Together AI
Fast, scalable inference API for open-source LLMs including Llama, Mixtral, Qwen, and other open models, with an OpenAI-compatible endpoint for easy drop-in replacement.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
HTTPS enforced. Single monolithic API key with no scoping is a concern for agents — a compromised key exposes all account capabilities. No IP allowlisting in standard tier. SOC2 Type II certified.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
An agent needs open-model LLM inference at lower cost than frontier APIs, or when OpenAI compatibility is needed with model flexibility.
Avoid When
You need guaranteed SLAs for production workloads or require frontier-model reasoning quality.
Use Cases
- • Running open-source LLMs without managing GPU infrastructure
- • Drop-in replacement for OpenAI API using open models
- • Cost-effective LLM inference at scale compared to frontier APIs
- • Fine-tuning open models on custom datasets
- • Generating embeddings with open embedding models
- • Multi-modal inference (vision + text models)
Not For
- • Applications requiring proprietary frontier models (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini)
- • Real-time streaming with sub-50ms first-token latency requirements
- • Highly regulated environments requiring on-premise deployment
Interface
Authentication
Single API key per account via dashboard. Key passed as Bearer token in Authorization header. No scoped or restricted keys — all keys have full account access.
Pricing
Significantly cheaper than OpenAI for comparable open models. Serverless (on-demand) and dedicated endpoint options. Dedicated endpoints for high-volume workloads.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Model availability can change without notice — check /models endpoint before hardcoding model IDs
- ⚠ Serverless endpoints may have cold-start latency spikes (multi-second) for infrequently-used models
- ⚠ Context windows vary widely by model — always validate max_tokens against model limits
- ⚠ No request idempotency — network retries can cause duplicate LLM calls and charges
- ⚠ Rate limits are per-account not per-model; concurrent model calls share the same limit bucket
- ⚠ OpenAI compatibility is not 100% — some parameters like logit_bias may be silently ignored
Alternatives
Full Evaluation Report
Detailed scoring breakdown, competitive positioning, security analysis, and improvement recommendations for Together AI.
Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.