Relace
Low-cost open-model inference, plus fast small models for coding agents.
- Founded
- 2022
- Example models
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, relace-apply-3
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
What is Relace?
Relace started out training small, fast models that act as tools for coding agents, and by October 2026 its homepage led with open-model inference instead. It says it served 30 trillion tokens in the 30 days to late October and ranks among the top providers on OpenRouter. The hosted catalog covers DeepSeek V4 Pro, V4 Flash and V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, GLM 5.3 Flash and GLM 5.2 over OpenAI and Anthropic compatible APIs, billed per token with no subscription. Prices run from $0.07 in and $0.14 out per million tokens on DeepSeek V4 Flash to $2.00 in and $14.00 out on Kimi K3, and Relace says it reprices often.
The coding tools are still documented. With 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, which Relace says is over 3x faster and cheaper than a full rewrite. Its agentic search explores large codebases in parallel, a context compaction model runs at 50,000 tokens per second, and Relace Repos adds source control with codebase retrieval built in. Teams can use the hosted API or deploy self-hosted with guided onboarding.
Relace pros, cons and use cases
Upsides
- Low per-token prices on DeepSeek, Kimi and GLM models, which Relace says are usually the cheapest on OpenRouter.
- Very fast merges and retrieval that take work off expensive frontier models.
- Self-hosted deployment for enterprises that keep code in-house.
Core use cases
- Cost-sensitive agents running DeepSeek, Kimi or GLM models.
- App builders and coding agents that apply AI edits to user codebases.
- PR review, automated fixes and CI pipelines that search large repos.
Downsides
- A small open-model catalog, and prices change often, so the rate at request time is what you pay.
- Apply returns an error past 128K tokens, so very large files need a fallback model.
Relace alternatives compared
Pick any row for the full head-to-head.
| Provider | Model access | Flagship models | Speed | Price | Customization | Deployment | Long context | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relace | Open weights, plus specialist coding models | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, relace-apply-3 | ~10,000 tok/s apply | $0.07 in, $0.50 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) | Unknown | Hosted API, OpenRouter or self-hosted | 128K on apply; varies by open model | |
 Subconscious | Open weights | GLM 5.3 Marathon, DeepSeek V4.1 1017 Marathon, Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | 2x faster task completion | 50–80% lower cost; billed on processed tokens | Marathon post-trained variants | Managed API, dedicated, on-prem | 5M+ effective context | Compare |
 OpenAI | Closed, plus open gpt-oss | GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6.1 Terra, GPT-6 Luna | Fast mode; Ultrafast on GPT-6 Astra | $0.10–$10 in, $0.50–$50 out per 1M | N/A | API, Azure OpenAI, Bedrock | 1.05M; 2x input past 272K | Compare |
 Anthropic | Closed | Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5 | Fable is the slowest tier | $0.10–$10 in, $0.50–$50 out per 1M | N/A | API, Bedrock, Vertex AI, Microsoft Foundry | 1M; Haiku 5.5 costs more past 100K | Compare |
 Google Vertex AI | Closed and open, 200+ models | Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.8 Flash, Claude, Gemma | Flash tier built for low latency | Argon $2 in, $10 out until Dec 1, then $4/$20; 3.8 Flash $0.75/$3.75 until 2027 | Custom training on GPUs or TPUs | Managed on Google Cloud | 1M on Gemini 4 Argon and 3.8 Flash | Compare |
 Amazon Bedrock | Closed and open, 100+ models | Claude, GPT-6 Astra, Nova, DeepSeek | Latency-optimized option on some models | ~20–35% above direct; Claude and GPT at parity | Fine-tuning, Custom Model Import | Managed on AWS, AgentCore | Varies by model | Compare |
 Together AI | Open weights | Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Qwen 3.8 Flash | 0.99s TTFT on DeepSeek V4 Pro | Parity with Fireworks and Baseten | LoRA and full SFT; RL via Post-Training | Serverless, dedicated, GPU clusters | 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 | Compare |
 Fireworks AI | Open weights | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3, Kimi K3 | 167–174 tok/s on DeepSeek V4 Pro | Fine-tunes served at base price | SFT, DPO; RL via Training API | Serverless, dedicated GPUs | Full 1M on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 | Compare |
 Baseten | Open weights, 15+ curated | GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, gpt-oss 120B | 0.49s TTFT, lowest measured | H100 about $6.50/hr dedicated | Deploy any model with Truss | Model APIs, dedicated, self-host | Varies by model | Compare |
 Groq | Open weights | GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen 3.8 27B | 500–1,000 tok/s | Near the floor on small models | No fine-tuned model hosting | GroqCloud API | Around 131K max | Compare |
 Cerebras | Open weights | GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen 3.8 27B | ~3,000 tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B | $0.35 in, $0.75 out (GPT-OSS 120B) | Unknown | Shared API, dedicated, partners | 131K on GPT-OSS 120B, 128K on Qwen 3.8 27B | Compare |
 DeepInfra | Open weights | DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 3.1 8B | Unknown | From $0.02 per 1M | No managed fine-tuning | Shared API, no contracts | 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro | Compare |
 Hugging Face Inference Providers | Open weights | GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Routes to fastest provider by default | Provider rates, no markup | N/A | Serverless router; dedicated Endpoints | Up to 1M, provider-dependent | Compare |
 Modal | Bring your own weights | None hosted | ~1s container boot | Per second; H100 $3.95/hr list | Run any training code | Serverless GPU containers | Depends on the model you deploy | Compare |
 Cloudflare Workers AI | Open weights | DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, Kimi K2.7 Code, gpt-oss 120B | Unknown | $0.011 per 1K Neurons; 10K free daily | BYO LoRA on small models (beta) | Serverless on Cloudflare network | 1M on DeepSeek V4 and Kimi K3; 262K on Kimi K2.6 and K2.7 Code | Compare |
 xAI | Closed | Grok 4.7, Grok 4.20, grok-build | ~54 tok/s on Grok 4.6 | $2 in, $6 out (Grok 4.7); 2x past 200K | Unknown | First-party API, Amazon Bedrock | 500K (4.7), 1M (4.20, 4.3) | Compare |
 Mistral AI | Open weights, plus closed Codestral | Mistral Large 4, Small 4, Codestral | Unknown | $0.15–$1.50 in, $0.60–$7.50 out per 1M | Forge (enterprise); fine-tuning API deprecated | API, Azure, Bedrock, Vertex, self-host | 1M on Large 4; 256K on others | Compare |
 DeepSeek | Open weights (MIT) | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | ~209 tok/s on V4.1 Flash | Off-peak hours at half price | Open weights to fine-tune | First-party API, Hugging Face weights | 1M, 384K max output | Compare |
 Moonshot AI | Open weights, custom license | Kimi K3.1 Pro, Kimi K3 | ~33 tok/s on Kimi K3 | $2 in, $10 out (K3.1 Pro); $3 in, $15 out (K3) | Open weights to fine-tune | API, Kimi Code, OpenRouter | 1M | Compare |
 Z.ai | Open weights (GLM-5.3 License; MIT on Flash and older) | GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3-Flash | ~80 tok/s on GLM-5.3 | $1.40 in, $4.40 out (GLM-5.3); free Flash tier | Open weights; GLM-5.3 License adds review for large hosts | API, GLM Coding Plan | 1M (GLM-5.3) | Compare |
 Alibaba Cloud | Open weights incl. Max (custom license) | Qwen 3.8-Max, Qwen 3.7-Max | ~40 tok/s on Qwen 3.8-Max | $2 in, $6 out international | No fine-tuning on hosted Max | Model Studio on Alibaba Cloud | 1M (Qwen 3.8-Max) | Compare |
 Meta | Closed API; open Muse Spark Open and Glimmer | Muse Wonder, Muse Spark 1.3, Muse Spark Open | ~145–233 tok/s on Muse Spark 1.3 | $1.25–$4 in, $4.25–$20 out; Contributor tier cheaper | Open Muse weights to fine-tune | Meta Model API, Oracle Cloud | 1M | Compare |
 Cohere | Closed, plus open Command A+ | Command A+, Command A, Embed 5, Rerank 5 | 375 tok/s on Command A+ W4A4, per Cohere | $0.0375–$2.50 in, $0.15–$10 out per 1M | Enterprise fine-tuning, incl. private | API, Bedrock, Azure, OCI, VPC, on-prem | 256K on Command A; 128K on A+ | Compare |
 SambaNova | Open weights | MiniMax M3, GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek V3.1 | ~800 tok/s on MiniMax M2.7 (SN50, SemiAnalysis) | $0.22 in, $0.59 out (GPT-OSS 120B) | Unknown | SambaCloud, racks for neoclouds | Up to 1M (MiniMax M3, preview) | Compare |
 Nebius | Open weights, 60+ models | DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K3, MiniMax M3, GLM | Among top hosts on throughput | From $0.06 per 1M input | Serve uploaded fine-tunes | Token Factory, dedicated, raw GPUs | Varies by model | Compare |
 Crusoe | Open weights | DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.3, Qwen3.8 27B, Nemotron 3 | Up to 9.9x faster TTFT vs vLLM (vendor claim) | $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M | Serverless LoRA fine-tuning | Serverless, self-serve and tailored dedicated, raw GPUs | Varies by model; cluster-wide KV cache | Compare |
 fal | Hosted media models | FLUX, Kling, Seedream | Cold starts on less popular endpoints | Per image, per video second, GPU time | LoRA training endpoints | Hosted API, serverless GPUs | Not applicable | Compare |
 Novita AI | Open weights | DeepSeek V4 Pro, Gemma 4 | ~36 tok/s on DeepSeek V4 Pro | From $0.02 per 1M; batch 50% off | Hot-swappable LoRA adapters | Serverless, GPU cloud, dedicated | Full 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro | Compare |
 Venice | Open weights, plus proxied closed models | GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 Pro | Unknown | $0.05–$30 in, $0.13–$180 out per 1M; DIEM staking | Unknown | Serverless API, consumer app | 1M on most current models | Compare |
 Parasail | Any Hugging Face model | Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM-5.3, MiniMax M3 | 600ms p99 real-time budget | Per-parameter rates; batch 50% off | Private Hugging Face repos | Serverless, elastic, dedicated, batch | Varies by model | Compare |
 Inference.net | Open, closed and custom | Schematron, ClipTagger, customer fine-tunes | Batch windows of 24h to 7 days | Free pay-as-you-go; Growth $250/mo; B200 $9.98/hr | Distill traces into custom models | Batch API, gateway, dedicated GPUs | Varies by model | Compare |
 GMI Cloud | Open and third-party models | DeepSeek V4 Flash, GLM-5.2, Google Veo | Near bare-metal performance | H100 from $2.60/GPU-hr | Unknown | Shared, autoscaling, reserved GPUs | Varies by model | Compare |
| Thinking Machines | Open weights | Inkling, Inkling-Small | Unknown | Per 1M tokens by prefill, sample, train; Inkling $1.00 in, $4.05 out | LoRA SFT and RL via Tinker | Training API, beta serverless (Inkling only) | Inkling up to 1M (256K serverless); Tinker 32K–256K | Compare |
 Sail Research | Open weights | Kimi K2.6, GLM-5.3, GPT-OSS 120B | Low-latency default; slower windows cheaper | 30–85% below other hosts by completion window | Customer LoRA fine-tunes | API plus Sailboxes | Varies by model | Compare |
 Morph | Specialist models | morph-v3-fast, morph-v3-large | 10,500+ tok/s Fast Apply | $0.80 in, $1.20 out (morph-v3-fast) | Fine-tuning offered | OpenAI compatible API; self-hosted on Enterprise | Unknown | Compare |
 TypeSafe AI | Decision models | Jev, jev-1.14 | 70–500ms per call | $0.042 per 1M input tokens; output free | Unknown | Early-access API, plus Vercel AI Gateway, OpenRouter and LiteLLM | 64K per request, 32K per question | Compare |
 StepFun | Open weights (Apache 2.0 or StepFun license) and API models | Step 5 Preview, Step 3.7 Flash | ~128 tok/s on Step 3.7 Flash | $0.20 in, $1.15 out (Step 3.7 Flash) | Open weights to fine-tune | First-party API, OpenRouter | Up to 1M (Step 5 Preview); 256K on Step 3.7 Flash | Compare |
 Runware | Hosted media models | Seedance 2.5, Qwen-Image-3.0 | Unknown | Images from fractions of a cent | Fine-tuned diffusion checkpoints | Unified API, serverless GPUs, bare metal | Not applicable | Compare |
 StreamLake | Proprietary coding models, plus hosted open models | KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5, KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 | Unknown | $0.74 in, $2.96 out (Pro V2.5), or KwaiKAT Coding Plan | Unknown | MaaS API, bare metal | 256K | Compare |
 Wafer | Open weights | GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | ~168 tok/s on GLM-5.3; 2–2.8x vs stock vLLM or SGLang (vendor) | Per token, prepaid credits | Agent-tuned dedicated deployments | Serverless, dedicated | Up to 1M (GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) | Compare |
 RunInfra | Open weights | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B, Qwen 3.8 27B | ~541 tok/s on Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B (vendor); cold starts under 2s | From $0.05 in, $0.15 out; coding plans from $10 a month | Uploads up to 50 GB; auto-quantization | Model APIs, agent-built endpoints | Varies by model | Compare |
 Particle.AI | Open weights plus its own Particle-1 tune | Particle-1, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash | ~110 tok/s on Particle-1 (Vercel AI Gateway) | $0.15 in, $0.50 out (GLM 5.3 Flash); $0.25 in, $1 out (Particle-1) | Unknown | Serverless API, Vercel AI Gateway | 1M | Compare |
 Luminal | Small hosted catalog plus bring your own weights | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Ideogram 4.5 | 36K tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B, 8xH100 (vendor) | $0.1425 in, $0.57 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) | Compiles any PyTorch or HF model | Serverless (early access), on-prem license | Unknown | Compare |
 Infron | Closed and open, 400+ models | DeepSeek, Qwen, Claude, Gemini, GPT | Unknown | Provider rates; 3–5% top-up fee | Custom deployments | Gateway API, dedicated, BYOK | Varies by model | Compare |
 Inception | Closed weights (Mercury dLLMs) | Mercury 3, Mercury Voice | ~1,070 tok/s on Mercury 3 (vendor) | $0.20 in, $0.70 out (Mercury 3); 50% off at launch | Fine-tuning on request | Serverless API, Bedrock, Azure, private | 1M | Compare |
 Dolphin | Open weights, uncensored fine-tunes | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Dolphin Mistral 24B | Unknown | $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) | Own uncensored fine-tunes | Decentralized serverless API | Unknown | Compare |
 OpenScale | Open weights | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash | 200+ tok/s; fast tier ~2x | $0.06 in, $0.24 out (promo, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) | N/A | Serverless API | 1M context | Compare |
 General Compute | Open weights | MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek V3.2, GPT-OSS 120B | 1,000+ tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B (vendor) | $0.21–$0.28 in, $0.38–$1.20 out per 1M | Custom LoRA and fine-tuned checkpoints | Serverless API, dedicated racks, bare metal | 192K (MiniMax M2.7) | Compare |
 Boundless | Open weights, plus closed GPT and Claude | GLM-5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3 | 342 tok/s on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Vercel) | $0.04–$2.30 in, $0.21–$11.40 out per 1M (open) | Serving-stack tuning, no fine-tuning | Serverless API, reserved tailored capacity | 1M context on most models | Compare |
Frequently asked questions
What is Relace?
Relace started out training small, fast models that act as tools for coding agents, and by October 2026 its homepage led with open-model inference instead. It says it served 30 trillion tokens in the 30 days to late October and ranks among the top providers on OpenRouter. The hosted catalog covers DeepSeek V4 Pro, V4 Flash and V4.1 Flash, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, GLM 5.3 Flash and GLM 5.2 over OpenAI and Anthropic compatible APIs, billed per token with no subscription. Prices run from $0.07 in and $0.14 out per million tokens on DeepSeek V4 Flash to $2.00 in and $14.00 out on Kimi K3, and Relace says it reprices often.
What is Relace best for?
Cost-sensitive agents running DeepSeek, Kimi or GLM models; App builders and coding agents that apply AI edits to user codebases; PR review, automated fixes and CI pipelines that search large repos.
How much does Relace cost?
Relace pricing at a glance: $0.07 in, $0.50 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). Rates change often, so check Relace's pricing page before committing.
How much context does Relace support?
Relace's long-context support: 128K on apply; varies by open model.
What are the downsides of Relace?
A small open-model catalog, and prices change often, so the rate at request time is what you pay; Apply returns an error past 128K tokens, so very large files need a fallback model.
What are the best alternatives to Relace?
Common alternatives include Subconscious, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI, Amazon Bedrock. Each has a head-to-head comparison with Relace on this site.
Sources: Relace, Relace Apply API, Relace Instant Apply quickstart, Relace pricing, Relace on OpenRouter, Relace on Y Combinator. Pricing and model lineups change often; figures are a snapshot.