Anthropic vs Fireworks AI
A comparison of Anthropic and Fireworks AI built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
- Pick Anthropic if
- Teams that want the full 1M-token window at the standard per-token rate rather than a long-context surcharge, and that can use caching and batch to cut a frontier-model bill roughly in half.
- Pick Fireworks AI if
- Running open-weight models without operating GPUs — the same DeepSeek and Qwen checkpoints the labs publish, served per token, with a path to dedicated hardware if throughput demands it.
6 sourced criteria separate them:
- Pricing model
- Anthropic: Per million tokens, priced separately for input and output and per model, with multipliers stacked on top: prompt caching, a 50% batch discount, a 1.1x uplift for US-only inference on Claude 4.6 and later, and a fast-mode premium.
- Fireworks AI: Three products on one bill. Serverless inference is per token, per model. Fine-tuning is per million TRAINING tokens by parameter band — $0.50 for models up to 16B, $10.00 above 300B. Dedicated GPUs are hourly: $7.00 for an H100 or H200, $10.00 for a B200.
- Input price, top model
- Anthropic: $10 per million input tokens for Claude Fable 5.1, the most capable model. Claude Opus 5 is $5 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.
- Fireworks AI: $3.00 per million input tokens for Kimi K3, the most expensive model in its serverless catalogue. Fireworks hosts other labs' open-weight models rather than its own, so "flagship" here means the top of what it serves.
- Output price, top model
- Anthropic: $50 per million output tokens for Claude Fable 5.1. Claude Opus 5 is $25 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.
- Fireworks AI: $15.00 per million output tokens for Kimi K3.
- Input price, cheapest model
- Anthropic: $1 per million input tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5, the cheapest current model, with output at $5.
- Fireworks AI: $0.15 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash, with output at $0.50. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is $0.22 in and $0.66 out — the same model DeepSeek itself sells at $0.44 peak.
- Context window
- Anthropic: 1M tokens on Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5; 200K on Claude Haiku 4.5. Anthropic states the full 1M window is billed at standard per-token rates.
- Fireworks AI: 1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and both DeepSeek V4 variants; 262,144 on Qwen3.8 and 131,072 on Muse Glimmer 30B. The window is the model's, not Fireworks'.
- Max output tokens
- Anthropic: 128K tokens on the top three models, 64K on Claude Haiku 4.5. The Batch API supports up to 300K output tokens on several models behind a beta header.
- Fireworks AI: No separate output cap. max_tokens is bounded by the model's context length — prompt plus completion must fit inside it — and what happens on overflow is set by context_length_exceeded_behavior rather than a fixed ceiling.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Anthropic 0
Fireworks AI 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Anthropic | Fireworks AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Per million tokens, priced separately for input and output and per model, with multipliers stacked on top: prompt caching, a 50% batch discount, a 1.1x uplift for US-only inference on Claude 4.6 and later, and a fast-mode premium. | Three products on one bill. Serverless inference is per token, per model. Fine-tuning is per million TRAINING tokens by parameter band — $0.50 for models up to 16B, $10.00 above 300B. Dedicated GPUs are hourly: $7.00 for an H100 or H200, $10.00 for a B200. |
| Inference | ||
| Input price, top model | $10 per million input tokens for Claude Fable 5.1, the most capable model. Claude Opus 5 is $5 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2. | $3.00 per million input tokens for Kimi K3, the most expensive model in its serverless catalogue. Fireworks hosts other labs' open-weight models rather than its own, so "flagship" here means the top of what it serves. |
| Output price, top model | $50 per million output tokens for Claude Fable 5.1. Claude Opus 5 is $25 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10. | $15.00 per million output tokens for Kimi K3. |
| Input price, cheapest model | $1 per million input tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5, the cheapest current model, with output at $5. | $0.15 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash, with output at $0.50. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is $0.22 in and $0.66 out — the same model DeepSeek itself sells at $0.44 peak. |
| Context window | 1M tokens on Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5; 200K on Claude Haiku 4.5. Anthropic states the full 1M window is billed at standard per-token rates. | 1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and both DeepSeek V4 variants; 262,144 on Qwen3.8 and 131,072 on Muse Glimmer 30B. The window is the model's, not Fireworks'. |
| Max output tokens | 128K tokens on the top three models, 64K on Claude Haiku 4.5. The Batch API supports up to 300K output tokens on several models behind a beta header. | No separate output cap. max_tokens is bounded by the model's context length — prompt plus completion must fit inside it — and what happens on overflow is set by context_length_exceeded_behavior rather than a fixed ceiling. |
| Prompt caching | Supported | Supported |
Where they differ.
Pricing model
- Anthropic
- Per million tokens, priced separately for input and output and per model, with multipliers stacked on top: prompt caching, a 50% batch discount, a 1.1x uplift for US-only inference on Claude 4.6 and later, and a fast-mode premium.
- Fireworks AI
- Three products on one bill. Serverless inference is per token, per model. Fine-tuning is per million TRAINING tokens by parameter band — $0.50 for models up to 16B, $10.00 above 300B. Dedicated GPUs are hourly: $7.00 for an H100 or H200, $10.00 for a B200.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Claude Docs ↗
“This page provides detailed pricing information for Anthropic's models and features. All prices are in USD. [...] These multipliers stack with other pricing modifiers, including the Batch API discount and data residency. [...] specifying US-only inference through the inference_geo parameter incurs a 1.1x multiplier on all token pricing categories”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Fireworks AI ↗
“MODELS UP TO 16B PARAMETERS $0.50 $1.00 $1.00 $2.00 [...] MODELS >300B (E.G. DEEPSEEK V3, KIMI K2) $10.00 $20.00 $20.00 $40.00 [...] H100 80 GB GPU $7.00 $8.00 H200 141 GB GPU $7.00 $8.00 B200 180 GB GPU $10.00 $13.00”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Input price, top model
- Anthropic
- $10 per million input tokens for Claude Fable 5.1, the most capable model. Claude Opus 5 is $5 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $2.
- Fireworks AI
- $3.00 per million input tokens for Kimi K3, the most expensive model in its serverless catalogue. Fireworks hosts other labs' open-weight models rather than its own, so "flagship" here means the top of what it serves.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Claude Docs ↗
“Claude Fable 5.1 | $10 / MTok | $12.50 / MTok | $20 / MTok | $0.25 / MTok | $50 / MTok [...] Claude Opus 5 | $5 / MTok [...] Claude Sonnet 5 | $2 / MTok”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Models — Fireworks AI ↗
“Kimi K3 $3/M Input • $15/M Output • 1048576 Context”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Output price, top model
- Anthropic
- $50 per million output tokens for Claude Fable 5.1. Claude Opus 5 is $25 and Claude Sonnet 5 is $10.
- Fireworks AI
- $15.00 per million output tokens for Kimi K3.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Claude Docs ↗
“Claude Fable 5.1 | $10 / MTok | [...] | $50 / MTok [...] Claude Opus 5 | [...] $25 / MTok [...] Claude Sonnet 5 | [...] $10 / MTok”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Models — Fireworks AI ↗
“Kimi K3 $3/M Input • $15/M Output • 1048576 Context”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Input price, cheapest model
- Anthropic
- $1 per million input tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5, the cheapest current model, with output at $5.
- Fireworks AI
- $0.15 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash, with output at $0.50. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is $0.22 in and $0.66 out — the same model DeepSeek itself sells at $0.44 peak.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Claude Docs ↗
“Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1 / MTok | $1.25 / MTok | $2 / MTok | $0.10 / MTok | $5 / MTok”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Models — Fireworks AI ↗
“GLM 5.3 Flash $0.15/M Input • $0.5/M Output • 1048576 Context [...] DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 $0.22/M Input • $0.66/M Output • 1048576 Context”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Context window
1M tokens on Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5; 200K on Claude Haiku 4.5. Anthropic states the full 1M window is billed at standard per-token rates.
1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and both DeepSeek V4 variants; 262,144 on Qwen3.8 and 131,072 on Muse Glimmer 30B. The window is the model's, not Fireworks'.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Models overview — Claude Docs ↗
“Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens | 1M tokens | 200K tokens”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
- Models — Fireworks AI ↗
“Kimi K3 $3/M Input • $15/M Output • 1048576 Context [...] Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B $2/M Input • $6/M Output • 262144 Context [...] Muse Glimmer 30B $0.35/M Input • $1.5/M Output • 131072 Context”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Max output tokens
- Anthropic
- 128K tokens on the top three models, 64K on Claude Haiku 4.5. The Batch API supports up to 300K output tokens on several models behind a beta header.
- Fireworks AI
- No separate output cap. max_tokens is bounded by the model's context length — prompt plus completion must fit inside it — and what happens on overflow is set by context_length_exceeded_behavior rather than a fixed ceiling.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Models overview — Claude Docs ↗
“Max output | 128K tokens | 128K tokens | 128K tokens | 64K tokens [...] On the Message Batches API, Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5 [...] support up to 300k output tokens with the output-300k-2026-03-24 beta header.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
- Chat Completions API — Fireworks docs ↗
“The maximum number of tokens to generate in the completion. If the token count of your prompt plus max_tokens exceeds the model's context length, the behavior depends on context_length_exceeded_behavior.”
Read 2026-09-07 · official docs
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Which should you choose?
Choose Anthropic if…
Teams that want the full 1M-token window at the standard per-token rate rather than a long-context surcharge, and that can use caching and batch to cut a frontier-model bill roughly in half.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Fireworks AI if…
Running open-weight models without operating GPUs — the same DeepSeek and Qwen checkpoints the labs publish, served per token, with a path to dedicated hardware if throughput demands it.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Anthropic: Its cheapest model is $1 per million input tokens, several times what the budget tiers at Google, OpenAI and DeepSeek charge, so high-volume simple work is priced against you.
- Fireworks AI: You want a frontier proprietary model: Fireworks serves other people's open weights, so the ceiling is whatever the open ecosystem has released.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Should I choose Anthropic or Fireworks AI?
Pick Anthropic if Teams that want the full 1M-token window at the standard per-token rate rather than a long-context surcharge, and that can use caching and batch to cut a frontier-model bill roughly in half.
Pick Fireworks AI if Running open-weight models without operating GPUs — the same DeepSeek and Qwen checkpoints the labs publish, served per token, with a path to dedicated hardware if throughput demands it.