# Venice vs StreamLake

> StreamLake is Kuaishou's AI cloud, built around the KAT-Coder agentic coding models. Venice is a privacy-first API across hundreds of open and closed models.

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

## How they compare

StreamLake's reason to exist is KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5, a proprietary coding model from Kuaishou's KwaiKAT team that StreamLake says was trained with large-scale agentic reinforcement learning for repository-level work: reading an issue, editing across files, running tests and fixing its own errors. Developers pay per token or buy a KwaiKAT Coding Plan, and a Claude-protocol proxy drops it into Claude Code or OpenClaw. Venice offers no in-house coding model, but it serves many options coding agents use, including GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 and proxied Claude, behind an OpenAI-compatible API with 1M context on most current models.

Jurisdiction and privacy weigh heavily here. StreamLake leads with China and yuan in pricing and docs, and data residency in China rules it out for many US and EU enterprise buyers. Venice offers contract-enforced zero retention on open models, with TEE and end-to-end encryption on some, though closed models only get an anonymized tier. StreamLake also sells bare-metal compute and is backed by Kuaishou's video infrastructure. Venice adds image, audio and video generation and payment in crypto or DIEM credits. For low-cost agentic coding on a subscription, StreamLake is worth testing. For private handling of code or prompts, Venice is the safer default.

## What each one does

### Venice

Venice is a privacy-focused AI platform founded in 2024 by Erik Voorhees, the crypto entrepreneur behind ShapeShift. It pairs a consumer chat app with a developer API that works as a drop-in replacement for OpenAI's chat endpoint and covers text, image, audio and video across 370+ models. Open models such as GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 and Venice's own uncensored fine-tunes run under a private tier with contract-enforced zero data retention, and some add TEE inference or end-to-end encryption, where only an attested enclave can decrypt the prompt. Closed models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google are proxied under an anonymized tier that hides user identity but leaves prompt content visible to the upstream provider.

### StreamLake

StreamLake is the AI cloud brand of Kuaishou, the Chinese short-video company behind the Kling video models. It sells model-as-a-service inference and bare-metal compute to internet businesses, drawing on the infrastructure Kuaishou built to serve video at massive scale. Its developer site offers APIs, SDKs and integration guides aimed at taking teams from testing to production.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Venice for

- Private coding agents on open models
- Western teams avoiding China-hosted data
- Multimodal apps on one key

### Choose StreamLake for

- KAT-Coder inside Claude Code via a proxy
- Subscription-priced agentic coding
- Chinese businesses needing domestic MaaS

## At a glance

| Attribute | Venice | StreamLake |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights, plus proxied closed models | Proprietary coding models |
| Flagship models | GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 Pro | KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5, KAT-Coder-Air |
| Speed | - | - |
| Price | $0.06–$12 in, $0.28–$60 out per 1M; DIEM staking | Per token or KwaiKAT Coding Plan |
| Customization | - | - |
| Deployment | Serverless API, consumer app | MaaS API, bare metal |
| Long context | 1M on most current models | - |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Venice and StreamLake?

StreamLake is Kuaishou's AI cloud, built around the KAT-Coder agentic coding models. Venice is a privacy-first API across hundreds of open and closed models.

### When should I choose Venice over StreamLake?

Private coding agents on open models; Western teams avoiding China-hosted data; Multimodal apps on one key.

### When should I choose StreamLake over Venice?

KAT-Coder inside Claude Code via a proxy; Subscription-priced agentic coding; Chinese businesses needing domestic MaaS.

### Is Venice or StreamLake cheaper?

Venice: $0.06–$12 in, $0.28–$60 out per 1M; DIEM staking. StreamLake: Per token or KwaiKAT Coding Plan. 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 Venice](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-venice.md), [Subconscious vs StreamLake](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-streamlake.md).

Full profiles: [Venice](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/venice.md), [StreamLake](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/streamlake.md).