Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

SiliconFlow vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against SiliconFlow's 42.9 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 830 models comparisons

Which one, for what

SiliconFlow E

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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

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

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) AA

Best for Google Cloud customers who need Gemini with residency, VPC-SC, provisioned throughput and an SLA, or Claude under a Google bill.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 99 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 94 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 97 against 60
  • Security & auth, 97 against 39
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
  • Maintenance & community, 91 against 37
  • Transparency & trust, 90 against 52

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where SiliconFlow loses 3 points for them

Watch for

The SLA drops from 99.5 to 95 per cent for short-term availability models, Gemini 3.7 and 3.6 Flash among them

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.

Reliability Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +66

SiliconFlow 33

SiliconFlow's Terms of Use bar spiders, robots, scrapers and crawlers on the Platform, so its sites were not re-read on 5 November. Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 5 November. 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). 0+5+12+6+0+10 = 33.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) 99

Google Cloud status dashboard with per-product history (20). Its incident feed, read on 6 November, has no incident naming Vertex Gemini API, Gemini or the Agent Platform in the 90 days. The regional incidents of 20 August, 1 September and 20 October (europe-west2) and the Cloud Storage incident of 8 and 9 October didn't list it among affected products (30). Standard PayGo publishes usage tiers by 30-day spend with baseline throughput, 2,000,000 to 50,000,000 tokens a minute for Flash models and 500,000 to 10,000,000 for Pro, plus quota tables for other methods (15). A 429 page says to use the global endpoint and truncated exponential backoff, and a retry-strategy page (15). SLA of 99.5 per cent a month on generateContent and streamGenerateContent, 95 per cent for short-term availability models, and a latency SLO on Provisioned Throughput. The 429 page says pay-as-you-go 429s don't count toward the SLA error rate (10). Gemini 4 Argon reached GA on 13 October and Gemini 3.8 Flash moved to the 12-month tier, and the v1 API, 3.5 Flash-Lite and Claude Opus 5.5 are GA, but express mode was Preview at the 6 October check (9 of 10, up from 8). Up from 98 on 6 October.

Security & auth Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +58

SiliconFlow 39

SiliconFlow's Terms of Use bar spiders, robots, scrapers and crawlers on the Platform, so its sites were not re-read on 5 November. Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 5 November. 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). 15+12+6+6+0 = 39.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) 97

Model reading. OAuth 2.0 with IAM roles and service accounts, which the docs recommend for production, with API keys for testing. No key in a query string found in the docs we read (30). The training restriction in the Service Specific Terms says Google won't use customer data to train or fine-tune any model without permission, GA and pre-GA alike (20). Default in-memory caching for 24 hours that can be disabled, flagged prompts logged up to 90 days unless an abuse-monitoring exception is granted or the customer has a Cloud Master Agreement, the Interactions API storing by default, and Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 requiring 30-day retention shared with Anthropic (12 of 15, a judgement call matching the Fable exception on the Anthropic and Bedrock listings). Cloud Audit Logs, with Data Access logs off until enabled, and optional request-response logging to BigQuery (15). google.com security.txt valid to 2030-04-01, the Google VRP, and Generative AI on the platform in ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 and SOC 1, 2 and 3 scope per the 1 October services-in-scope check for vertex-ai-tuning, not re-read on 6 October (20).

Maintenance & community Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +54

SiliconFlow 37

SiliconFlow's Terms of Use bar spiders, robots, scrapers and crawlers on the Platform, so its sites were not re-read on 5 November. Model reading, per the 9 October check, not re-read on 5 November. Hy4-preview is listed as released on 14 September 2026, 52 days before this check, and no later model or API change was recorded; blog post dates record no API change (20). 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 repository in the vendor's GitHub organisation was last changed on 12 December 2025 (version 0.2.3), confirmed from a clone on 5 November (3 of 15). The API description and two guides are out of date (2 of 10). 20+2+2+6+2+3+2 = 37.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) 91

Model reading. Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash GA on 5 November, Grok 4.7 GA on 27 October, Gemini 4 Argon GA on 13 October and Claude Haiku 5.5 on 7 October 2026 (30). Stable models stay at least 12 months, and since 6 October Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini 3.8 Flash are in that tier, while 3.7 and 3.6 Flash remain short-term with at least 45 days' notice once a date is set (10 of 12, up from 8). Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash and Flash-Lite were due to retire on 20 October, three models on one date after more than 12 months, with replacements named. We didn't check partner model retirements (6 of 8, down from 8). Dated release notes on most working days, newest 5 November, and Cloud Customer Care (15). python-genai replies not sampled this run (5 of 10). Current SDKs, google-genai 3.0.0 on 6 November and @google/genai 3.0.0, and google-cloud-aiplatform 2.7.0 on 28 October 2026 (15). Supported runtimes stated, Python 3.10 or later and Node 20 or later, per the 6 October check (10). Unchanged at 91.

Transparency & trust Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +38

SiliconFlow 52

SiliconFlow's Terms of Use bar spiders, robots, scrapers and crawlers on the Platform, so its sites were not re-read on 5 November. Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 5 November. Closed service. The Terms of Use name the entity, Singapore law and SIAC arbitration. They also grant a licence "for in Singapore" and forbid use for any commercial purposes, which sits oddly with a paid API (10 of 30). The terms and the privacy policy agree that Interaction Data is processed on the customer's instructions with no obligation to store it. No retention period or DPA was found, and the privacy policy keeps drafting brackets around several values (12 of 30). Dated removal notices in the release notes, with no written policy or notice period (8 of 20). Stripe is named as payment processor and other providers only by type. Data may be handled within or outside Singapore, with no locations given (4 of 20). 10+12+8+4 = 34.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) 90

Closed service under the Google Cloud terms, with the Gen AI SDKs under Apache-2.0 and a public discovery document (18, as for Bedrock's open service models). The zero data retention and abuse monitoring pages agree with the Cloud terms and give periods for each case, 24 hours in memory, up to 90 days for flagged prompts, 30 days for Advanced AI models, 3 days for Search grounding logs and 30 days for Maps grounding, and say which can't be switched off (27 of 30). A dated model versions table with release and retirement dates and a stated 12-month or 45-day policy, but on 6 November it still listed Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash and Flash-Lite as available with a 20 October 2026 retirement date and left them out of the retired table (18 of 20, down from 20). The Cloud subprocessor list with locations, per the 1 October vertex-ai-tuning check, regional and multi-region endpoints, and per-model ML processing locations on the partner model cards (20).

Agent ergonomics Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +37

SiliconFlow 60

SiliconFlow's Terms of Use bar spiders, robots, scrapers and crawlers on the Platform, so its sites were not re-read on 5 November. Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 5 November. 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). 12+7+8+14+5+6+8 = 60.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) 97

Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with FunctionCallingConfig mode ANY and allowedFunctionNames to force a named tool (20). Schema-guaranteed JSON output (15). Implicit and explicit context caching, cached input at 0.1x, $0.075 per million on 3.8 Flash through 31 December (15). 1,048,576-token context on 3.8 Flash, a unified 1,048,576-token input and output limit on Gemini 4 Argon, and 1,000,000 on Claude Opus 5.5 (15). Flex/Batch at half price on Gemini (10). Gen AI SDKs for Python and JavaScript among others, and the OpenAI libraries work with Google Cloud auth (10). 429 handling documented per quota framework, with standard Google status codes elsewhere (12 of 15).

Schema & documentation Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +29

SiliconFlow 65

SiliconFlow's Terms of Use bar spiders, robots, scrapers and crawlers on the Platform, so its sites were not re-read on 5 November. Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 5 November. 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). 19+10+10+10+9+7 = 65.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) 94

Model reading. Keyless discovery document for the Agent Platform API v1, revision 20260930, with 1,128 methods and 1,493 schemas (25). No llms.txt, but every docs page answers as Markdown at .md.txt, counted as for vertex-ai-tuning (10). Model cards give limits, capabilities and retirement dates, and the 3.8 Flash card says when to use 3.7 Flash instead, but the docs mix the Vertex AI and Agent Platform names, and the OpenAI page tells new users to call the Gemini Developer API instead (16 of 20). Structured output with response_schema and response_mime_type: application/json always follows the schema per the docs, and complex schemas fail with a 400 (15). Examples on every page and a 429 guide, but we found no full error code list for generateContent (13 of 15). Versioned v1 and v1beta1 APIs and release notes with entries on most working days, newest 5 November 2026 (15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runSiliconFlowVertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)Edge
Reliability16%203399Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +66
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26594Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +29
Agent ergonomics13%16.26097Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +37
Security & auth14%17.53997Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +58
Payments & pricing10%12.53540Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83791Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +54
Transparency & trust7%8.85290Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) +38
Negative events≤15-30
TotalE 42.9/100AA 88.7/100

Facts side by side

FactSiliconFlowVertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)
KindModel APIModel API
VendorSiliconFlow Labs Pte. Ltd.Google Cloud
Hosted endpointhttps://api.siliconflow.com/v1https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the SiliconFlow Terms of UseProprietary service under the Google Cloud Platform terms. Partner models carry their providers' terms. The Google Gen AI SDKs are Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-09-142026-11-05
Terms last updatedno date given2026-09-02
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularitynone20.9M PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (4)none

What the same task costs

TaskSiliconFlowVertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)
Research a product and write a sourced reportdeepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on SiliconFlow, gemini-3.1-pro-preview on Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)$0.09$22.03
Build a small four-page websitedeepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on SiliconFlow, gemini-3.1-pro-preview on Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)$0.05$5.09
Find and fix a bug in a large codebasedeepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on SiliconFlow, gemini-3.1-pro-preview on Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)$0.01$1.09

Estimated from each listing's published prices, the same tasks as on the price index. Plans, minimums and free allowances aren't counted.

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.

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)

Gemini, Claude and open models through one Google Cloud API with IAM, regional endpoints, schema-guaranteed JSON and a 99.5 per cent SLA, and no Vertex incident on the Cloud status page in the 90 days to 6 November 2026. Gemini 4 Argon and 3.8 Flash have 12-month availability, but short-term Flash models get a 95 per cent SLA.

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

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)

  1. Call the global location on aiplatform.googleapis.com unless data residency requires a Region. The 429 guide says it spreads load and reduces errors
  2. Back off exponentially on 429 Resource exhausted. On Standard PayGo it means shared capacity is busy, not a fixed quota
  3. Send response_schema with response_mime_type: application/json. JSON mode alone doesn't guarantee valid output
  4. Set store to false on Interactions API calls. It defaults to true and keeps prompts and responses
  5. Pin gemini-4-argon or gemini-3.8-flash, both in the 12-month tier, rather than 3.7 or 3.6 Flash, which retire on 28 January 2027 and 19 November 2026

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, SiliconFlow or Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)?

Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) scores 88.7 (AA) on agent readiness against SiliconFlow's 42.9 (E), and leads in every scored category.

Do SiliconFlow and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) need an API key?

SiliconFlow needs an API key. Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call SiliconFlow and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) without installing anything?

Yes. SiliconFlow has a hosted endpoint at https://api.siliconflow.com/v1 and Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform) at https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1.

Other comparisons with SiliconFlow or Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)

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