poolside
4 models built · 2 served
poolside is a US lab founded in 2023 by former GitHub CTO Jason Warner, building foundation models specifically for software engineering rather than general chat. That focus shows in the lineup: two model families, Laguna M.1 and Laguna XS.2, each shipped in a paid and a free variant. Both were released on the same date (2026-04-28) and share a 262,144-token context window, suggesting a shared base architecture split by size rather than by capability generation. On OpenKey, poolside has 4 models total, half of them free, making it one of the more accessible labs to try if you write or review code and want a coding-focused model outside the usual general-purpose options.
Lineup
There are really two decisions here: size and whether you need guaranteed throughput. Laguna XS.2 is the smaller, cheaper model at $0.10/$0.20 per million input/output tokens — on OpenKey that's $0.103/$0.206 after the 3% fee ($0.10 x 1.03, $0.20 x 1.03). Laguna M.1 costs more at $0.20/$0.40 ($0.206/$0.412 on OpenKey) and is presumably the larger, more capable model given the naming. Both come in free versions (laguna-m.1:free, laguna-xs.2:free) with the same 262K context, so start on the free tier to test fit for your codebase, then move to paid if you need production-grade rate limits.
- Laguna M.1Apr 28, 2026 262K $0.206 $0.412 ctx 262K · in $0.206 · out $0.412
- Laguna M.1 (free)FreeApr 28, 2026 262K Free Free ctx 262K · in Free · out Free
- Laguna XS.2Apr 28, 2026 262K $0.103 $0.206 ctx 262K · in $0.103 · out $0.206
- Laguna XS.2 (free)FreeApr 28, 2026 262K Free Free ctx 262K · in Free · out Free
Prices per 1M tokens, flat 3% fee included.
Models poolside serves
Beyond its own models, poolside hosts 2 models in the OpenKey catalog. Prices are poolside’s own list price per 1M input tokens, before our fee.
| Model | Built by | Context | Input /M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laguna M.1 | poolside | 262K | $0.200 |
| Laguna M.1 (free) | poolside | 262K | Free |
From the OpenRouter catalog, Jul 28, 2026. All providers
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Questions
- What does poolside charge for its models?
- Paid pricing runs from $0.10/$0.20 (input/output per million tokens) for Laguna XS.2 up to $0.20/$0.40 for Laguna M.1. On OpenKey, add the flat 3% fee: XS.2 comes to $0.103/$0.206, and M.1 comes to $0.206/$0.412 per million tokens. Both models are also available as free variants.
- Which poolside model should I use first?
- Start with one of the free variants — laguna-xs.2:free or laguna-m.1:free — since both offer the same 262,144-token context as their paid counterparts at no cost. Laguna XS.2 is the cheaper paid option if you outgrow the free tier; Laguna M.1 costs roughly double but is likely the stronger of the two given its size in the name.
- Does poolside offer free API access?
- Yes. Two of poolside's four models on OpenKey are free: Laguna M.1 (free) and Laguna XS.2 (free), both with the full 262,144-token context window. That's half of poolside's entire lineup available at no cost, which is unusual among labs building specialized coding models.