# Cerebras vs Crusoe

> Cerebras is the fastest public host, on a two-model shared catalog. Crusoe trades peak decode speed for cache reuse, fine-tuning and owned GPU capacity.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/cerebras-vs-crusoe · By The Subconscious Team · Updated September 30, 2026

## How they compare

Cerebras builds a wafer-scale chip and lists GPT-OSS 120B near 3,000 tokens per second at $0.35 in and $0.75 out per million. Its shared catalog is just GPT-OSS 120B and Gemma 4 31B, with more models on dedicated endpoints and through partners. Crusoe also serves gpt-oss and Gemma, and adds DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi and Nemotron, priced from $0.05 in and $0.20 out per million. The speed pitches aim at different bottlenecks. Cerebras speeds up generation, which matters when output length is the wait. Crusoe speeds up prefill with MemoryAlloy, a cluster-wide KV cache, and claims up to 9.9x faster time to first token versus vLLM when prompts share long prefixes.

Both are tied into OpenAI's buildout. OpenAI rents roughly 750 MW of Cerebras capacity through 2028 and previewed an Ultrafast GPT-5.6 Sol on it, while Crusoe built the Abilene campus behind the OpenAI and Oracle Stargate project. For developers, the difference is flexibility. Cerebras lists no customization, and most models mean a sales conversation. Crusoe offers serverless LoRA fine-tuning, self-serve dedicated endpoints per GPU-hour and raw GPU clusters on Kubernetes or Slurm, though its GB200 and B200 instances also need sales. Cerebras trades on Nasdaq, and Crusoe raised a $3.9B Series F in September 2026. Choose Cerebras for streaming long outputs fast, and Crusoe for long repeated inputs and custom weights.

## What each one does

### Cerebras

Cerebras builds a single chip the size of a silicon wafer, and its inference cloud is the fastest public host on the models it serves. Its developer table lists GPT-OSS 120B near 3,000 tokens per second, about six times Groq on the same weights, at $0.35 in and $0.75 out per million. The public shared catalog is thin, just GPT-OSS 120B and Gemma 4 31B as of August 2026. More model families live on dedicated endpoints and through partners like OpenRouter, Hugging Face, Vercel and AWS Marketplace.

### Crusoe

Crusoe started in 2018 turning wasted natural gas into power for computing and has since become a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company: it sources energy, builds data centers and rents GPUs through Crusoe Cloud. It designed and built the Abilene, Texas campus behind the OpenAI and Oracle Stargate project, planned at 1.2 GW, and in March 2026 announced an adjacent 900 MW campus for Microsoft. On September 17, 2026 it closed the first part of a $3.9B Series F at a $30.9B post-money valuation, and it reports over 6 GW of contracted capacity. Crusoe Cloud lists GB200 NVL72, B200 and AMD MI355X by quote, with H100 at $3.90 and H200 at $4.29 per GPU-hour on demand.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Cerebras for

- Maximum tokens per second on GPT-OSS 120B
- Live code autocomplete and streaming UIs
- GPT-5.6 Sol Ultrafast on wafer-scale hardware

### Choose Crusoe for

- Long shared prompts where time to first token matters
- LoRA fine-tunes without a sales call
- Self-serve dedicated endpoints billed per GPU-hour

## At a glance

| Attribute | Cerebras | Crusoe |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | GPT-OSS 120B, Gemma 4 31B | DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.3, Kimi K2.6, Nemotron 3 |
| Speed | ~3,000 tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B | Up to 9.9x faster TTFT vs vLLM (vendor claim) |
| Price | $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B) | $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M |
| Customization | - | Serverless LoRA fine-tuning |
| Deployment | Shared API, dedicated, partners | Serverless, self-serve and tailored dedicated, raw GPUs |
| Long context | - | Varies by model; cluster-wide KV cache |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Cerebras and Crusoe?

Cerebras is the fastest public host, on a two-model shared catalog. Crusoe trades peak decode speed for cache reuse, fine-tuning and owned GPU capacity.

### When should I choose Cerebras over Crusoe?

Maximum tokens per second on GPT-OSS 120B; Live code autocomplete and streaming UIs; GPT-5.6 Sol Ultrafast on wafer-scale hardware.

### When should I choose Crusoe over Cerebras?

Long shared prompts where time to first token matters; LoRA fine-tunes without a sales call; Self-serve dedicated endpoints billed per GPU-hour.

### Is Cerebras or Crusoe cheaper?

Cerebras: $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B). Crusoe: $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Cerebras](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-cerebras.md), [Subconscious vs Crusoe](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-crusoe.md).

Full profiles: [Cerebras](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/cerebras.md), [Crusoe](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/crusoe.md).