Groq vs Upstage: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Groq and Upstage — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
Groq
LPU + LPX inference — high-throughput tokens per second, $350M Series A
Groq runs custom Language Processing Units (LPUs) and the newer LPX chips that work alongside NVIDIA next-generation GPUs for high-throughput inference. Groq raised a $350M Series A in 2026 and is building hundreds of megawatts of capacity. Check listed rates and provider documentation for current model availability and throughput figures.
Upstage
Solar Pro 4, Solar Pro 3, Solar Pro 2 — Korean frontier models with strong multilingual performance
Upstage is a Korean AI company offering the Solar model family via API. Solar Pro 4 is the current flagship, with Solar Pro 3 and Solar Pro 2 available at lower price points. The Solar models are known for strong multilingual performance, particularly in Korean and English, and competitive pricing relative to their capability tier. Pricing is published at upstage.ai/pricing.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Groq
Upstage
Key differentiators
Groq's custom LPU/LPX chips deliver high-throughput inference significantly faster than conventional GPU systems, backed by $350M in Series A funding and hundreds of megawatts of planned capacity.
Korean-built Solar models with strong multilingual performance and competitive frontier-tier pricing — Solar Pro 4 at $0.30/$1.20 per 1M tokens.
Frequently asked questions
Groq FAQs
How fast is Groq inference?
Groq delivers 750+ tokens/second on Llama 3.3 70B and 1,200+ tokens/second on Llama 3.1 8B using custom LPU/LPX chips, making it well-suited for real-time and low-latency applications.
What is Groq's LPX chip?
The LPX is Groq's next-generation inference chip, introduced alongside the existing LPU lineup. It expands Groq's capacity and enables even higher throughput for large-scale deployments.
How much does Groq cost?
Groq uses per-token pricing across its model catalog. Check console.groq.com/docs/openai for current rates on Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 3.1 8B, and other models.
Upstage FAQs
What is Upstage Solar?
Upstage Solar is a family of LLMs from Korean AI company Upstage. Solar Pro 4 is the current flagship, with Solar Pro 3 and Solar Pro 2 at lower price points. See upstage.ai/pricing for current rates.
How much does Upstage Solar cost?
As of October 2026: Solar Pro 4 $0.30/$1.20 per 1M tokens, Solar Pro 3 $0.15/$0.60, Solar Pro 2 $0.15/$0.60. See upstage.ai/pricing for current rates.
Is Upstage good for Korean language tasks?
Yes. The Solar model family is developed by a Korean AI company and shows strong performance on Korean-language benchmarks, making it a top choice for Korean NLP workloads.
Provider resources
Groq — LPU + LPX inference — high-throughput tokens per second, $350M Series A
Groq runs custom Language Processing Units (LPUs) and the newer LPX chips that work alongside NVIDIA next-generation GPUs for high-throughput inference. Groq raised a $350M Series A in 2026 and is building hundreds of megawatts of capacity. Check listed rates and provider documentation for current model availability and throughput figures.
Groq's custom LPU/LPX chips deliver high-throughput inference significantly faster than conventional GPU systems, backed by $350M in Series A funding and hundreds of megawatts of planned capacity.
Upstage — Solar Pro 4, Solar Pro 3, Solar Pro 2 — Korean frontier models with strong multilingual performance
Upstage is a Korean AI company offering the Solar model family via API. Solar Pro 4 is the current flagship, with Solar Pro 3 and Solar Pro 2 available at lower price points. The Solar models are known for strong multilingual performance, particularly in Korean and English, and competitive pricing relative to their capability tier. Pricing is published at upstage.ai/pricing.
Korean-built Solar models with strong multilingual performance and competitive frontier-tier pricing — Solar Pro 4 at $0.30/$1.20 per 1M tokens.
Key strengths compared
Groq
- 750+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B — high-throughput GPU-class inference (Groq-published)
- Sub-100ms time-to-first-token for real-time applications
- LPX chips alongside LPUs for expanded capacity
- Limited model selection vs. Together AI or Fireworks
- No vision model support on most models
Upstage
- Solar Pro 4: competitive frontier-tier pricing at $0.30/$1.20 per 1M tokens
- Strong multilingual performance — Korean and English
- Three-tier model family: Solar Pro 4, 3, and 2 for different cost/quality trade-offs
- Smaller global ecosystem than OpenAI or Anthropic
- Limited model variety beyond the Solar family
Key weaknesses compared
Groq
- Limited model selection vs. Together AI or Fireworks
- No vision model support on most models
- No fine-tuning capability
Upstage
- Smaller global ecosystem than OpenAI or Anthropic
- Limited model variety beyond the Solar family
- Less documentation in English than major US providers
Provider category context
Groq is a inference api, founded in 2016. Upstage is a frontier lab, founded in 2020. Groq as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers. Upstage as a frontier lab trains and serves proprietary models with capabilities not available elsewhere.
How to choose between them
Choose Groq if you need 750+ tokens/sec on llama 3.3 70b — high-throughput gpu-class inference (groq-published). Choose Upstage if you need solar pro 4: competitive frontier-tier pricing at $0.30/$1.20 per 1m tokens. 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.