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Crusoe vs Particle.AI
Particle.AI is an early startup serving cheap Flash-class models through Vercel AI Gateway. Crusoe is a full AI cloud with dedicated capacity, fine-tuning and GPUs.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
Crusoe vs Particle.AI: key differences
Particle is a narrow, low-price option. Through Vercel AI Gateway it serves a few Flash-class open models with 1M context: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at $0.25 in and $1 out at about 157 tokens per second, GLM 5.3 Flash at $0.10 in and $0.40 out, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 at $0.14 in and $0.28 out, all with cache reads at $0.03 per million. It has picked up new Flash models within days of release. Crusoe's serverless catalog spans DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, Gemma, gpt-oss and Nemotron from $0.05 in and $0.20 out, and its cluster-wide KV cache discounts cached input and, by Crusoe's account, cuts time to first token on repeated prefixes.
The gap is in everything around the API. Particle is still hiring its founding team, publishes little about funding, and shows 3.5 seconds of latency on its DeepSeek V4.1 Flash listing. It has no dedicated or customization options, and it is reachable only through the gateway, which does make it easy to try with no new contract. Crusoe offers self-serve and tailored dedicated deployments with SLAs, managed LoRA fine-tuning and raw GPU clusters on its own data centers. Particle works as a price-optimized fallback route inside a multi-provider gateway, while Crusoe can carry primary production traffic.
What Crusoe and Particle.AI do
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.
Example models: DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM 5.3, Kimi K2.6
Full Crusoe profile
Particle.AI
Particle AI is an early San Francisco infrastructure startup with a mission to make intelligence as cheap and abundant as electricity. The team works on post-training, inference optimization and distributed systems, all aimed at pushing down cost per unit of intelligence. It is still hiring its founding team and works fully in person. Public detail about funding and founders is thin as of this writing.
Example models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash
Full Particle.AI profileShould you choose Crusoe or Particle.AI?
Crusoe
Choose Crusoe for
- Primary production traffic with SLAs
- Fine-tuned open models on dedicated GPUs
- Agents that benefit from cache reuse
Particle.AI
Choose Particle.AI for
- Cheap Flash-model calls with 1M context
- A fallback route in Vercel AI Gateway
- Trying new Flash releases soon after launch
Crusoe vs Particle.AI at a glance
| Attribute | Crusoe |  Particle.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.3, Kimi K2.6, Nemotron 3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Speed | Up to 9.9x faster TTFT vs vLLM (vendor claim) | ~157 tok/s on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Price | $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M | $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash) |
| Customization | Serverless LoRA fine-tuning | Unknown |
| Deployment | Serverless, self-serve and tailored dedicated, raw GPUs | Via Vercel AI Gateway |
| Long context | Varies by model; cluster-wide KV cache | 1M |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Crusoe and Particle.AI?
Particle.AI is an early startup serving cheap Flash-class models through Vercel AI Gateway. Crusoe is a full AI cloud with dedicated capacity, fine-tuning and GPUs.
When should I choose Crusoe over Particle.AI?
Primary production traffic with SLAs; Fine-tuned open models on dedicated GPUs; Agents that benefit from cache reuse.
When should I choose Particle.AI over Crusoe?
Cheap Flash-model calls with 1M context; A fallback route in Vercel AI Gateway; Trying new Flash releases soon after launch.
Is Crusoe or Particle.AI cheaper?
Crusoe: $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M. Particle.AI: $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
Which has more context, Crusoe or Particle.AI?
Crusoe: Varies by model; cluster-wide KV cache. Particle.AI: 1M.
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