# Fireworks AI vs Cloudflare Workers AI

> Fireworks sells measured speed and deep post-training on open models. Cloudflare Workers AI sells convenience and a free tier inside the Workers platform, with no published speed figures.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/fireworks-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai · By The Subconscious Team · Updated September 30, 2026

## How they compare

Both serve DeepSeek V4 Pro with the full 1M context, which makes speed and price the first comparison. Third-party measurements put Fireworks at 167 to 174 tokens per second on that model, several times most GPU peers. Cloudflare publishes no speed figure, and its synchronous requests can queue for capacity on large models. Cloudflare's advantage is a published, simple price, $1.32 in and $3.96 out per million on DeepSeek V4 Pro, plus 10,000 free Neurons a day. Catalog size favors Fireworks, with 400+ models across text, vision, audio and embeddings to Cloudflare's 50+. Both expose OpenAI-compatible APIs, so switching is mostly a base URL change.

Post-training is the bigger gap. Fireworks offers SFT, DPO and reinforcement fine-tuning in LoRA or full-parameter form, serves fine-tunes at the base model's price, and opened its Training API for custom RL loops on August 31, 2026. It also holds SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO certifications and bills through AWS and GCP marketplaces. Cloudflare accepts bring-your-own LoRA adapters only on smaller, non-quantized models, capped at rank 32. Fireworks' dedicated GPUs got pricier on September 1, 2026, with an H100 at $8 an hour, while Cloudflare stays serverless. Pick Fireworks for latency-sensitive agents and custom models. Pick Cloudflare for modest-volume features that live on Workers.

## What each one does

### Fireworks AI

Fireworks AI was founded in 2022 by former Meta PyTorch engineers led by CEO Lin Qiao, and it sells speed on open models. Its custom serving stack has posted 167 to 174 tokens per second on DeepSeek V4 Pro in third-party measurements, several times what most GPU peers hit on the same model. The catalog holds 400+ models across text, vision, audio and embeddings, served through an OpenAI-compatible API. In July 2026 it raised a $1.505B Series D at a $17.5B valuation, with a reported $1B+ run rate and 40T+ tokens a day.

### Cloudflare Workers AI

Workers AI is the serverless GPU inference service of Cloudflare, which was founded in 2009. It launched in September 2023 and reached general availability in April 2024. Models run on GPUs inside Cloudflare's own network and are called from a Worker through an AI binding or over REST, including OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions and Embeddings endpoints plus a Responses endpoint for gpt-oss. The catalog lists 50+ open models. Since Kimi K2.5 arrived in March 2026 it has carried frontier-scale LLMs: Kimi K2.6 and K2.7 Code, GLM 5.2 and 5.3, DeepSeek V4 Pro and Flash, gpt-oss 120B and 20B, Qwen 3.8 27B and Llama 4 Scout. DeepSeek V4, added August 14, 2026, was the first to offer the full 1,048,576 token context.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Fireworks AI for

- Latency-sensitive agents on DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Reinforcement fine-tuning served at base price
- Buyers who need HIPAA and marketplace billing

### Choose Cloudflare Workers AI for

- Low-volume features covered by free daily Neurons
- Teams that want no dedicated GPU bills
- Inference colocated with Workers and storage

## At a glance

| Attribute | Fireworks AI | Cloudflare Workers AI |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3 | DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM 5.3, Kimi K2.7 Code, gpt-oss 120B |
| Speed | 167–174 tok/s on DeepSeek V4 Pro | - |
| Price | Fine-tunes served at base price | $0.011 per 1K Neurons; 10K free daily |
| Customization | SFT, DPO, RFT; Training API | BYO LoRA on small models (beta) |
| Deployment | Serverless, dedicated GPUs | Serverless on Cloudflare network |
| Long context | Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro | 1M on DeepSeek V4; 262K on Kimi |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Fireworks AI and Cloudflare Workers AI?

Fireworks sells measured speed and deep post-training on open models. Cloudflare Workers AI sells convenience and a free tier inside the Workers platform, with no published speed figures.

### When should I choose Fireworks AI over Cloudflare Workers AI?

Latency-sensitive agents on DeepSeek V4 Pro; Reinforcement fine-tuning served at base price; Buyers who need HIPAA and marketplace billing.

### When should I choose Cloudflare Workers AI over Fireworks AI?

Low-volume features covered by free daily Neurons; Teams that want no dedicated GPU bills; Inference colocated with Workers and storage.

### Is Fireworks AI or Cloudflare Workers AI cheaper?

Fireworks AI: Fine-tunes served at base price. Cloudflare Workers AI: $0.011 per 1K Neurons; 10K free daily. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

### Which has more context, Fireworks AI or Cloudflare Workers AI?

Fireworks AI: Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro. Cloudflare Workers AI: 1M on DeepSeek V4; 262K on Kimi.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Fireworks AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-fireworks.md), [Subconscious vs Cloudflare Workers AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.md).

Full profiles: [Fireworks AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/fireworks.md), [Cloudflare Workers AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/cloudflare-workers-ai.md).