# Fireworks AI vs Wafer

> Wafer tunes inference stacks with agents and reports 2x or more over stock engines. Fireworks is the kind of already-tuned host Wafer's own caveats point to.

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

## How they compare

Each sells faster open models through custom serving, at very different stages. Fireworks is established, with 400+ models, a reported $1B+ run rate, and third-party measurements of 167 to 174 tokens per second on DeepSeek V4 Pro. Wafer came out of Y Combinator in 2025 and uses AI agents to profile a workload, try configs across batching, decoding, quantization and kernels, deploy the winner, then keep re-tuning as traffic changes. Wafer reports its tuned DeepSeek V4 Pro running 2x faster than a vLLM baseline. That comparison is against stock engines, and Wafer's own profile advises comparing it against tuned hosts like Fireworks before buying.

Pricing models differ sharply. Wafer Pass is a flat-rate subscription from $10 a week that covers every hosted model and plugs into Claude Code, Cline and OpenHands. Fireworks bills per token or per GPU hour and adds managed SFT, DPO and RL plus SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO. Wafer also runs on NVIDIA and AMD, which helps teams hedge GPU supply. A developer on a budget running coding agents all day may prefer Wafer Pass. A company that needs certifications, a broad catalog and custom training fits Fireworks.

## 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.

### Wafer

Wafer builds AI agents that act as GPU performance engineers, then sells inference on the stacks those agents tune. The company came out of Y Combinator's Summer 2025 batch as a "Cursor for CUDA" that turned slow PyTorch into custom kernels. Founders Emilio Andere and Steven Arellano are based in San Francisco. Its agents profile a workload, generate candidate configs across batching, decoding, quantization, engines, kernels and hardware, measure each one and deploy the winner.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Fireworks AI for

- Independently measured speed on DeepSeek V4 Pro
- A 400+ model catalog rather than a small hosted list
- Managed fine-tuning with enterprise certifications

### Choose Wafer for

- Flat-rate access for coding agents from $10 a week
- Dedicated endpoints re-tuned to a strict latency SLO
- Hedging GPU supply across NVIDIA and AMD

## At a glance

| Attribute | Fireworks AI | Wafer |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3 | Qwen 3.5 397B Turbo, GLM 5.1 Turbo |
| Speed | 167–174 tok/s on DeepSeek V4 Pro | 2–2.8x vs stock vLLM or SGLang |
| Price | Fine-tunes served at base price | Wafer Pass from $10 a week |
| Customization | SFT, DPO, RFT; Training API | Agent-tuned dedicated deployments |
| Deployment | Serverless, dedicated GPUs | Serverless pass, dedicated |
| Long context | Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro | Varies by model |

## FAQ

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

Wafer tunes inference stacks with agents and reports 2x or more over stock engines. Fireworks is the kind of already-tuned host Wafer's own caveats point to.

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

Independently measured speed on DeepSeek V4 Pro; A 400+ model catalog rather than a small hosted list; Managed fine-tuning with enterprise certifications.

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

Flat-rate access for coding agents from $10 a week; Dedicated endpoints re-tuned to a strict latency SLO; Hedging GPU supply across NVIDIA and AMD.

### Is Fireworks AI or Wafer cheaper?

Fireworks AI: Fine-tunes served at base price. Wafer: Wafer Pass from $10 a week. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

### Which has more context, Fireworks AI or Wafer?

Fireworks AI: Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro. Wafer: Varies by model.

## 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 Wafer](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-wafer.md).

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