{"rid":"compute/cerebras-inference","card":{"rid":"compute/cerebras-inference","eid":"cerebras","topic":"compute","slug":"cerebras-inference","provider":"Cerebras Inference","url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","domain":"cerebras.ai","category":"inference API","tier":null,"verdict":"trial-only","vorder":2,"grp":"trial","confidence":"documented","binding":"retention-clamped","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest","egress_metered":null,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-22","stale_on":"2026-11-21","n_evidence":5,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"No recurring free allowance. The FAQ reads: 'Is there a permanently free tier? No. The Free Trial is time- and credit-bounded: $5 in credits that expire 30 d...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":7},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"cerebras-inference","provider":"Cerebras Inference","url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","category":"inference API","free_tier":{"stated":"No recurring free allowance. The FAQ reads: 'Is there a permanently free tier? No. The Free Trial is time- and credit-bounded: $5 in credits that expire 30 days after they are granted.' The Free Trial row that carries the eye-catching numbers (gpt-oss-120b and qwen-3.8-27b at 5 RPM, 30K uncached TPM, 90K total TPM, 1M TPH, 1M TPD) sits inside that 30-day, card-gated window, and the same page states 'New accounts receive $5 in free credits after adding a verified payment method.' The trap is that the per-model pages have not caught up: the gpt-oss-120b model page still prints 'Free tier rate limits: 30 requests/min, 60k input tokens/min, 1M tokens/day' as though a free tier existed.","unit":"requests","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","read_on":"2026-10-22","notes":"trial-credit"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"the 30-day credit expiry binds before any rate does: USD 5 at gpt-oss-120b paid output pricing of USD 0.75 per 1M tokens is about 6.7M output tokens in total, or about 3.8M at a 3:1 input-to-output mix, so the whole allowance is one medium batch and not a monthly budget.","days":null,"source_url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"not stated","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits"},"interface":["rest"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"nothing composes into a recurring job: the 1M-tokens-a-day ceiling is real for 30 days and then access pauses until credits are purchased.","limits":[{"kind":"retention-clamped","value":"the 30-day credit expiry binds before any rate does: USD 5 at gpt-oss-120b paid output pricing of USD 0.75 per 1M tokens is about 6.7M output tokens in total, or about 3.8M at a 3:1 input-to-output mix, so the whole allowance is one medium batch and not a monthly budget.","source":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits"}],"limits_note":"the 30-day credit expiry binds before any rate does: USD 5 at gpt-oss-120b paid output pricing of USD 0.75 per 1M tokens is about 6.7M output tokens in total, or about 3.8M at a 3:1 input-to-output mix, so the whole allowance is one medium batch and not a monthly budget.","binding":"retention-clamped","binding_note":"the 30-day credit expiry binds before any rate does: USD 5 at gpt-oss-120b paid output pricing of USD 0.75 per 1M tokens is about 6.7M output tokens in total, or about 3.8M at a 3:1 input-to-output mix, so the whole allowance is one medium batch and not a monthly budget.","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"card: a payment method is mandatory before any access - 'If you skip adding a payment method at sign-up, Playground and API access remain inactive until you do' - and the USD 5 arrives only 'after adding a verified payment method'. The pricing footnote adds 'You will not be charged or automatically enrolled in paid usage', so no authorisation or hold amount is stated in the evidence. Whether debit or prepaid is accepted is not stated: unknown.","country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event recorded","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"FAQ answer 'Is there a permanently free tier? No. The Free Trial is time- and credit-bounded: $5 in credits that expire 30 days after they are granted', quoted"},{"url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"FAQ answer 'New accounts receive $5 in free credits after adding a verified payment method. These credits expire 30 days after they are granted', quoted; and 'If you skip adding a payment method at sign-up, Playground and API access remain inactive until you do'"},{"url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/support/rate-limits","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"Free Trial table: gpt-oss-120b and qwen-3.8-27b at 5 RPM, 30K uncached TPM, 90K total TPM, 1M TPH, 1M TPD, quoted"},{"url":"https://www.cerebras.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"pricing page footnote '*** Add a valid payment method to receive a one-time $5 promotional credit. The credit expires 30 days after activation. You will not be charged or automatically enrolled in paid usage.', quoted"},{"url":"https://inference-docs.cerebras.ai/models/openai-oss","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"model page still prints 'Free tier rate limits: 30 requests/min, 60k input tokens/min, 1M tokens/day' alongside paid pricing of USD 0.35 input and USD 0.75 output per 1M tokens, which contradicts the FAQ's 'there is no permanently free tier'"}],"verdict":"trial-only","verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"Corrects the shape of a claim that circulates widely: '1M tokens a day free on Cerebras'. The number is a daily rate limit inside a card-gated 30-day trial, so the monthly figure is not 30M tokens. Arithmetic, labelled estimate: USD 5 / (USD 0.75 per 1M output) = 6.67M output tokens if the credit were spent on output alone; at a 3:1 input-to-output split, USD 5 buys about 3.8M tokens of mixed traffic. The contradiction between the FAQ and the model pages is the real finding for a future reader: a session that reads only the model page records a free tier that the FAQ denies in as many words. See also the SambaNova record in a10-repos, the same pattern of a stale sub-page describing a withdrawn free tier.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"refutation","free_tier_kind":"trial-credit","shape":{"vcpu":null,"ram_gib":null,"gpu_class":"wafer-scale WSE","gpu_count":null}}}},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":30,"unit":"requests","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:retention-clamped","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.egress.metered","egress-unknown"],["$.egress.terms","not-stated"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.reliability_note","none-observed"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}