Streaming versus non-streaming: visible text does not mean completion
Compare incremental model events with complete responses, checking first output, structure parsing and disconnections separately.
Choose an approach
Consider streaming for early visible progress and full-response handling when downstream consumers need complete structures. Streaming can support structured tasks with proper events and completion checks. It may improve perceived initial waiting without shortening total latency. Partial visible text is not full success.
Incremental events and full responses have different states
OpenAI streams incremental events and SSE defines transport framing. Event semantics remain service-specific; not every SSE event is answer text. Tool arguments and structures can be incomplete midstream, so distinguish deltas from completion. Non-streaming can still time out or fail. Choose around user and parsing needs rather than assuming streaming improves factual accuracy.
Record first output and completion for the same request
Fix model and input, validate final content and record first visibility separately from usable completion. Simulate stream interruption and mark incomplete output instead of saving it as accepted. Parse structures after completion and retain events for diagnosis where needed. For ordinary timeouts, check possible service completion before repeating writes. No connection timing test was run and no speed ratio is given.
Maintain recovery together with downstream parsing
Streaming requires handling buffering, cancellation and completion events; non-streaming needs suitable waits. Recheck event types and errors after upgrades, not just a few visible words. Billing follows actual requests and output, not display style. Final-label tasks may use simple complete-response processing, while long replies can display progressively and validate at completion. Preserve failures to avoid apparently successful partial records.
Checked sources
These sources support the concepts and methods described here. Examples and test scope are labeled separately; check the version of the tools you use.