# Relace vs OpenScale

> Relace builds fast tool models for coding agents. OpenScale serves a cheap open model those agents can use as their main model.

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

## How they compare

Relace sells apply, agentic search and context compaction models for coding agents, through a hosted API or self-hosted deployment, with relace-apply-3 merging edits at about 10,000 tokens per second. 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. It speaks the Anthropic, OpenAI Responses and Chat Completions formats.

They rarely compete. OpenScale can serve the main model in a coding agent, and Relace can take the merge, search and compaction work off it. Enterprises that keep code in-house will find a self-hosted option only at Relace.

## What each one does

### Relace

Relace trains small, fast models that act as tools for coding agents. Its best-known product is Instant Apply: a frontier model writes a lazy edit snippet, and relace-apply-3 merges it into the original file at about 10,000 tokens per second with 128K tokens of input and output. Relace says this runs over 3x faster and cheaper than having the big model rewrite the file. It exposes both a REST endpoint and an OpenAI-compatible one, and the model is also listed on OpenRouter.

### OpenScale

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.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Relace for

- Fast code-edit apply and repo search
- Self-hosted deployment for private code
- CI pipelines and PR review

### Choose OpenScale for

- A cheap main model for coding agents
- Cache-heavy DeepSeek V4.1 Flash traffic
- Quick setup in Claude Code or Codex

## At a glance

| Attribute | Relace | OpenScale |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Specialist models | Open weights |
| Flagship models | relace-apply-3, agentic search | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Speed | ~10,000 tok/s apply | 200+ tok/s; fast tier ~2x |
| Price | 3x+ cheaper than full rewrites | $0.06 in, $0.24 out (promo, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) |
| Customization | - | N/A |
| Deployment | Hosted API or self-hosted | Serverless API |
| Long context | 128K max | 1M context |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Relace and OpenScale?

Relace builds fast tool models for coding agents. OpenScale serves a cheap open model those agents can use as their main model.

### When should I choose Relace over OpenScale?

Fast code-edit apply and repo search; Self-hosted deployment for private code; CI pipelines and PR review.

### When should I choose OpenScale over Relace?

A cheap main model for coding agents; Cache-heavy DeepSeek V4.1 Flash traffic; Quick setup in Claude Code or Codex.

### Is Relace or OpenScale cheaper?

Relace: 3x+ cheaper than full rewrites. 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, Relace or OpenScale?

Relace: 128K max. OpenScale: 1M context.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Relace](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-relace.md), [Subconscious vs OpenScale](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-openscale.md).

Full profiles: [Relace](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/relace.md), [OpenScale](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/openscale.md).