Groq alternatives
Use when latency is the product. Do not build your whole company on one Groq model SKU — they rotate.
Overall 7.95 (curated_estimate, high) · score asOf 2026-09-14 · last reviewed 2026-09-14. This is not an Elo and not a live price board. Provider · JSON
Jobs: cheap-volume-llm, open-model-inference, ultra-low-latency, speech-to-text, edge-llm-inference, content-moderation, llm-input-guardrails, prompt-injection-firewall
| Provider | Why listed | Overall | Δ vs subject | asOf |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fireworks AI Top pick for production open-model serving with real DX. Prefer over random GPU DIY when you want tokens not… | same_jtbd_pick, same_jtbd_runner · cheap-volume-llm, open-model-inference, ultra-low-latency | 8.35high | +0.4 | 2026-09-14 |
| OpenAI Moderation Default first-pass content filter for agent I/O. Pair with Llama Guard (Groq) or NeMo Guardrails when you… | same_jtbd_pick, same_jtbd_runner · content-moderation, llm-input-guardrails, prompt-injection-firewall | 8.62high | +0.67 | 2026-09-14 |
| Lakera Guard Depot pick for a dedicated prompt-injection firewall in front of any LLM. NeMo when you need programmable… | same_jtbd_runner, same_jtbd_pick · content-moderation, llm-input-guardrails, prompt-injection-firewall | 8.21high | +0.26 | 2026-09-14 |
| NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails When OpenAI Moderation taxonomy is not enough and you need programmable rails. Host Llama Guard on Groq for… | same_jtbd_runner, same_jtbd_pick · content-moderation, llm-input-guardrails, prompt-injection-firewall | 7.87high | -0.08 | 2026-09-14 |
| Cloudflare Workers AI Best when your agent already runs on Workers and you want colocated small/open models. Not a frontier brain. | same_jtbd_pick · edge-llm-inference, wasm-edge-small-models | 7.69high | -0.26 | 2026-09-14 |
| Deepgram Default STT and strong voice-agent platform. Standard Flux TTS / Voice Agent rates live since 2026-09-15… | same_jtbd_pick · speech-to-text | 8.5high | +0.55 | 2026-10-19 |
| Guardrails AI OSS programmable rails peer to NeMo Guardrails. Lakera when you want a hosted injection firewall API… | same_jtbd_runner · content-moderation, llm-input-guardrails, prompt-injection-firewall | 8.2medium | +0.25 | 2026-09-14 |
| Together AI Best catalog breadth for OSS models. Watch minimums and lifetime spend gates before you design around a gated… | same_jtbd_runner · cheap-volume-llm, open-model-inference | 8.2high | +0.25 | 2026-09-14 |
| FriendliAI Open-model production peer when latency/tool-calling matter. Fireworks remains depot open-model default… | same_jtbd_runner · open-model-inference, ultra-low-latency | 8.03high | +0.08 | 2026-10-01 |
| OpenRouter Best multi-model router for agents that need failover and experimentation. Pin providers in production; don’t… | same_jtbd_runner · edge-llm-inference, wasm-edge-small-models | 8high | +0.05 | 2026-09-14 |
| DeepInfra Budget open-model workhorse and one of the cheapest large-catalog hosts. Great for evals and high-volume… | same_jtbd_runner · cheap-volume-llm, open-model-inference | 7.95high | 0 | 2026-09-14 |
| Chutes Budget open-model overflow with a now-pinned public TEE matrix. Depot open-model production pick stays… | same_jtbd_runner · cheap-volume-llm, open-model-inference | 7.29high | -0.66 | 2026-09-14 |
Prices are not ranked on this page. For a job, use the sourced quote (separate input and output rows, Depot Pick unchanged): cheap-volume-llm, open-model-inference, ultra-low-latency, speech-to-text.
Alternatives are other catalog providers that share a JTBD as pick or runner-up. If fewer than three exist, same-category active providers fill the list and are labeled same_category. Overall deltas are catalog scores. kind=curated_estimate is not a lab measurement. Pricing rows are sourced or explicitly null. Do not parse pricingNotes. A single normalized USD figure is set only for a provider with exactly one token row.