Leanroute vs Groq
Multi-provider gateway vs LPU-accelerated inference host.
Different tools in the same tool-belt. Groq runs open-weight models (Llama, Mixtral, DeepSeek, Whisper) on custom LPU hardware — the fastest tokens/sec you can get on those models today. Leanroute is a gateway that reaches every major provider through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. If your app is Llama-only and latency is everything, go direct to Groq. If you route to multiple providers, want MCP passthrough, or need failover across providers, use Leanroute.
Snapshot date: August 2026. Groq provider adapter shipped 2026-08-13 — you can now route to Groq via Leanroute using model ids like groq/openai/gpt-oss-120b or groq/openai/gpt-oss-20b.
TL;DR
Pick Groq direct if your workload is exclusively Llama or gpt-oss, latency is the deciding factor, and you don't need OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, MCP passthrough, guardrails, or spend caps. Pick Leanroute if your app calls multiple providers, needs a single billing surface, wants MCP forwarding on Anthropic, uses APAC providers, or wants Groq's speed AS ONE OF the routable targets alongside everything else. Use both together — Leanroute routes Llama to Groq for LPU speed, everything else to the right provider, one bill, one API key.
Where we differ
| Dimension | Leanroute | Groq |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Multi-provider gateway (routes to 14 providers, including Groq) | Inference host (runs Llama + gpt-oss on LPU hardware) |
| Raw tokens/sec on supported models | When routing to Groq: same LPU speed. Otherwise: upstream's default. | 500-1000+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B / gpt-oss-20b (LPU hardware) |
| Model catalog | 50+ across every major provider (including Groq's Llama + gpt-oss) | Curated: Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 3.1 8B, gpt-oss-20b/120b, Whisper, Compound |
| OpenAI models | Yes — routes to OpenAI directly | No (Groq only hosts open-weight models) |
| Anthropic Claude | Yes — plus MCP passthrough | No |
| Native MCP passthrough | Yes on Anthropic models | Not supported |
| Wire format | OpenAI-compatible | OpenAI-compatible |
| Pricing | Provider list price + $15/mo BYOK OR 5% top-up | Per-token pricing (competitive for supported models) |
| APAC / India providers | Qwen, GLM, Doubao, Kimi, Sarvam, Krutrim | No |
| Cross-provider failover | Automatic — 5xx on Groq retries on OpenAI / DeepSeek same-tier | Single provider (Groq itself) |
| Route to Groq via Leanroute | Yes — model IDs `groq/openai/gpt-oss-120b`, `groq/openai/gpt-oss-20b`. | N/A — you'd hit Groq directly |
Where Groq still wins
- Raw speed. Nothing else matches Groq's tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B. For real-time voice agents, live translation, or streaming that has to feel instant, Groq is the answer.
- Custom LPU hardware. Purpose-built for LLM inference — a technology moat that per-token pricing on rented GPUs can't match.
- Direct integration. If Llama is all you need, one API key vs. two.
See also: vs Vercel AI · vs AWS Bedrock · vs OpenRouter