Cerebras Inference API Pricing 2026
Complete pricing guide with plans, hidden costs, and cost analysis
Cerebras Inference API pricing ranges from $0.10 to $6/per million tokens.
Cerebras Inference API costs $0.10 to $6 per per million tokens as of April 2026, with 3 plans available including a free tier. Plan: Free tier (Developer) (free). Enterprise pricing is available on request. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: Yes
Cerebras Inference API offers 3 pricing tiers: Free tier (Developer), Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise. The Pay-as-you-go plan is latency-critical apps needing sub-second time-to-first-token.
Compared to other llm api providers software, Cerebras Inference API is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.
- 4 documented hidden costs beyond list price
How much does Cerebras Inference API cost?
Cerebras Inference API Pricing Overview
Cerebras Inference API has 3 pricing plans, including a free tier. Paid plans range from $0.10 to $6/per million tokens. The Free tier (Developer) plan is free and is best for testing cerebras's unique speed advantage. The Pay-as-you-go plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for latency-critical apps needing sub-second time-to-first-token. The Enterprise plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for latency-critical production deployments.
There are at least 4 documented hidden costs beyond Cerebras Inference API's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.
This pricing was last verified in April 23, 2026.
Cerebras Inference API offers a Free tier (Developer) plan at $0 for testing and development, with a Pay-as-you-go tier for token-based production billing. Organizations with high-volume or mission-critical requirements can access the Enterprise tier on custom-quoted terms. Cerebras differentiates on raw inference speed — its wafer-scale chip architecture delivers dramatically higher tokens-per-second than GPU-based alternatives for supported model sizes, making it a compelling option for latency-sensitive workloads.
How Cerebras Inference API Pricing Compares
Compare Cerebras Inference API pricing against top alternatives in LLM API Providers.
All Cerebras Inference API Plans & Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier (Developer) | Free | Free | Testing Cerebras's unique speed advantage |
| Pay-as-you-go | Custom | Custom | Latency-critical apps needing sub-second time-to-first-token |
| Enterprise | Contact Sales | Contact Sales | Latency-critical production deployments |
View all features by plan
Free tier (Developer)
- 1M tokens/day free (Llama 3.3 70B)
- Rate-limited to 30 req/min
- World-record throughput: 2,000+ tokens/sec on WSE-3
Pay-as-you-go
- Llama 3.3 70B: $0.85/1M input, $1.20/1M output
- Llama 3.1 8B: $0.10/1M input, $0.10/1M output
- Qwen 3 32B: $0.40/1M input, $0.80/1M output
- ~20× faster than GPU-based inference on same model
Enterprise
- Dedicated WSE capacity
- SLAs
- On-prem inference option
Usage-Based Rates
Per-unit pricing for Cerebras Inference API API usage.
Pay-as-you-go
| Model | Input | Output | Cached | Per |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| llama-3-3-70b-cerebras 131K ctx | $0.850 | $1.20 | — | 1M tokens |
| llama-3-1-8b-cerebras 131K ctx | $0.100 | $0.100 | — | 1M tokens |
| qwen3-32b-cerebras 131K ctx | $0.400 | $0.800 | — | 1M tokens |
- Uses WSE-3 wafer-scale chips; not GPUs. Pricing reflects compute-efficiency, not headline-cheap.
Compare Cerebras Inference API vs Alternatives
Before committing to Cerebras Inference API, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.
What Companies Actually Pay for Cerebras Inference API
Cerebras Inference API Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size
Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.
Individual developer or small team testing Cerebras inference capabilities using the Free tier (Developer) plan with Llama-based models at low request volumes.
Application using the Pay-as-you-go tier to run Llama 3.1 70B at high throughput. Per-token pricing per a third-party comparison tool citing Artificial Analysis data; verify current pricing with Cerebras before committing.
A solo developer using the Free tier (Developer) plan to prototype and test LLM applications using Llama-based models, within free tier rate limits.
A small development team running moderate inference workloads on the Pay-as-you-go plan. Actual costs depend on token volume; specific per-token rates are not publicly documented by Cerebras.
Current tier data; confirmed by reddit (r/singularity, 2025-03-01): 'Right now the Cerebras API is free'
How Cerebras Inference API Pricing Compares
| Software | Starting Price | Top Price |
|---|---|---|
| Cerebras Inference API | $0.1/per million tokens | $6/per million tokens |
| Amazon Bedrock | $0.07/per million tokens | $75/per million tokens |
| Anyscale | $0.15/per million tokens | $5/per million tokens |
| Baidu ERNIE API | $0.1/per million tokens | $10/per million tokens |
| Claude API | $0.03/per million tokens | $75/per million tokens |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | $0.05/per million tokens | $5/per million tokens |
Detailed pricing comparisons:
Cerebras Inference API Contract Terms
Cerebras Inference API contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require advance notice. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.
How to Negotiate Cerebras Inference API Pricing
Cerebras Inference API contracts are negotiable. These 5 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.
Exhaust the Free tier (Developer) plan during prototyping to validate whether Cerebras's speed advantages justify the opaque pay-as-you-go pricing before committing to the Pay-as-you-go or Enterprise plan. This also gives you real throughput data to use in Enterprise negotiations.
Current tier data + reddit community usage patternsFor high-volume or production workloads, contact Cerebras sales directly for the Enterprise tier. Custom agreements may include better per-token rates, dedicated capacity, and SLA guarantees not available on the Pay-as-you-go tier. The platform's orientation toward enterprise use suggests negotiation flexibility for committed volume.
reddit (inferred from tier structure and user comments about enterprise orientation)Use the Free tier (Developer) plan to validate your use case and demonstrate usage patterns before approaching sales. Concrete throughput and volume projections strengthen your negotiating position for Enterprise pricing.
reddit (r/singularity, 2025-03-01)Community benchmarks show Cerebras's Llama 3.1 70B running at approximately 569 tokens/sec versus ~31 tokens/sec on GPU-based providers. When negotiating Enterprise pricing, frame discussions around cost-per-useful-output (accounting for throughput) rather than raw per-token price — this positions higher token rates as cost-justified given the speed differential.
reddit (LocalLLaMA, October 2024)For production workloads, contact Cerebras directly about the Enterprise plan before scaling on Pay-as-you-go. Enterprise contracts typically include dedicated throughput, SLA guarantees, and volume discounts not available on standard tiers. Having a clear projected token volume when you approach them will strengthen your negotiating position.
Current tier dataCerebras Inference API Pricing FAQ
01 Is Cerebras Inference API free to use?
Cerebras offers a Free tier (Developer) plan at $0, available for testing and prototyping. As of early 2025, the API was described as free for developers, though the long-term pricing structure for the Pay-as-you-go tier was noted as uncertain. Enterprise pricing requires a custom agreement.
02 How does Cerebras inference speed compare to GPU-based providers?
Cerebras uses a wafer-scale chip architecture that delivers significantly faster inference than GPU-based providers for supported model sizes. A third-party comparison from October 2024 showed Cerebras running Llama 3.1 70B at 569.2 tokens/sec versus Amazon Bedrock's 31.6 tokens/sec for the same model — approximately 18x faster.
03 Is there a waitlist for Cerebras Inference API access?
Historically, new users have needed to join a waitlist before gaining access to the Cerebras API. One developer reported waiting approximately one week before receiving access.
04 What models does Cerebras Inference support?
Cerebras Inference supports open-source models including Llama 3.1 70B and DeepSeek R1-70B. The wafer-scale architecture is optimized for models that fit within its on-chip memory. Very large models with 400B+ parameters may have limited, more costly, or no support on the platform.
05 Do I need to join a waitlist to use Cerebras?
Yes. Access to the Cerebras Inference API requires waitlist approval even for the free developer tier. Community reports indicate the wait is typically around one week.
06 Is Cerebras Inference only for enterprise customers?
No. Cerebras offers a Free tier (Developer) plan for individual developers at no cost. However, since per-token pricing for the Pay-as-you-go plan is not publicly listed in detail, some community members assumed the service was enterprise-only.
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