# Groq vs Dolphin

> Groq sells speed on its own LPU chips. Dolphin sells low prices on consumer GPUs spread across the internet.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/groq-vs-dolphin · By The Subconscious Team · Updated October 11, 2026

## How they compare

Groq runs GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen 3.8 27B and a few other open models at 500 to 1,000 tokens per second with predictable tail latency and prices near the market floor. Dolphin's API launched in October 2026 with one model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at $0.01 in and $0.07 out per million tokens. Its nodes are idle consumer GPUs whose owners earn $POD tokens, and it publishes no speed, context or SLA.

Groq is the pick when every call has to return fast, as in voice agents or multi-step agent loops. Dolphin is the pick for cheap background work where latency matters little, or for uncensored models. Its wallet-and-Telegram signup will not clear most procurement teams.

## What each one does

### Groq

Groq serves open models on its own chip, the LPU, which keeps model weights in on-chip SRAM and runs a deterministic schedule instead of waiting on GPU memory. Groq publishes 1,000 tokens per second on GPT-OSS 20B and 500 on GPT-OSS 120B. Latency stays tight between median and tail, which matters for strict SLAs. The API is OpenAI-compatible and also hosts Whisper for speech to text plus an agentic system called Groq Compound with built-in search and code execution.

### Dolphin

Dolphin began in 2023 as Eric Hartford's series of open-source, uncensored fine-tunes, trained to drop the refusals and baked-in guidelines of their base models so that the developer sets the rules through the system prompt. Current releases include Dolphin Llama 3.1 8B and Dolphin Mistral 24B Venice Edition, built with Venice, and the project publishes nearly 100 models on Hugging Face. It also runs a chat app, a Telegram bot and a synthetic data service that generates answers to commonly refused prompts.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Groq for

- Voice agents and fast agent loops
- Predictable tail latency
- Low prices on small open models

### Choose Dolphin for

- Very cheap DeepSeek V4.1 Flash calls
- Uncensored models
- Background jobs that tolerate variable latency

## At a glance

| Attribute | Groq | Dolphin |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights, uncensored fine-tunes |
| Flagship models | GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen 3.8 27B | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Dolphin Mistral 24B |
| Speed | 500–1,000 tok/s | - |
| Price | Near the floor on small models | $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) |
| Customization | No fine-tuned model hosting | Own uncensored fine-tunes |
| Deployment | GroqCloud API | Decentralized serverless API |
| Long context | Around 131K max | - |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Groq and Dolphin?

Groq sells speed on its own LPU chips. Dolphin sells low prices on consumer GPUs spread across the internet.

### When should I choose Groq over Dolphin?

Voice agents and fast agent loops; Predictable tail latency; Low prices on small open models.

### When should I choose Dolphin over Groq?

Very cheap DeepSeek V4.1 Flash calls; Uncensored models; Background jobs that tolerate variable latency.

### Is Groq or Dolphin cheaper?

Groq: Near the floor on small models. Dolphin: $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). 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 Groq](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-groq.md), [Subconscious vs Dolphin](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-dolphin.md).

Full profiles: [Groq](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/groq.md), [Dolphin](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/dolphin.md).