Together AI

Together AI is a cloud platform optimized for running open-source large language models (LLMs) and generative AI models with exceptional speed and cost efficiency. By leveraging custom infrastructure and model optimization techniques, Together AI makes it practical to run models like Llama, Mistral, and Stable Diffusion in production without the typical latency and cost barriers.

Best For

Developers and companies building AI applications that require fast, cost-effective inference for open-source models. Ideal for chatbots, content generation, code assistants, image generation, and any application where you need control over the model (fine-tuning, self-hosting) without sacrificing performance.

Perfect for teams that want alternatives to proprietary APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic), need to run models on sensitive data with strong privacy guarantees, or require specific open-source models for licensing or customization reasons.

Key Features

What models can I run on Together AI?
Llama (Meta), Mistral, Mixtral, Qwen, Code Llama, Stable Diffusion, and dozens of other open-source models for text generation, chat, code, and images. The platform supports LoRA adapters for customization and fine-tuned variants from the community.

How fast is Together AI compared to self-hosting?
Together AI achieves 2-5x faster inference than typical self-hosted setups through optimizations like Flash Attention, tensor parallelism, and custom CUDA kernels. Response times are competitive with closed-source APIs while giving you full control over the model.

Can I fine-tune models?
Yes. Fine-tune Llama, Mistral, or other models on your proprietary data using the Together API. Training runs on Together's infrastructure, and your fine-tuned model gets a dedicated endpoint for inference. Your data stays private and is never used for other purposes.

What about data privacy and security?
Together AI offers private deployments, dedicated instances, and on-premises options for sensitive workloads. Standard API usage runs on shared infrastructure but with strict data isolation. No training data or prompts are used to improve models.

Pricing & Plans

Pay-as-you-go: From $0.20 per million tokens (varies by model)
Dedicated Inference: Reserved capacity with guaranteed performance
Fine-tuning: Custom pricing based on training compute
Enterprise: Private deployments, SLAs, volume discounts

Pricing significantly lower than GPT-4 or Claude for comparable open-source models

Getting Started

1. Sign up at together.ai and get API key
2. Browse model library (50+ models)
3. Test models in Together Playground
4. Integrate via REST API or Python SDK
5. Fine-tune or deploy custom models (optional)

Limitations

• Open-source models may not match GPT-4/Claude quality for complex reasoning
• Smaller community and ecosystem than OpenAI or Anthropic
• Some models still experimental with variable output quality
• Documentation assumes familiarity with LLMs and model selection
• Fine-tuning requires technical ML knowledge