Crusoe Managed Inference vs SambaNova Cloud: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Crusoe Managed Inference and SambaNova Cloud — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
Crusoe Managed Inference
Managed inference on Crusoe Cloud — DeepSeek V4, Gemma 4, GLM 5.1, Llama 3.3, Qwen3
Crusoe Managed Inference is the serverless LLM inference service from Crusoe Cloud, offering a curated catalog of open-weight models including DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Gemma 4 31B, GLM 5.1, gpt-oss-120b, Llama 3.3 70B, and Qwen3 235B A22B. Crusoe Cloud is known for its clean-energy GPU infrastructure. Pricing is published at crusoe.ai/cloud/managed-inference.
SambaNova Cloud
High-throughput inference on SambaNova RDU chips — gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, Llama
SambaNova Cloud runs inference on SambaNova's proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips, delivering very high throughput (800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b). The catalog covers gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3, DeepSeek-V3.2, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B, and Gemma 4 31B. Pricing is PAYG with prompt caching on select models.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Crusoe Managed Inference
SambaNova Cloud
Key differentiators
Managed inference on Crusoe Cloud's clean-energy GPU infrastructure — competitive pricing on DeepSeek V4, Gemma 4, GLM 5.1, and Qwen3 without managing GPU clusters.
Proprietary RDU chips deliver industry-leading throughput on open-weight models at competitive per-token rates.
Frequently asked questions
Crusoe Managed Inference FAQs
What is Crusoe Managed Inference?
Crusoe Managed Inference is the serverless LLM API from Crusoe Cloud, offering open-weight models including DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Gemma 4 31B, GLM 5.1, gpt-oss-120b, Llama 3.3 70B, and Qwen3 235B A22B. See crusoe.ai/cloud/managed-inference for current rates.
How much does Crusoe Managed Inference cost?
As of October 2026: DeepSeek V3 0324 $0.50/$1.50, DeepSeek V4 Flash $0.14/$0.28, DeepSeek V4 Pro $1.74/$3.48, Gemma 4 31B $0.14/$0.40, GLM 5.1 $1.20/$4.40, gpt-oss-120b $0.05/$0.20, Llama 3.3 70B $0.25/$0.75, Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 $0.22/$0.80. See crusoe.ai/cloud/managed-inference for current rates.
Is Crusoe Cloud clean energy?
Yes. Crusoe Cloud is known for using stranded and flared gas to power its GPU infrastructure, reducing the carbon footprint of AI compute compared to conventional data centers.
SambaNova Cloud FAQs
What makes SambaNova Cloud different?
SambaNova runs inference on its own Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips rather than NVIDIA GPUs. This delivers very high throughput — over 800 tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b — at competitive per-token rates.
What models does SambaNova Cloud offer?
As of October 2026: gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59), GLM-5.3 ($1.40/$4.40, cached $0.14), MiniMax-M3 ($0.60/$2.40, cached $0.06), DeepSeek-V3.2 ($3.00/$4.50), Meta-Llama-3.3-70B ($0.60/$1.20), and Gemma 4 31B ($0.38/$1.15). See cloud.sambanova.ai/plans/pricing for current rates.
Does SambaNova offer prompt caching?
Yes, on GLM-5.3 (cached input $0.14/1M vs $1.40/1M standard) and MiniMax-M3 (cached input $0.06/1M vs $0.60/1M standard).
Provider resources
Crusoe Managed Inference — Managed inference on Crusoe Cloud — DeepSeek V4, Gemma 4, GLM 5.1, Llama 3.3, Qwen3
Crusoe Managed Inference is the serverless LLM inference service from Crusoe Cloud, offering a curated catalog of open-weight models including DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Gemma 4 31B, GLM 5.1, gpt-oss-120b, Llama 3.3 70B, and Qwen3 235B A22B. Crusoe Cloud is known for its clean-energy GPU infrastructure. Pricing is published at crusoe.ai/cloud/managed-inference.
Managed inference on Crusoe Cloud's clean-energy GPU infrastructure — competitive pricing on DeepSeek V4, Gemma 4, GLM 5.1, and Qwen3 without managing GPU clusters.
SambaNova Cloud — High-throughput inference on SambaNova RDU chips — gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, Llama
SambaNova Cloud runs inference on SambaNova's proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips, delivering very high throughput (800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b). The catalog covers gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3, DeepSeek-V3.2, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B, and Gemma 4 31B. Pricing is PAYG with prompt caching on select models.
Proprietary RDU chips deliver industry-leading throughput on open-weight models at competitive per-token rates.
Key strengths compared
Crusoe Managed Inference
- Clean-energy GPU infrastructure — stranded and flared gas power
- Curated open-weight model catalog: DeepSeek V4, Gemma 4, GLM 5.1, Llama 3.3, Qwen3
- Competitive pricing on flagship open-weight models
- Smaller model catalog than Together AI or Fireworks
- No proprietary frontier models
SambaNova Cloud
- Proprietary RDU chips deliver very high throughput — 800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b
- Competitive pricing on gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59 per 1M)
- Prompt caching on GLM-5.3 (cached input at $0.14/1M)
- Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
- No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform
Key weaknesses compared
Crusoe Managed Inference
- Smaller model catalog than Together AI or Fireworks
- No proprietary frontier models
- Less mature inference platform than dedicated inference providers
SambaNova Cloud
- Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
- No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform
- RDU architecture may behave differently from GPU inference for some workloads
Provider category context
Crusoe Managed Inference is a cloud, founded in 2020. SambaNova Cloud is a inference api, founded in 2017. The category difference means these providers serve partially overlapping use cases — compare the model lists and pricing tables above to find the best fit for your specific workload.
How to choose between them
Choose Crusoe Managed Inference if you need clean-energy gpu infrastructure — stranded and flared gas power. Choose SambaNova Cloud if you need High-throughput inference. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.