Novita AI vs OpenScale
Both compete on price. Novita offers 200+ models with GPUs and dedicated endpoints. OpenScale offers one model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at a promotional low.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
Novita AI vs OpenScale: key differences
Novita serves 200+ open models across text, image, video and speech from $0.02 per million tokens, plus a GPU cloud, dedicated endpoints with a 99.5% SLA and LoRA adapters, and agent sandboxes. OpenScale serves DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at $0.06 in, $0.003 cached and $0.24 out per million tokens under a 50% promotion, at 200+ tokens per second, with a fast tier at about twice the speed. OpenScale's own price table lists Novita at $0.195 in and $0.78 out on the same model.
Novita is the broader platform and the safer default for products that need many models or modalities. OpenScale fits teams that run coding agents on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and want the lowest cached-input price, with Anthropic and OpenAI Responses formats ready for Claude Code and Codex.
What Novita AI and OpenScale do
Novita AI
Novita AI is a San Francisco inference cloud founded in late 2023 by Frank Lewis and Junyu Huang, and it competes on price and breadth. Its serverless API covers 200+ open models across LLMs, image, video, speech, voice cloning and embeddings, with LLM prices starting at $0.02 per million tokens. The API speaks both OpenAI and Anthropic formats. It became an official Hugging Face Inference Partner in April 2026 and was the day-zero launch partner for Google's Gemma 4.
Example models: DeepSeek V4 Pro, Gemma 4
Full Novita AI profileOpenScale
OpenScale is a Y Combinator-backed inference API built by LatentSpace and run out of Singapore. It sells open models behind one endpoint that speaks Chat Completions, the OpenAI Responses API and Anthropic Messages, so Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cline, GitHub Copilot, Zed and other coding agents can point at it with a base URL and key. Its public catalog today is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash in two versions, standard and fast, both with a 1M token context window and up to 384K output tokens.
Example models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Full OpenScale profileShould you choose Novita AI or OpenScale?
Novita AI vs OpenScale at a glance
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4 Pro, Gemma 4 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Speed | ~36 tok/s on DeepSeek V4 Pro | 200+ tok/s; fast tier ~2x |
| Price | From $0.02 per 1M; batch 50% off | $0.06 in, $0.24 out (promo, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) |
| Customization | Hot-swappable LoRA adapters | N/A |
| Deployment | Serverless, GPU cloud, dedicated | Serverless API |
| Long context | Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro | 1M context |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Novita AI and OpenScale?
Both compete on price. Novita offers 200+ models with GPUs and dedicated endpoints. OpenScale offers one model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at a promotional low.
When should I choose Novita AI over OpenScale?
A wide multimodal catalog; Model APIs, GPUs and sandboxes on one bill; Dedicated endpoints with LoRA adapters.
When should I choose OpenScale over Novita AI?
Cheaper DeepSeek V4.1 Flash calls; Cache-heavy coding agent traffic; Quick setup in Claude Code or Codex.
Is Novita AI or OpenScale cheaper?
Novita AI: From $0.02 per 1M; batch 50% off. OpenScale: $0.06 in, $0.24 out (promo, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
Which has more context, Novita AI or OpenScale?
Novita AI: Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro. OpenScale: 1M context.
Related comparisons
Running long-horizon agents?
If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious. Our inference stack treats a long-horizon trace as the primary workload, so speed, cost, and accuracy hold up deep into the trace.