What is the difference between Inception and SambaNova?

Inception and SambaNova 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 SambaNova?

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 SambaNova?

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

Inception vs SambaNova

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

Inception

Provider 1

Models Available

Visit Website

SambaNova

Provider 2

Models Available

Visit Website

Comparison Overview

Total LLM Models

Inception Models

SambaNova Models

Direct Comparisons

LLM API Pricing Comparison

Total models: 6Both available: 0Inception: 2SambaNova: 4

Showing 6 of 6 models

Prices per 1M tokens · Last updated: 11/12/2026, 3:08:52 AM

Model ↑	Inception	SambaNova	Input Diff ↕
Gemma 4 31B Google	Not available	$0.380 in $1.15 out	—
GLM-5.3 Z.ai	Not available	$2.80 in $8.80 out	—
GPT-OSS-120B OpenAI	Not available	$0.220 in $0.590 out	—
Mercury 2 Inception	$0.250 in $0.750 out	Not available	—
Mercury 3 Inception	$0.100 in $0.350 out	Not available	—
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash MiniMax	Not available	$0.300 in $1.20 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

SambaNova

Custom RDU hardware
Models run on SambaNova's own Reconfigurable Dataflow Units rather than GPUs
OpenAI-compatible API
Chat completions for open models such as DeepSeek, Llama, Gemma, MiniMax and gpt-oss
Prompt caching
Cached input tokens billed at a reduced rate on supported models
Commits and credits
Prepaid commitments alongside pay-as-you-go billing

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

SambaNova

Advantages

Serves models on non-GPU hardware built for inference
Public per-token rates for every served model
OpenAI-compatible endpoints

Considerations

Small model catalog compared with GPU-based inference providers
Some models are priced above other providers of the same open weights
No GPU rental; inference only

Compute Services

Inception

SambaNova

Pricing Options

Inception

Per token

Input, cached input and output tokens billed per 1M

Enterprise

Dedicated capacity, private networking and custom terms through sales

SambaNova

Per token

Input, cached input, and output tokens billed per 1M

Commits

Prepaid usage commitments

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

SambaNova

Get Started

1
Create an account
Sign up on SambaNova Cloud
2
Create an API key
Generate a key in the API Keys page
3
Call the API
Point an OpenAI-compatible client at api.sambanova.ai

Support & Global Availability

Inception

Support

Documentation, email support, Discord community and enterprise sales

SambaNova

Support

Documentation and the SambaNova Cloud dashboard