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Cerebras vs DeepSeek
DeepSeek sells strong open models at some of the lowest first-party prices, from a China-hosted API. Cerebras sells extreme speed on a two-model shared catalog.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
Cerebras vs DeepSeek: key differences
DeepSeek is a lab with its own cheap API. V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 in and $1.20 out at peak with 1M context and 384K max output, and every hour outside two weekday peak windows bills at half. Cerebras is a chip company that serves a thin shared catalog fast, with GPT-OSS 120B near 3,000 tokens per second at $0.35 in and $0.75 out. DeepSeek models are not on the Cerebras shared API as of August 2026, though more families live on dedicated endpoints and partners.
Capability, speed and data policy frame the choice. DeepSeek's hosted data is stored in China, a hard stop for many enterprises, and frequent repricing keeps cost models moving. Cerebras trades on Nasdaq and counts OpenAI as its anchor customer. DeepSeek's cheap cache hits and off-peak rates suit long agents and scheduled batch work. Cerebras suits voice, live autocomplete and streaming outputs, where each token's arrival is what the user feels.
What Cerebras and DeepSeek do
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 Qwen 3.8 27B since Gemma 4 31B moved to dedicated-only in September 2026. More model families live on dedicated endpoints and through partners like OpenRouter, Hugging Face, Vercel and AWS Marketplace.
Example models: GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen 3.8 27B
Full Cerebras profileDeepSeek
DeepSeek is the Chinese lab whose open-weight models reset price expectations for the whole market. Its main model is V4.1 Flash, with 1M context and 384K max output, which shipped September 10, 2026 with built-in image understanding at $0.30 in and $1.20 out at peak. An updated checkpoint, V4.1-Flash-1017, replaced it on October 17 at the same price. DeepSeek had planned to route deepseek-v4-pro requests to V4.1 Flash from September 14 but reversed course, and still serves V4 Pro at $1.32 in and $3.96 out at peak until a V4.1 Pro launches. Cache hits cost a few cents per million or less, and the weights ship on Hugging Face under an MIT license.
Example models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Full DeepSeek profileShould you choose Cerebras or DeepSeek?
Cerebras
Choose Cerebras for
- Latency-bound generation like voice and live autocomplete
- Teams that cannot send data to a China-stored API
- Fast long outputs on GPT-OSS 120B
DeepSeek
Choose DeepSeek for
- Long agents that reread prefixes, given very cheap cache hits
- Off-peak batch work at half price
- V4.1 Flash with 1M context
Cerebras vs DeepSeek at a glance
| Attribute | Cerebras | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights (MIT) |
| Flagship models | GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen 3.8 27B | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Speed | ~3,000 tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B | ~209 tok/s on V4.1 Flash |
| Price | $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B) | Off-peak hours at half price |
| Customization | Unknown | Open weights to fine-tune |
| Deployment | Shared API, dedicated, partners | First-party API, Hugging Face weights |
| Long context | 131K on GPT-OSS 120B, 128K on Qwen 3.8 27B | 1M, 384K max output |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Cerebras and DeepSeek?
DeepSeek sells strong open models at some of the lowest first-party prices, from a China-hosted API. Cerebras sells extreme speed on a two-model shared catalog.
When should I choose Cerebras over DeepSeek?
Latency-bound generation like voice and live autocomplete; Teams that cannot send data to a China-stored API; Fast long outputs on GPT-OSS 120B.
When should I choose DeepSeek over Cerebras?
Long agents that reread prefixes, given very cheap cache hits; Off-peak batch work at half price; V4.1 Flash with 1M context.
Is Cerebras or DeepSeek cheaper?
Cerebras: $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B). DeepSeek: Off-peak hours at half price. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
Which has more context, Cerebras or DeepSeek?
Cerebras: 131K on GPT-OSS 120B, 128K on Qwen 3.8 27B. DeepSeek: 1M, 384K max output.
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If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious. Our inference stack treats a long-horizon trace as the primary workload, so speed, cost, and accuracy hold up deep into the trace.