What is the difference between Inception and Lyceum?

Inception and Lyceum are both cloud GPU providers offering different pricing models, features, and GPU availability. Use our comparison tool to see real-time pricing and feature differences.

Which is cheaper: Inception or Lyceum?

Pricing varies by GPU model and usage requirements. Check our real-time comparison table to find the best deals for your specific needs.

Can I switch between Inception and Lyceum?

Yes, both providers offer flexible cloud GPU services. However, consider factors like data transfer costs, setup time, and specific features when switching between providers.

How many GPU models are available for comparison?

We track pricing for 6 different GPU models across both Inception and Lyceum, with 0 models available from both providers.

Inception vs Lyceum

Compare GPU and LLM inference API pricing between Inception and Lyceum. Find the best rates for AI training, inference, and ML workloads.

Inception

Provider 1

GPUs Available

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Lyceum

Provider 2

GPUs Available

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Comparison Overview

Total GPU Models

Inception GPUs

Lyceum GPUs

Direct Comparisons

GPU Pricing Comparison

Total GPUs: 6Both available: 0Inception: 0Lyceum: 6

Showing 6 of 6 GPUs

Last updated: 10/30/2026, 10:39:11 PM

GPU Model ↑	Inception Price	Lyceum Price	Price Diff ↕	Sources
A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$1.19/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $1.19/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
B200 180GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$4.49/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
B200 180GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $4.49/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$2.39/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $2.39/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
H200 141GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$3.09/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
H200 141GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $3.09/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$5.59/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $5.59/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
L40S 48GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$1.99/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
L40S 48GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $1.99/hour Updated: 10/28/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum

A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$1.19/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $1.19/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
B200 180GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$4.49/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
B200 180GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $4.49/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$2.39/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $2.39/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
H200 141GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$3.09/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
H200 141GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $3.09/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$5.59/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $5.59/hour Updated: 10/26/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum
L40S 48GB VRAM • Lyceum	Not Available	$1.99/hr★ Best	—	Lyceum
L40S 48GB VRAM • Not Available Lyceum $1.99/hour Updated: 10/28/2026 ★Best Price Lyceum

LLM API Pricing Comparison

Total models: 14Both available: 0Inception: 2Lyceum: 12

Showing 14 of 14 models

Prices per 1M tokens · Last updated: 10/30/2026, 10:39:10 PM

Model ↑	Inception	Lyceum	Input Diff ↕
DeepSeek V4 Flash DeepSeek	Not available	$0.250 in $0.300 out	—
DeepSeek V4 Pro DeepSeek	Not available	$2.00 in $4.00 out	—
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash DeepSeek	Not available	$0.500 in $1.50 out	—
GLM-5.2 Z.ai	Not available	$1.50 in $4.50 out	—
GLM-5.3 Z.ai	Not available	$1.40 in $4.40 out	—
GLM-5.3-Flash Z.ai	Not available	$0.200 in $0.500 out	—
Kimi K2.7 Code Moonshot AI	Not available	$1.25 in $4.50 out	—
Kimi K3 Moonshot AI	Not available	$3.00 in $15.00 out	—
Mercury 2 Inception	$0.250 in $0.750 out	Not available	—
Mercury 3 Inception	$0.100 in $0.350 out	Not available	—
MiniMax-M3 MiniMax	Not available	$0.400 in $2.00 out	—
Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B Alibaba	Not available	$2.50 in $6.00 out	—
Qwen3.8 27B Alibaba	Not available	$0.400 in $2.40 out	—
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next Alibaba	Not available	$0.200 in $0.500 out	—

Features Comparison

Inception

Mercury chat models
Chat Completions endpoint for the Mercury models, with tool calling, structured outputs and selectable reasoning effort
Code completion and next-edit
Fill-in-the-middle and edit endpoints served by the Mercury Edit code model for IDE autocomplete
Mercury Decide
A decisions endpoint for classification, scoring and span extraction over shared context, returning calibrated probabilities
Mercury Voice
A model tuned for low time-to-first-token in real-time voice agents, enabled per organization through sales
Prompt caching
Cached input tokens are billed at a reduced rate
Integrations
Documented integrations for Cursor, Zed, VS Code extensions, LangChain and Vapi

Lyceum

Serverless Inference
API access to open-source models with pay-per-token pricing.
Dedicated Endpoints
Reserved GPU capacity for production models ensuring low latency and high availability.
Serverless Training
Run training jobs on GPUs without the need for infrastructure management.
GPU Virtual Machines
Full root access to customizable GPU instances ready in seconds.
Large-Scale Clusters
Support for configurations from 8 to 8,000 GPUs with InfiniBand connectivity.
OpenAI-Compatible API
Serverless models are served through an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so existing OpenAI SDK code works by changing the base URL and API key.

Pros & Cons

Inception

Advantages

First-party access to the Mercury diffusion models
OpenAI-compatible API
Cached-input rates published per model
Also available through OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock and Azure Foundry

Considerations

Only Inception's own models are offered
Older Mercury models are closed to new users

Lyceum

Advantages

Instant availability of GPUs with minimal provisioning time.
No capacity planning or vendor lock-in required.
Complies with EU data residency requirements.

Considerations

Dedicated endpoint and reserved capacity pricing is agreed per contract rather than published.
Spot GPUs can be reclaimed, and not every GPU type is offered as spot.
Data centres are in Europe only.

Compute Services

Inception

Lyceum

Pricing Options

Inception

Per token

Input, cached input and output tokens billed per 1M

Enterprise

Dedicated capacity, private networking and custom terms through sales

Lyceum

Serverless inference

Billed per token for input, cached input and output, with no base fee

Prompt caching

Repeated prompt prefixes still in GPU memory are billed at the cached input rate where listed

On-demand GPUs

Billed per second with no subscription

Spot GPUs

About 45% less than on-demand; capacity can be reclaimed

Reserved GPUs, clusters and dedicated endpoints

Commitment pricing agreed per contract, including multi-year reserved blocks

Getting Started

Inception

Get Started

1
Create an account
Sign up on the Inception Platform
2
Create an API key
Generate a key in the platform dashboard
3
Call the API
Send requests to api.inceptionlabs.ai with an OpenAI-compatible client or the Inception SDKs

Lyceum

Get Started

1
Sign Up
Create an account on the Lyceum platform.
2
Choose a Service
Select between inference, training, or virtual machine options.
3
Deploy a Model or Job
Use provided API or CLI instructions to submit your workload.
4
Monitor Usage
Utilize dashboard features to track resource usage and performance.
5
Seek Support if Needed
Contact the sales or support team for assistance.

Support & Global Availability

Inception

Support

Documentation, email support, Discord community and enterprise sales

Lyceum

Global Regions

European data centres; serverless models run in Paris and Finland, while dedicated and VM locations are agreed per contract

Support

Email support for all customers; business customers also get a shared Slack channel and agreed response times.