord (6 of 15). Replies in the support channels were not examined (2 of 10). No official SDK. The langchain-siliconflow package in the vendor's GitHub organisation was last pushed on 12 December 2025 (3 of 15). The API description and two guides are out of date (2 of 10).

Tencent Cloud TokenHub 73

Closed service, read on the model lines. The newest release note is dated 24 October 2026 and the price page was updated on 31 October (30). The four retirement notices read gave 21 to 33 days, and eligible callers are switched to a successor at its price. No minimum notice period is written, and DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash (directly supplied) was moved to the 1017 version under the same ids on 17 October 2026 in a notice dated two days later (7 of 12). 18 retirement notices from 21 April to 22 October 2026, 12 of them since 3 August (3 of 8). Dated release notes and announcements, ticket and phone support around the clock and a Q&A community (13 of 15). Replies on the THCLI repository were not sampled (3 of 10). Tencent Cloud SDK 3.0 in several languages covers the control plane and tencent-tokenhub-cli 1.0.2 was published on 30 October 2026. No inference SDK of its own (12 of 15). The CLI has four releases since 15 September 2026, lists no runtime dependencies and needs Node.js 18 or later. CI not checked (5 of 10).

Agent ergonomics Tencent Cloud TokenHub +23

SiliconFlow 60

Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). OpenAI-style tools with up to 128 functions, and each model page says whether Tools are supported. No tool_choice field is in the chat schema and the guide is out of date (12 of 20). response_format of json_object. The DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash page says Structured Outputs are not supported (7 of 15). Cached input prices are published per model. No caching guide was found (8 of 15). Context listed as 1049K tokens on eleven chat models on the home page, with output up to 393K (14 of 15). /files and /batches are in the OpenAPI file for chat completions only, with no guide in the English index, no batch price and a window description that contradicts itself (5 of 10). No official SDK. The OpenAI and Anthropic clients work with a changed base URL (6 of 10). Errors carry an HTTP status, a numeric code and a message. No list of codes was found (8 of 15).

Tencent Cloud TokenHub 83

Router, read on the model lines. Function calling is marked on most chat models in the model list, with behaviour depending on the model routed (14 of 20). Structured output is marked per model and missing on the MiniMax and Qwen models, and an unsupported response_format returns code 400006 (12 of 15). Cache-hit prices are published per model, Kimi K3.1 Pro lists five-minute and one-hour cache writes, and a guide covers prompt_cache_key and the X-Session-ID header for instance affinity (14 of 15). Most listed chat models have contexts of one million tokens, a judgement call since a router has no default model (15). Batch at half price covers only Hy3 and Hy4 preview, reads and writes JSONL in the customer's own COS bucket and is documented for the Guangzhou endpoint (5 of 10). No TokenHub inference SDK. The OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs work with a changed base URL, and Tencent Cloud SDK 3.0 and the thcli CLI cover the control plane (8 of 10). Errors return a code, English and Chinese messages, the source, the upstream code and status and a request ID, and stream errors arrive as SSE error frames (15 of 15).

Reliability Tencent Cloud TokenHub +13

SiliconFlow 33

Hosted reading. No status page is linked from the site, the docs index or any page read (0). With no page there is no incident record to read (5 of 30). Rate limits are published with numbers by spend tier, from 1,000 requests and 40,000 tokens a minute at L0 to 10,000 and 2,000,000 at L5, on a page served only in Chinese, with per-model figures left to the console (12 of 15). The 429 body is documented and names the limit reached, and the docs say to wait and retry. No Retry-After header, backoff figures or idempotency guidance were found (6 of 15). No SLA found. Clause 4.2 of the terms disclaims any uptime or availability commitment (0). The serverless API is generally available, and /systemone is marked alpha (10).

Tencent Cloud TokenHub 46

Hosted reading. No public status page was found. status.cloud.tencent.com did not answer and the Tencent Cloud health dashboard documentation answered with a bot check (0). With no page there is no incident record to read (5 of 30). The announcements carry one incident, DeepSeek's directly supplied models unavailable from 9:06 to 13:04 Beijing time on 15 October 2026 after a fault at DeepSeek, compensated with vouchers. Rate limits are per model, shown in the console and returned by DescribeModelQuota. The public docs give numbers only for batch jobs (20 created a minute, 10 active), image models (5 concurrent) and DeepSeek V4 Flash and Pro (2,500 and 500 concurrent), with the rules for self-serve increases (8 of 15). Six 429 codes separate RPM, TPM, TPD, concurrency and upstream capacity, 429s may carry Retry-After and the docs advise exponential backoff. No idempotency guidance, though inference calls are not writes (13 of 15). The TokenHub SLA promises 99.5% monthly availability with vouchers of 10, 25 or 50 per cent of the month's fee. It excludes free use and third-party deployed models such as DeepSeek's directly supplied ones (10). Generally available since 7 April 2026, with some models marked preview (10).

Schema & documentation Tencent Cloud TokenHub +8

SiliconFlow 65

Model reading. Public OpenAPI 3.0 file with 22 operations and 102 schemas, linked from llms.txt under the Chinese path only. Its chat model enum of 71 ids includes removed models and omits every model added since July 2026 (19 of 25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each docs page (10). Guides for function calling, JSON mode, reasoning, prefix and FIM completion. The function calling guide lists only models the release notes show as removed, and its examples use DeepSeek-V2.5 (10 of 20). Typed parameters with 104 enums and required fields. response_format is typed as a bare string with an example (10 of 15). Curl and Python examples, an error page with seven HTTP codes and one body code, and 400, 401, 404, 429, 503 and 504 responses in the file (9 of 15). The file's version reads 1.0.0. The release notes are dated, stop at 11 June 2026 and since March 2026 record only model removals (7 of 15).

Tencent Cloud TokenHub 73

Router, scored on the API lines. No OpenAPI file for the inference routes. Field pages document the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic Messages formats as TokenHub implements them, and the control plane is a Tencent Cloud API 3.0 service (version 2026-03-22) with typed parameters, API Explorer and SDKs (12 of 25). An llms.txt at cloud.tencent.com/document/product/1823/llms.txt links a Markdown copy of each docs page (10). The docs say which models support thinking, tools, structured output and caching, how TokenHub departs from each standard protocol, and which DeepSeek model suits which job. The quickstart's examples still use deepseek-v3, which is not in the model list, and Qwen3.5 stays in the list with a past shutdown date (13 of 20). Protocol pages list each field with type, required flag and default, and control-plane parameters carry enums and required flags (10 of 15). Examples in curl, Python, Node.js, Java and Go, and an error page listing 30 codes with HTTP status, cause and fix (14 of 15). Paths carry /v1, release notes are dated monthly from 7 April to 24 October 2026, and the control-plane API has a dated history of 26 releases to 18 September 2026 (14 of 15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runSiliconFlowTencent Cloud TokenHubEdge
Reliability16%203346Tencent Cloud TokenHub +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26573Tencent Cloud TokenHub +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.26083Tencent Cloud TokenHub +23
Security & auth14%17.53971Tencent Cloud TokenHub +32
Payments & pricing10%12.53535even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84773Tencent Cloud TokenHub +26
Transparency & trust7%8.85254Tencent Cloud TokenHub +2
Negative events≤150-3
TotalD 46.8/100C 59.5/100

Facts side by side

FactSiliconFlowTencent Cloud TokenHub
KindModel APIModel router
VendorSiliconFlow Labs Pte. Ltd.Tencent Cloud
Hosted endpointhttps://api.siliconflow.com/v1https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the SiliconFlow Terms of UseProprietary service under the TokenHub Terms of Service, the TokenHub SLA and the Tencent Cloud Service Agreement, with a special note for third-party deployed models. The tencent-tokenhub-cli package is Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-142026-10-24
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingyescouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waiveryescouldn't be read
Popularitynone204 npm/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

SiliconFlow

Per-token prices for every listed model are public, and one key reaches chat, embeddings, reranking, image, video and speech through OpenAI-style and Anthropic-style routes. No status page, SLA, security page or official SDK was found, release notes stop at 11 June 2026, and several model removals are dated the same day as their notice.

Tencent Cloud TokenHub

Keys can be limited to chosen models, source IPs and token quotas, errors name their source and code, and a 99.5% SLA covers paid use of models Tencent runs. Sign-up needs a Tencent Cloud account with real-name verification, prices are in CNY, no public status page was found, and 18 model retirement notices ran from April to October 2026.

Before you call either

SiliconFlow

  1. Set the OpenAI client's base URL to https://api.siliconflow.com/v1, or the Anthropic client's to https://api.siliconflow.com/, and send the key as a Bearer token
  2. Take model ids from the model pages or GET /v1/models, not from the OpenAPI enum or the function calling guide, which list removed models
  3. Check the model field of each response. On 11 June 2026 traffic for GLM-5 and Kimi-K2.5 was routed to successor models
  4. Use response_format of json_object only where the model page says JSON Mode is supported, and keep max_tokens about 10,000 below the context length
  5. Set the Claude Code environment variables by hand. The automated route pipes a script from an Amazon S3 bucket into bash

Tencent Cloud TokenHub

  1. Use https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1 with keys made for Guangzhou and https://tokenhub-intl.tencentmaas.com/v1 with keys made for Singapore. Keys do not work across the two
  2. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer on the OpenAI paths and as x-api-key on /v1/messages
  3. Parse error.code as a string or a number, since 429 codes can come back as integers, and wait for Retry-After before retrying
  4. Take model ids from GET /v1/models and watch for pre-offline. The quickstart's deepseek-v3 example is not in the current model list
  5. Expect DeepSeek prices to double on weekdays from 9am to noon and 2pm to 6pm Beijing time, when the peak rate applies

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, SiliconFlow or Tencent Cloud TokenHub?

Tencent Cloud TokenHub scores 59.5 (C) on agent readiness against SiliconFlow's 46.8 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do SiliconFlow and Tencent Cloud TokenHub need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call SiliconFlow and Tencent Cloud TokenHub without installing anything?

Yes. SiliconFlow has a hosted endpoint at https://api.siliconflow.com/v1 and Tencent Cloud TokenHub at https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1.

Other comparisons with SiliconFlow or Tencent Cloud TokenHub

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