Very fast inference API. New accounts get $5 credit after adding a card, and it expires in 30 days.
Sniffed 21d ago Card required#llm#inference#fast-inference#openai-compatible#gpt-oss#qwen#api
Speed is the pitch: the pricing page lists GPT OSS 120B at about 3,000 tokens per second. Cerebras Inference serves open models on Cerebras hardware through an OpenAI-style API. The pricing page lists GPT OSS 120B at about 3,000 tokens per second and Qwen 3.8 27B at about 1,850, at $0.35 and $0.75 per million tokens for the first, and $0.99 and $1.49 for the second. There is no permanent free tier. New accounts get a one-time $5 credit after adding a verified payment method, the credit expires after 30 days, and API and Playground access stop when it runs out. The trial limits are 5 requests a minute and 30K uncached tokens a minute. The first purchase moves you to the Developer tier, which has no hourly or daily token caps. Forum complaints I found concern limits on its separate coding plan. I found no G2 listing.
Free tier quotas
Free trial credit
One-time $5 credit after adding a valid payment method
Credit expiry
30 days after activation
Charges during trial
None until you buy credits; you are not enrolled in paid usage automatically
Trial rate limits
5 requests a minute, 30K uncached and 90K total tokens a minute, 1M tokens an hour and 1M a day per model
Trial models
gpt-oss-120b and qwen-3.8-27b
After credits run out
API and Playground access pause until you buy credits; keys and settings stay
Permanent free tier
None, per the rate-limit FAQ
Developer tier limits
gpt-oss-120b at 1M uncached and 3M total tokens a minute and 1K requests a minute
Support
Community Discord on the Developer tier
Last sniffed Oct 4, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+Speed is the headline. The pricing page lists about 3,000 tokens per second for GPT OSS 120B and about 1,850 for Qwen 3.8 27B. These are vendor figures, and Cerebras notes that performance varies by model and configuration.
+A G2 reviewer building voice agents on Together AI said Together's latency was good but still below Cerebras for their use, which points to Cerebras as the speed reference.
+Prices are listed per model: GPT OSS 120B at $0.35 in and $0.75 out per million tokens, and Qwen 3.8 27B at $0.99 in and $1.49 out.
+The Developer tier removes hourly and daily token caps, so within a budget you can use as many tokens as you need. gpt-oss-120b gets 1M uncached tokens a minute and 1K requests a minute.
+The docs describe a dual-bucket limit with an uncached token limit and a total token limit, and say that a better cache hit rate lets the same uncached limit serve more total tokens.
+Credits are not charged automatically. The pricing page says you are not enrolled in paid usage by claiming the $5.
+Access also comes through partners: AWS Marketplace, OpenRouter, Hugging Face and Vercel's AI gateway are listed on the pricing page.
👎 Watch out
−There is no permanent free tier. The rate-limit FAQ says the free trial is time and credit bounded, and a 2026 audit of AI API providers on r/hermesagent says Cerebras is now a $5 trial rather than a recurring free tier.
−You need a payment method to receive the credit, and API and Playground access stay inactive until you add one. The credit also expires after 30 days.
−Trial limits are tight: 5 requests a minute, 30K uncached tokens a minute and 1M tokens a day per model.
−The Developer tier covers two models on the pricing page, GPT OSS 120B and Qwen 3.8 27B, and Cerebras marks the tier as for development, evaluation and experimentation, not production.
−Limits drew complaints on the separate Cerebras Code subscription in 2025. An r/LocalLLaMA post said the advertised 1,000-request limit was really a 7.5 million-token daily limit, and a Hacker News commenter on the launch thread noted the plan seemed limited by message rather than by token. That product is not the API.
−Older free-tier limits were far smaller than they sound. A 2024 r/LocalLLaMA commenter said free users got 8,192 tokens of context and 500,000 tokens a day. The current tiers differ, so use it only as history.
−I found no G2, Capterra or Trustpilot listing, so independent review evidence is limited to forum threads.
The catch
Cerebras has no permanent free tier. New accounts receive a one-time $5 credit after adding a valid payment method, the credit expires 30 days after activation, and you are not charged or automatically enrolled in paid usage. If you skip adding a payment method, Playground and API access stay inactive. When the credit runs out or expires, access pauses until you buy credits, and your keys and settings remain.
Trial limits are small: 5 requests a minute, 30K uncached and 90K total tokens a minute, and 1M tokens an hour and a day per model. Buying credits moves you to the Developer tier, which removes hourly and daily caps. Developer limits for gpt-oss-120b are 1M uncached and 3M total tokens a minute with 1K requests a minute, and for qwen-3.8-27b 150K uncached tokens a minute with 300 requests.
Developer tier is meant for exploration. The pricing footnote says it is for development, evaluation and experimentation and not intended for production. Production capacity, priority limits and custom weights are Enterprise, by agreement.
Forum complaints about limits that I found concern the separate Cerebras Code subscription from 2025. I found no statement on commercial use of trial output, so that field is unknown.
What’s included
✓OpenAI-style chat completions API
✓Dual-bucket rate limits with uncached and total tokens
✓Prompt caching
✓Cloud Console with a Limits page per model
✓Per-project rate limit controls
✓Dedicated inference for enterprise models
✓Access through AWS Marketplace, OpenRouter, Hugging Face and Vercel
✓Image input on qwen-3.8-27b, with per-request image limits
Free tier value
Generosity
B
Estimated value
$5 of one-time credit that expires in 30 days
Feature parity
The trial has the same two models at much lower limits, starting at 5 requests a minute.
GPT OSS 120B at $0.35 in and $0.75 out per million tokens, Qwen 3.8 27B at $0.99 in and $1.49 out. No hourly or daily token caps. Community Discord support.
Enterprise, contact sales
Production capacity, priority and higher rate limits, dedicated account team, and custom weights and fine-tuning by agreement.
Dedicated Inference
Pricing varies by organization and is quoted by sales. It opens the broader model list described in the docs.
Common questions
Is there a permanently free tier?
No. The rate-limit FAQ says the free trial is $5 in credits that expire 30 days after they are granted.
Do I need a credit card?
You need a verified payment method to receive the $5, but you are not charged until you buy credits.
What happens when the credit runs out?
API and Playground access stop until you buy credits. Keys, projects and settings remain, and a purchase reactivates access.
Why do I still get 429 errors after paying?
Each model has its own uncached and total token and request limits, and project-level limits or large max_completion_tokens values can also trigger them.
How fast is it?
The pricing page lists about 3,000 tokens per second for GPT OSS 120B and about 1,850 for Qwen 3.8 27B. Speeds vary by model and configuration.
Is Developer tier fine for production?
The pricing footnote says it is not intended for production use. Production workloads are Enterprise.
Change history
Checked October 22, 2026
Pricing page (modified October 2, 2026) lists Developer and Enterprise with a $5 one-time credit. Rate-limit docs confirm no permanent free tier.
