Groq

Groq is an AI inference cloud that runs open models at very high speed on its own LPU chips, offered to developers through the GroqCloud API.

Groq builds infrastructure for running AI models rather than training them. It designed the LPU, a chip built for fast inference, and its newer LPX systems work alongside NVIDIA GPUs, with hundreds of megawatts of capacity being built. Through GroqCloud, developers call open models through an API at hundreds of tokens per second, and Groq says millions of developers run trillions of tokens on it every week. A free tier gives access to every model with rate limits and no credit card, and paid usage is billed per million tokens, starting at a few cents. It suits apps and agents where response speed matters, such as voice assistants and real-time tools.

Groq at a glance

Best for: Software engineer
Runs on: API, Web
Pricing: Free tier; paid usage from $0.05 per 1M input tokens
Released: March 2024
Category: AI chat assistant
Website: groq.com

Key features

GroqCloud API for open models
LPU chips designed for inference
High output speed for real-time apps
Free tier with rate limits and no card
Pay-per-token billing for paid usage
LPX systems that run alongside NVIDIA GPUs

Use it for

Power a voice assistant that needs fast replies
Run an agent that makes many quick model calls
Test open models for free before scaling

Alternatives to Groq

Dlgo — Run LLM inference quickly in pure Go without Python or external runtimes.
Ollama — Run open models locally or in the cloud with private prompts
LM Studio — Runs open source language models locally with real-time voice transcription.
Open WebUI — Run AI on your own terms with complete data privacy and self-hosting control.
Z.ai — Free access to GLM, an open-weight model family strong at coding
GPT AI Assistant — Connects OpenAI models directly to the LINE mobile messaging app.
KernelAI — Runs 53 open-weight models offline with no account or subscription required.
MiniCPM — Offers 2B-class open-source SOTA performance with compact on-device deployment.
GPT4All — Runs open-source language models locally on your device for complete data privacy.
big-AGI — Run multiple models in parallel to compare answers and catch hallucinations.
PrivateGPT — Popular open-source project ensuring 100% privacy for AI applications.
Off Grid AI — Runs locally on your hardware to keep all your work data completely private.

All Groq alternatives