Cerebras vs Scaleway: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Cerebras and Scaleway — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Updated July 2026.
Cerebras
Wafer-scale AI chips — 4,500 tokens/sec, the fastest inference on earth
Cerebras uses wafer-scale silicon (the CS-3 chip covers an entire silicon wafer) to deliver extraordinary inference throughput. Llama 3.1 8B runs at 4,500+ tokens/second — roughly 10× faster than GPU-based providers. This makes Cerebras uniquely suited for real-time applications, voice AI, and interactive coding assistants.
Scaleway
French cloud provider with sovereign EU LLM inference
Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with a focus on European data sovereignty. Their Generative APIs service hosts Llama 3.3 and other open-weight models, making them a strong choice for European businesses with data residency requirements.
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Live token pricing
Strengths & weaknesses
Cerebras
Scaleway
Key differentiators
Cerebras delivers 4,500+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.1 8B — 10× faster than any GPU provider, enabling genuinely real-time AI applications.
The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — a French company with French data centres, ideal for organisations with strict EU data residency requirements.
Frequently asked questions
Cerebras FAQs
How fast is Cerebras inference?
Cerebras delivers 4,500+ tokens/second on Llama 3.1 8B — roughly 10× faster than GPU-based providers like Groq (1,200 t/s) or Together AI (350 t/s). This makes it the fastest inference option available.
What is a Cerebras wafer-scale chip?
The Cerebras CS-3 chip is fabricated on a single silicon wafer rather than individual dies. This gives it 900,000 AI cores and 44GB of on-chip SRAM, eliminating the memory bandwidth bottleneck that limits GPU inference speed.
What models does Cerebras support?
Cerebras currently supports Llama 3.1 8B and 70B, and Llama 3.3 70B. The model selection is intentionally limited — Cerebras focuses on delivering extreme speed on a curated set of models rather than broad catalog coverage.
Scaleway FAQs
Is Scaleway GDPR-compliant?
Yes. Scaleway is a French company with data centres in France and the Netherlands. All data stays within the EU, making it one of the strongest options for GDPR compliance and French data sovereignty requirements.
What LLM models does Scaleway offer?
Scaleway's Generative APIs service hosts Llama 3.3 and other open-weight models. Their catalog is focused on the most widely-used open-source models.
How does Scaleway compare to Nebius AI for European inference?
Both are European providers with GDPR-compliant infrastructure. Scaleway has stronger French data sovereignty credentials (French company, French data centres) while Nebius AI has a larger model catalog and more inference-focused infrastructure.
Provider resources
Cerebras — Wafer-scale AI chips — 4,500 tokens/sec, the fastest inference on earth
Cerebras uses wafer-scale silicon (the CS-3 chip covers an entire silicon wafer) to deliver extraordinary inference throughput. Llama 3.1 8B runs at 4,500+ tokens/second — roughly 10× faster than GPU-based providers. This makes Cerebras uniquely suited for real-time applications, voice AI, and interactive coding assistants.
Cerebras delivers 4,500+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.1 8B — 10× faster than any GPU provider, enabling genuinely real-time AI applications.
Scaleway — French cloud provider with sovereign EU LLM inference
Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with a focus on European data sovereignty. Their Generative APIs service hosts Llama 3.3 and other open-weight models, making them a strong choice for European businesses with data residency requirements.
The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — a French company with French data centres, ideal for organisations with strict EU data residency requirements.
Key strengths compared
Cerebras
- ▸4,500+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.1 8B — fastest inference available
- ▸Sub-50ms time-to-first-token for real-time applications
- ▸Wafer-scale chip architecture eliminates GPU memory bottlenecks
Scaleway
- ▸French cloud — strongest EU data sovereignty credentials
- ▸GDPR-compliant with data centres in France and Netherlands
- ▸GPU compute + LLM inference from one provider
Provider category context
Cerebras is a inference api, founded in 2016. Scaleway is a cloud, founded in 1999. The category difference means these providers serve partially overlapping use cases — compare the model lists and pricing tables above to find the best fit for your specific workload.
How to choose between them
Choose Cerebras if you need 4,500+ tokens/sec on llama 3.1 8b — fastest inference available. Choose Scaleway if you need french cloud — strongest eu data sovereignty credentials. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.