DigitalOcean Gradient AI vs Scaleway: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of DigitalOcean Gradient AI and Scaleway — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
DigitalOcean Gradient AI
Serverless inference on Gradient AI — Claude, GPT-5, DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, Qwen 3.5, Llama 4
DigitalOcean Gradient AI is the serverless LLM inference platform from DigitalOcean, offering access to frontier and open-weight models including Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 mini, GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4o, gpt-oss-120b, gpt-oss-20b, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.1, Qwen 3.5 397B A17B, Llama 4 Maverick, and MiMo V2.5 Pro. Pricing is published at docs.digitalocean.com/products/gradient-ai-platform/details/pricing.
Scaleway
B300-SXM GPU instances — French sovereign cloud, Generative APIs with 1M free tokens
Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with the strongest EU data sovereignty credentials. The Generative APIs catalog includes GLM-5.2 (€1.80/€5.50), Mistral Medium 3.5 (€1.50/€7.50), Qwen3.8-27B (€0.60/€3.30), DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (€0.40/€0.80), gpt-oss-120B (€0.15/€0.60), and Llama 3.3 70B (€0.90/€0.90). All new customers get 1M free tokens. GPU instances include B300-SXM, H100, L40S, and L4.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
DigitalOcean Gradient AI
Scaleway
Key differentiators
DigitalOcean's developer-friendly platform extended to LLM inference — frontier models (Claude, GPT-5) alongside open-weight models (DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, Llama 4) under one billing account.
The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — French company, French data centres, 1M free tokens for new customers, B300-SXM GPU instances, and <200ms TTFT for European users.
Frequently asked questions
DigitalOcean Gradient AI FAQs
What is DigitalOcean Gradient AI?
DigitalOcean Gradient AI is DigitalOcean's serverless LLM inference platform, offering frontier and open-weight models including Claude, GPT-5, DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, and Llama 4 Maverick. See docs.digitalocean.com/products/gradient-ai-platform/details/pricing for current rates.
What models does DigitalOcean Gradient AI offer?
The catalog includes Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 mini, GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4o, gpt-oss-120b, gpt-oss-20b, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.1, Qwen 3.5 397B A17B, Llama 4 Maverick, and MiMo V2.5 Pro.
How much does DigitalOcean Gradient AI cost?
As of October 2026: Claude Sonnet 4.6 $3/$15, Claude Haiku 4.5 $1/$5, Claude Opus 4.7 $5/$25, GPT-5.4 $2.50/$15, GPT-5.4 mini $0.75/$4.50, GPT-5 $1.25/$10, GPT-4.1 $2/$8, GPT-4o $2.50/$10. See docs.digitalocean.com/products/gradient-ai-platform/details/pricing for current rates.
Scaleway FAQs
What models does Scaleway Generative APIs offer?
Scaleway's Generative APIs catalog includes GLM-5.2 (€1.80/€5.50), Mistral Medium 3.5 (€1.50/€7.50), Qwen3.8-27B (€0.60/€3.30), DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (€0.40/€0.80), gpt-oss-120B (€0.15/€0.60), Llama 3.3 70B (€0.90/€0.90), and more. All prices per 1M tokens.
Does Scaleway offer free tokens?
Yes. Every new Scaleway customer gets 1,000,000 free tokens to use across any Generative APIs model. Billing starts from the 1,000,001st token.
What GPU hardware does Scaleway offer in 2026?
Scaleway offers B300-SXM GPU instances (latest NVIDIA Blackwell), H100 SXM and PCIe, L40S, and L4 GPU instances. B300-SXM is one of the first Blackwell deployments available in Europe.
Provider resources
DigitalOcean Gradient AI — Serverless inference on Gradient AI — Claude, GPT-5, DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, Qwen 3.5, Llama 4
DigitalOcean Gradient AI is the serverless LLM inference platform from DigitalOcean, offering access to frontier and open-weight models including Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 mini, GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4o, gpt-oss-120b, gpt-oss-20b, DeepSeek V4 Pro/Flash, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.1, Qwen 3.5 397B A17B, Llama 4 Maverick, and MiMo V2.5 Pro. Pricing is published at docs.digitalocean.com/products/gradient-ai-platform/details/pricing.
DigitalOcean's developer-friendly platform extended to LLM inference — frontier models (Claude, GPT-5) alongside open-weight models (DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, Llama 4) under one billing account.
Scaleway — B300-SXM GPU instances — French sovereign cloud, Generative APIs with 1M free tokens
Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with the strongest EU data sovereignty credentials. The Generative APIs catalog includes GLM-5.2 (€1.80/€5.50), Mistral Medium 3.5 (€1.50/€7.50), Qwen3.8-27B (€0.60/€3.30), DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (€0.40/€0.80), gpt-oss-120B (€0.15/€0.60), and Llama 3.3 70B (€0.90/€0.90). All new customers get 1M free tokens. GPU instances include B300-SXM, H100, L40S, and L4.
The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — French company, French data centres, 1M free tokens for new customers, B300-SXM GPU instances, and <200ms TTFT for European users.
Key strengths compared
DigitalOcean Gradient AI
- Frontier model access: Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.4, GPT-5 via serverless inference
- Broad catalog: Claude, GPT, DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, Qwen 3.5, Llama 4 Maverick
- DigitalOcean's developer-friendly platform and billing
- Resells frontier models — no proprietary models
- Pricing may be higher than direct provider APIs for frontier models
Scaleway
- 1M free tokens for all new customers — best free tier in Europe
- B300-SXM GPU instances — latest NVIDIA Blackwell hardware in Europe
- Live model catalog: GLM-5.2, Mistral Medium 3.5, Qwen3.8-27B, DeepSeek V4 Flash, gpt-oss-120B
- Smaller model catalog than US-based inference providers
- Lower throughput than speed-optimised providers
Key weaknesses compared
DigitalOcean Gradient AI
- Resells frontier models — no proprietary models
- Pricing may be higher than direct provider APIs for frontier models
- Newer inference platform — less mature than dedicated inference providers
Scaleway
- Smaller model catalog than US-based inference providers
- Lower throughput than speed-optimised providers
- Less developer tooling than OpenAI or Anthropic
Provider category context
DigitalOcean Gradient AI is a cloud, founded in 2012. Scaleway is a cloud, founded in 1999. Both are cloud providers — the comparison is primarily about pricing, model selection, and feature differentiation within the same tier.
How to choose between them
Choose DigitalOcean Gradient AI if you need frontier model access: claude opus 4.7, gpt-5.4, gpt-5 via serverless inference. Choose Scaleway if you need 1m free tokens for all new customers — best free tier in europe. 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.