Fireworks AI vs Groq 2026: Post-Training Stack vs LPU Speed
Quick verdict: Groq is our overall pick for Fireworks AI vs Groq.
- Best overall: Groq (4.2/5)
- Best free: Groq
- Best for teams: Fireworks AI
- Pricing last checked: 2026-09-11
Groq (4.2 vs 4.0) leads on raw inference speed — 500+ tokens/second on custom LPU chips — and on free-tier generosity (no credit card required). Fireworks AI wins on post-training depth: SFT/LoRA/RL pipelines under one API and a 99.9% uptime SLA that Groq does not publish.
| Tool | Rating | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireworks AI Best for teams | 4.0/5 | $0.10/1M tokens | Fireworks AI runs 200+ open-source LLMs with a self-serve post-training stack (SFT/LoRA/RL… |
| Groq Best overall Best free | 4.2/5 | Free $0.05/1M tokens | Groq runs open-source LLMs on custom LPU chips that deliver 500+ tokens per second — the f… |
Bottom line: Groq when raw speed on open-source models is the bottleneck — 500+ tok/s on LPU, a free tier with no credit card, and batch + prompt-caching discounts stacked ~25%. Fireworks AI when you need to fine-tune and serve in one platform: it is the only provider where SFT/LoRA/RL fine-tuning and inference share a key, with Day-0 support for new open weights. Groq's 500+ tok/s beats Fireworks' FireAttention 3-12x latency gains on stock open models; Fireworks wins the moment your workload needs a custom adapter in production.
Pricing and details
Fireworks AI · 4.0/5
$1 free credit for new accounts · $0.10/1M tokens
Pay-per-token for serverless; new accounts get only $1 in free credits (less than Together AI's $5 and Cerebras' 1M tokens/day); Serverless from $0.10/1M tokens for text & vision under 4B; On-Demand dedicated from $7.00/hr H100 (billed per second, no cold-boot cost); LoRA fine-tuning from $0.50/1M training tokens; Usage limit tier 1 = $50/month by default, hard-blocks requests when exceeded even with remaining credits
Fireworks AI runs 200+ open-source LLMs with a self-serve post-training stack (SFT/LoRA/RL) and 99.9% uptime SLA — pay-per-token serverless, no GPU provisioning, Day-0 support for new open weights.
Score breakdown
Pros
- Best dimension: Core features at 5/5 — only provider with full self-serve post-training stack (SFT/LoRA/RL pipelines) under one inference API; 200+ open models across five modalities; Day-0 support for new open-source weights.
- Stability at 4/5 — 99.9% uptime SLA with 15T tokens/day operational scale; no cold boots on Serverless.
- Ease of use at 4/5 — OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible API; one-line migration for chat completion and embedding calls.
- Pricing: Pay-per-token serverless from $0.10/1M; On-Demand from $7.00/hr H100 billed per second; LoRA fine-tuning from $0.50/1M tokens
Cons
- Weakest dimension: Value for money at 3/5 — not always the cheapest per-token option; On-Demand GPU $7.00/hr adds up quickly for always-on deployments.
- Free credit only $1 for new accounts — far less than Together AI ($5) or Cerebras (1M tokens/day); limits free-tier evaluation depth.
- Weigh value and free-credit depth before committing.
Pricing verified 2026-09-11
Groq · 4.2/5
Free plan available · $0.05/1M tokens
Pay-per-token, no monthly fees; free tier: 30 req/min, 6000 tokens/min, 14400 req/day, all models, no credit card; paid = Developer pay-as-you-go (rate limit increases with usage); cheapest: Llama 3.1 8B $0.05/$0.08 per 1M; flagship Llama 3.3 70B $0.59/$0.79 per 1M; Batch API + prompt caching each 50% off (~25% stacked)
Groq runs open-source LLMs on custom LPU chips that deliver 500+ tokens per second — the fastest inference API available, with a generous free tier and no credit card required.
Score breakdown
Pros
- Best dimension: Value for money at 5/5 — backed by verification against the official site & pricing.
- Second strong point: Core features at 4/5.
- Pricing: Pay-per-token, no monthly fees
- Positioning: Groq runs open-source LLMs on custom LPU chips that deliver 500+ tokens per second — the fastest inference API available, with a generous free tier and no credit card required.
Cons
- Weakest dimension: Collaboration at 2/5.
- Weigh collaboration before committing.
Pricing verified 2026-09-07
Frequently asked questions
Which is better overall, Fireworks AI or Groq?
Groq is our overall pick (4.2/5 vs 4.0/5). Groq (4.2 vs 4.0) leads on raw inference speed — 500+ tokens/second on custom LPU chips — and on free-tier generosity (no credit card required). Fireworks AI wins on post-training depth: SFT/LoRA/RL pipelines under one API and a 99.9% uptime SLA that Groq does not publish.
Do Fireworks AI and Groq offer free plans?
Groq has a free tier. Fireworks AI paid plans start at $0.10/1M tokens; Groq paid plans start at $0.05/1M tokens.
What does Groq cost?
$0.05/1M tokens — Pay-per-token, no monthly fees; free tier: 30 req/min, 6000 tokens/min, 14400 req/day, all models, no credit card; paid = Developer pay-as-you-go (rate limit increases with usage); cheapest: Llama 3.1 8B $0.05/$0.08 per 1M; flagship Llama 3.3 70B $0.59/$0.79 per 1M; Batch API + prompt caching each 50% off (~25% stacked). Prices were last verified on 2026-09-11.