# Luminal vs General Compute

> Luminal compiles models into faster GPU code. General Compute gets its speed by moving decode onto ASICs from Cerebras and others.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/luminal-vs-general-compute · By The Subconscious Team · Updated October 27, 2026

## How they compare

Luminal's open-source compiler lowers models to native kernels ahead of time, and it reports GPT-OSS 120B at 36K tokens per second of aggregate throughput on 8 H100s against 26K for vLLM. Luminal Cloud is in early access, with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at $0.1425 in and $0.57 out per million tokens and any PyTorch or Hugging Face model compiled to an endpoint. General Compute runs prefill on GPUs and decode on ASICs, and in its own benchmark measured over 1,000 output tokens per second on GPT-OSS 120B, which it sells at $0.21 in and $0.79 out. Both figures are self-reported and measure different things.

Pick Luminal for high-throughput serving of a custom model on your own GPUs, or a compiler you can inspect before buying. Pick General Compute for fast output on hosted open models, or reserved ASIC racks with a tokens-per-second SLA.

## What each one does

### Luminal

Luminal builds an inference compiler. Where vLLM and SGLang interpret a model at runtime, Luminal compiles it ahead of time into native kernels for GPUs and ASICs. Models get lowered to a small graph of 15 primitive ops, and the compiler searches over fusion, tiling, memory and scheduling choices instead of relying on hand-written rules, which it says can find optimizations like Flash Attention on its own. The compiler is open source in Rust under Apache 2.0 or MIT, runs on CUDA and Metal with ROCm on the roadmap, and works as a torch.compile backend.

### General Compute

General Compute is a San Francisco inference cloud built on alternative chips. It splits each request across hardware, with NVIDIA GPUs handling prefill and ASICs from Cerebras, SambaNova, Positron AI and d-Matrix handling decode. In its own open benchmark on GPT-OSS 120B it measured 1,025 to 1,234 output tokens per second against 100 to 121 on an unnamed GPU cloud, and up to 16.2x faster end to end. Founders Finn Puklowski and Jason Goodison raised a $15M seed led by FUSE, an up to $400M debt facility from Upper90 and, on October 27, 2026, a $100M Series A co-led by Blackbird and Abstract.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Luminal for

- Compiling custom models for owned GPUs
- Open-source inference compiler
- On-prem license with SLAs

### Choose General Compute for

- Fast output on hosted open models
- Plans from pay as you go to $1,000 a month
- Reserved ASIC capacity

## At a glance

| Attribute | Luminal | General Compute |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Small hosted catalog plus bring your own weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Ideogram 4.5 | MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek V3.2, GPT-OSS 120B |
| Speed | 36K tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B, 8xH100 (vendor) | 1,000+ tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B (vendor) |
| Price | $0.1425 in, $0.57 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) | $0.21–$0.28 in, $0.38–$1.20 out per 1M |
| Customization | Compiles any PyTorch or HF model | Custom LoRA and fine-tuned checkpoints |
| Deployment | Serverless (early access), on-prem license | Serverless API, dedicated racks, bare metal |
| Long context | - | 192K (MiniMax M2.7) |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Luminal and General Compute?

Luminal compiles models into faster GPU code. General Compute gets its speed by moving decode onto ASICs from Cerebras and others.

### When should I choose Luminal over General Compute?

Compiling custom models for owned GPUs; Open-source inference compiler; On-prem license with SLAs.

### When should I choose General Compute over Luminal?

Fast output on hosted open models; Plans from pay as you go to $1,000 a month; Reserved ASIC capacity.

### Is Luminal or General Compute cheaper?

Luminal: $0.1425 in, $0.57 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). General Compute: $0.21–$0.28 in, $0.38–$1.20 out per 1M. 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 Luminal](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-luminal.md), [Subconscious vs General Compute](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-general-compute.md).

Full profiles: [Luminal](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/luminal.md), [General Compute](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/general-compute.md).