# Fireworks AI vs StreamLake

> StreamLake sells Kuaishou's proprietary KAT-Coder with data resident in China. Fireworks serves open coding models with fine-tuning and SOC 2 and HIPAA.

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

## How they compare

StreamLake is the AI cloud of Kuaishou, and its headline product is one proprietary model family: KAT-Coder, led by KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5. StreamLake says large-scale agentic RL trained it for repository-level work like reading an issue, editing across files and fixing its own test failures. Developers pay per token or buy a KwaiKAT Coding Plan, and a Claude-protocol proxy drops it into Claude Code. Fireworks takes the open route. It hosts 400+ open models, including DeepSeek V4 Pro and Kimi K3, and serves V4 Pro at 167 to 174 tokens per second in third-party tests.

Data location decides this for many buyers. StreamLake's data residency in China rules it out for many US and EU enterprises, and its pricing and docs lead with China and yuan. Fireworks has SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO plus AWS and GCP marketplace billing. Control differs too. KAT-Coder is closed, while Fireworks lets a team train its own coding specialist with reinforcement fine-tuning. StreamLake fits Chinese internet businesses and developers who want cheap subscription coding on Kuaishou's model. Fireworks fits teams building their own coding agent.

## 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.

### StreamLake

StreamLake is the AI cloud brand of Kuaishou, the Chinese short-video company behind the Kling video models. It sells model-as-a-service inference and bare-metal compute to internet businesses, drawing on the infrastructure Kuaishou built to serve video at massive scale. Its developer site offers APIs, SDKs and integration guides aimed at taking teams from testing to production.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Fireworks AI for

- US and EU enterprises that cannot use China-resident data
- RL fine-tuning your own coding model
- Open coding models like DeepSeek V4 Pro and Kimi K3

### Choose StreamLake for

- Low-cost agentic coding on a subscription plan
- Chinese businesses wanting domestic MaaS and bare metal
- Trying KAT-Coder inside Claude Code

## At a glance

| Attribute | Fireworks AI | StreamLake |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Proprietary coding models |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3 | KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5, KAT-Coder-Air |
| Speed | 167–174 tok/s on DeepSeek V4 Pro | - |
| Price | Fine-tunes served at base price | Per token or KwaiKAT Coding Plan |
| Customization | SFT, DPO, RFT; Training API | - |
| Deployment | Serverless, dedicated GPUs | MaaS API, bare metal |
| Long context | Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro | - |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Fireworks AI and StreamLake?

StreamLake sells Kuaishou's proprietary KAT-Coder with data resident in China. Fireworks serves open coding models with fine-tuning and SOC 2 and HIPAA.

### When should I choose Fireworks AI over StreamLake?

US and EU enterprises that cannot use China-resident data; RL fine-tuning your own coding model; Open coding models like DeepSeek V4 Pro and Kimi K3.

### When should I choose StreamLake over Fireworks AI?

Low-cost agentic coding on a subscription plan; Chinese businesses wanting domestic MaaS and bare metal; Trying KAT-Coder inside Claude Code.

### Is Fireworks AI or StreamLake cheaper?

Fireworks AI: Fine-tunes served at base price. StreamLake: Per token or KwaiKAT Coding Plan. 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 Fireworks AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-fireworks.md), [Subconscious vs StreamLake](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-streamlake.md).

Full profiles: [Fireworks AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/fireworks.md), [StreamLake](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/streamlake.md).