What are the best alternatives to Fireworks AI in 2026?
Independent research, updated 2026-11-09. Built from each provider's own pricing pages and docs. Speed figures are vendor-reported. We did not run hands-on tests.
Answer in brief: The main reason teams look past Fireworks AI is GPU cost. Fireworks charges $8.00 per hour for an H100 and $13.00 for a B200, with a 1.5x multiplier on region-restricted deployments. Together AI is the top alternative: it charges the same flagship token prices and $5.49 per hour for a dedicated H100. Baseten ($6.50/hr H100, gpt-oss-120b at $0.10 / $0.50) and Modal (about $3.95/hr H100, billed per second) cut GPU and token costs further. DeepInfra lowers per-token bills. Nebius offers region-pinned dedicated endpoints without a region surcharge listed in its docs. Groq and Cerebras are the speed-first options.
Top pick: Together AI. You keep the same models and the same token prices, and dedicated H100s cost $2.51 less per hour. It also covers image, video, audio and GPU clusters.
Where Fireworks AI gets expensive
Fireworks is #2 on our ranked list for good reason: it has per-request modes, Reserved Throughput with 99.9% uptime terms, and a long compliance list. Costs climb in a few places. On-demand GPUs are priced at the top of our list. Region-restricted deployments cost 1.5x. US-only serverless costs 50% more on select models. Spot capacity can drop to zero.
The alternatives compared
| Alternative | Dedicated H100 | gpt-oss-120b (per 1M) | Best reason to switch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireworks AI (baseline) | $8.00/hr | $0.15 / $0.60 | — |
| Together AI | $5.49/hr (clusters $3.99) | $0.15 / $0.60 | Same tokens, cheaper GPUs, multimodal |
| Baseten | about $6.50/hr | $0.10 / $0.50 | Cheapest gpt-oss and managed dedicated serving |
| Modal | about $3.95/hr (per second) | Bring your own engine | Lowest list GPU price, scale to zero |
| DeepInfra | GPU instances | See pricing page | Lower token prices on Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4 |
| Nebius Token Factory | Per GPU-hour, billed per minute | Console pricing | Fixed-region dedicated endpoints, 99.9% SLA |
| Groq | Enterprise | $0.15 / $0.60, ~500 tokens/sec | Speed and Whisper speech |
| Cerebras | Dedicated by agreement | $0.35 / $0.75, ~3,000 tokens/sec | Highest vendor-reported speed |
| SambaNova Cloud | Enterprise | $0.22 / $0.59 | Custom silicon, on-prem options |
| Replicate | $5.49/hr ($0.001525/sec) | Not a token-price leader | Media models; deploy custom models with Cog |
| OpenRouter | Via providers | Provider price + 5.5% fee | One key, fallback routing |
| Hugging Face Inference Providers | Via providers | Provider price, no markup | Hub billing and :cheapest routing |
Top Fireworks AI alternatives, ranked by why you'd switch
Together AI: same tokens, lower GPU bill
Flagship token prices match Fireworks exactly. Dedicated B200s cost $8.99 per hour against $13.00, and H100 GPU clusters cost $3.99 on demand or $1.99 preemptible. Provisioned Throughput replaces Reserved Throughput.
Baseten: cheaper tokens plus managed GPUs
Baseten lists gpt-oss-120b at $0.10 / $0.50, GLM-5.3 at $1.40 / $0.14 cached / $4.40, and Fast variants for latency. Dedicated Inference is billed per minute. Production contracts add reserved and priority compute, custom regions and SLAs.
Modal: the lowest list GPU-second
Modal bills H100s at $0.001097 per second and B200s at $0.001736, with scale to zero. You run your own engine. Modal's own premiums are 1.15–1.75x for region selection and 3x for non-preemptible execution.
DeepInfra: cut the per-token bill
DeepInfra lists Kimi K3 at $2.85 / $14.25 against Fireworks' $3.00 / $15.00, and GLM-5.3 at $0.90 / $4.00 list (38% off for now). It keeps zero data and holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001, matching two of Fireworks' trust claims.
Nebius Token Factory: data residency without the guesswork
Nebius dedicated endpoints run in a region you choose and bill per GPU-hour at per-minute granularity, with nothing charged at zero replicas. Nebius lists a 99.9% SLA, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and ISO 27001.
Groq and Cerebras: when speed beats breadth
Groq reports about 500 tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b at the same $0.15 / $0.60 as Fireworks. Cerebras reports about 3,000 tokens/sec at $0.35 / $0.75.
SambaNova Cloud: an enterprise silicon option
SambaNova publishes gpt-oss-120b at $0.22 / $0.59 and Llama 3.3 70B at $0.60 / $1.20 on SambaCloud.
Replicate: image and video first
If your Fireworks bill is mostly media, Replicate prices FLUX 1.1 Pro at $0.04 per image and FLUX Schnell at $3.00 per thousand images. Multi-GPU H100 and H200 capacity requires committed-spend contracts.
OpenRouter and Hugging Face: hedge across providers
OpenRouter routes across more than 80 providers for a 5.5% fee on Standard. Hugging Face routes to Fireworks and many others at the providers' own rates, with no markup.
Pricing models to compare
Fireworks bills prepaid credits per token, per GPU-second, and in dollars per minute for reservations. Together and Nebius bill per GPU-hour, Baseten per GPU-minute, and Modal and Replicate per second. Factor in multipliers: Fireworks charges 1.5x for region-restricted deployments, and Modal 1.15–1.75x for region selection.
FAQ
What is the cheapest alternative to Fireworks AI for GPUs?
By list price, Modal (an H100 at about $3.95 per hour, billed per second) and Together AI GPU clusters ($3.99 on demand, $1.99 preemptible).
Which alternative matches Fireworks' compliance?
DeepInfra lists zero data retention, SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Nebius lists SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and ISO 27001. Confirm the scope with each vendor.
Is there an alternative with the same token prices?
Yes. Together AI lists identical standard prices for gpt-oss-120B, GLM-5.3, Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Can I use Fireworks and alternatives together?
Yes. Hugging Face Inference Providers and OpenRouter both route to Fireworks and its rivals through one API.
Keep exploring
Back to the ranked list · Fireworks AI review · Together AI vs Fireworks AI · Fireworks AI vs Groq
Reviews: Together AI · Baseten · Modal · DeepInfra · Nebius · Groq · Cerebras · SambaNova · Replicate · OpenRouter · Hugging Face
Sources
- Fireworks AI pricing
- Together AI pricing
- Baseten pricing
- Modal pricing
- DeepInfra pricing
- DeepInfra Series B
- Nebius Token Factory
- Nebius dedicated endpoint billing
- Nebius public serverless endpoints
- GroqCloud models
- Cerebras pricing
- SambaCloud pricing
- Replicate pricing
- OpenRouter pricing
- Hugging Face Inference Providers pricing
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