# Inference.net vs Wafer

> Wafer tunes stacks for fast real-time open models. Inference.net runs cheap batch and builds custom models. Speed versus throughput economics.

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

## How they compare

Wafer and Inference.net both make open models cheaper to run, but they aim at different constraints. Wafer uses AI agents to tune serving stacks, reports 2x to 2.8x speedups over stock vLLM or SGLang, and sells dedicated deployments tuned to a customer's SLO plus Wafer Pass, a flat subscription from $10 a week for coding agents. Inference.net aggregates spare GPU capacity for batch work with 24-hour to 7-day windows, and its profile says that capacity suits batch better than strict real-time SLAs.

Customization splits them too. Wafer customizes the serving stack around your model. Inference.net customizes the model itself, capturing gateway traffic and fine-tuning a task-specific version for a dedicated GPU. Each is light on independent proof: Wafer's speedups are self-reported against stock baselines, and Inference.net has few independent benchmarks. Interactive coding agents on big open models fit Wafer. Offline jobs and distillation fit Inference.net.

## What each one does

### Inference.net

Inference.net started as a buyer of last resort for idle GPU time. Its scheduler aggregates small unused chunks of capacity across data centers and runs models on them, and it passes the steep discounts it gets from those data centers on to customers. That origin still shows in its OpenAI-compatible Batch API, which takes up to 1M requests per file with completion windows from 24 hours to 7 days and far higher headroom than synchronous limits.

### 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 Inference.net for

- Offline batch with day-scale windows
- Distilling production traffic into a custom model
- Gateway routing across open and closed models

### Choose Wafer for

- Interactive coding agents on large open models
- Flat-rate access from $10 a week
- Dedicated endpoints tuned to a strict latency SLO

## At a glance

| Attribute | Inference.net | Wafer |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open, closed and custom | Open weights |
| Flagship models | Customer fine-tunes | Qwen 3.5 397B Turbo, GLM 5.1 Turbo |
| Speed | Batch windows of 24h to 7 days | 2–2.8x vs stock vLLM or SGLang |
| Price | Discounted spare GPU capacity | Wafer Pass from $10 a week |
| Customization | Distill traces into custom models | Agent-tuned dedicated deployments |
| Deployment | Batch API, gateway, dedicated GPUs | Serverless pass, dedicated |
| Long context | Varies by model | Varies by model |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Inference.net and Wafer?

Wafer tunes stacks for fast real-time open models. Inference.net runs cheap batch and builds custom models. Speed versus throughput economics.

### When should I choose Inference.net over Wafer?

Offline batch with day-scale windows; Distilling production traffic into a custom model; Gateway routing across open and closed models.

### When should I choose Wafer over Inference.net?

Interactive coding agents on large open models; Flat-rate access from $10 a week; Dedicated endpoints tuned to a strict latency SLO.

### Is Inference.net or Wafer cheaper?

Inference.net: Discounted spare GPU capacity. Wafer: Wafer Pass from $10 a week. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

### Which has more context, Inference.net or Wafer?

Inference.net: Varies by model. Wafer: Varies by model.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Inference.net](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-inference-net.md), [Subconscious vs Wafer](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-wafer.md).

Full profiles: [Inference.net](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/inference-net.md), [Wafer](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/wafer.md).