# Cerebras vs Venice

> Cerebras is the fastest public host on two shared models. Venice trades published speed for privacy tiers and a 370+ model catalog.

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

## How they compare

Cerebras lists GPT-OSS 120B near 3,000 tokens per second at $0.35 in and $0.75 out, the fastest published figure of any public host. Its shared catalog is only GPT-OSS 120B and Gemma 4 31B, with more families on dedicated endpoints or through partners like OpenRouter and AWS Marketplace, which usually means a sales conversation. Venice is the opposite shape. Its self-serve API reaches 370+ models, from GLM 4.7 Flash at $0.06 in to GLM 5.3, Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4, and it proxies Claude, GPT and Gemini. It publishes no throughput data, and its value lies in how prompts are handled rather than how fast tokens arrive.

Venice runs open models under contract-enforced zero retention and offers TEE or end-to-end encrypted inference on some, where only an attested enclave can decrypt the prompt. Its uncensored fine-tunes cover creative and research use cases, and it accepts USD, crypto, USDC via x402 and DIEM credits. Cerebras has no customization on its shared API but holds a unique asset in OpenAI's Ultrafast GPT-5.6 Sol preview, which runs on its hardware at up to 750 output tokens per second. Speed matters most when generation is the wait, as in live code tools and streaming voice. When an agent mostly waits on tools, Cerebras's edge shrinks and Venice's breadth counts for more.

## 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.

### Venice

Venice is a privacy-focused AI platform founded in 2024 by Erik Voorhees, the crypto entrepreneur behind ShapeShift. It pairs a consumer chat app with a developer API that works as a drop-in replacement for OpenAI's chat endpoint and covers text, image, audio and video across 370+ models. Open models such as GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 and Venice's own uncensored fine-tunes run under a private tier with contract-enforced zero data retention, and some add TEE inference or end-to-end encryption, where only an attested enclave can decrypt the prompt. Closed models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google are proxied under an anonymized tier that hides user identity but leaves prompt content visible to the upstream provider.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Cerebras for

- Maximum tokens per second on GPT-OSS 120B
- Streaming UIs where generation is the bottleneck
- Ultrafast GPT-5.6 Sol on wafer-scale hardware

### Choose Venice for

- Self-serve access to 370+ models
- Encrypted TEE inference for sensitive prompts
- Crypto or USDC billing

## At a glance

| Attribute | Cerebras | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights, plus proxied closed models |
| Flagship models | GPT-OSS 120B, Gemma 4 31B | GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Speed | ~3,000 tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B | - |
| Price | $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B) | $0.06–$12 in, $0.28–$60 out per 1M; DIEM staking |
| Customization | - | - |
| Deployment | Shared API, dedicated, partners | Serverless API, consumer app |
| Long context | - | 1M on most current models |

## FAQ

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

Cerebras is the fastest public host on two shared models. Venice trades published speed for privacy tiers and a 370+ model catalog.

### When should I choose Cerebras over Venice?

Maximum tokens per second on GPT-OSS 120B; Streaming UIs where generation is the bottleneck; Ultrafast GPT-5.6 Sol on wafer-scale hardware.

### When should I choose Venice over Cerebras?

Self-serve access to 370+ models; Encrypted TEE inference for sensitive prompts; Crypto or USDC billing.

### Is Cerebras or Venice cheaper?

Cerebras: $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B). Venice: $0.06–$12 in, $0.28–$60 out per 1M; DIEM staking. 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 Venice](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-venice.md).

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