# Axolotl vs Together AI Fine-tuning

> Axolotl scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Together AI Fine-tuning's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Together AI Fine-tuning leads on transparency & trust. Both do finetune sft. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axolotl-vs-together-fine-tuning
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axolotl-vs-together-fine-tuning.md (~2,300 tokens)
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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Axolotl scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Together AI Fine-tuning's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Together AI Fine-tuning leads on transparency & trust. Both do finetune sft.

- Axolotl: grade B, 64.8/100, rank #307 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/axolotl.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/axolotl.json
- Together AI Fine-tuning: grade C, 54.7/100, rank #608 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/together-fine-tuning.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/together-fine-tuning.json

## Which one, for what

### Axolotl (B)

Good for: A team that wants a repeatable, config-driven fine-tune of an open model on its own or rented GPUs, including multi-GPU and multi-node runs.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 64 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 60 against 42
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 80

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Telemetry to PostHog is on by default and delays training start by 10 seconds until the variable is set either way

### Together AI Fine-tuning (C)

Good for: Teams that want to tune a large open model, possibly with full fine-tuning, and take the weights away.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 56

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Fine-tuned models don't run serverless; dedicated endpoints start at $5.49 an hour


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Axolotl | Together AI Fine-tuning | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 64 | 55 | Axolotl +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 78 | Axolotl +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 42 | Axolotl +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 52 | 50 | Axolotl +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Axolotl +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 80 | Axolotl +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 68 | Together AI Fine-tuning +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.8 · B** | **54.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Axolotl | Together AI Fine-tuning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Axolotl AI | Together AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.together.ai/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Price for finetune sft | free | $0.34 per 1M tokens |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 13k stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk | 10 stars, 118k npm/wk, 369k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Axolotl.** Axolotl runs a whole fine-tuning job from one YAML file and ships a JSON Schema of its config plus bundled agent docs. It is 0.x software with telemetry on by default, no terms or privacy policy, and the owner supplies the GPU.

**Together AI Fine-tuning.** 31 tunable base models, 11 or 12 of them with full fine-tuning as well as LoRA. Fine-tuned models don't run serverless; dedicated endpoints start at $5.49 an hour.

## Before you call either

### Axolotl

1. Set `AXOLOTL_DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before any command, or training waits 10 seconds and sends usage events to PostHog
2. Run `axolotl agent-docs` and `axolotl config-schema --field <name>` before writing a config; both work offline from the installed package
3. Install torch first, then `uv pip install --no-build-isolation axolotl[deepspeed]`, on Python 3.12 or later with PyTorch 2.13 or later
4. Take example configs from the same release tag as the installed version; minor releases remove and rename config keys
5. Resume an interrupted run with `axolotl train config.yml --resume-from-checkpoint <path>`, then `axolotl merge-lora` and `axolotl export` only when shipping

### Together AI Fine-tuning

1. Call POST /v1/fine-tunes/estimate-price with the same body before creating the job, and check the model's minimum charge
2. Read `lora_training.max_rank` from the model limits response before setting `lora_r`; most models went to 128 on 2026-09-29
3. Don't retry a create call blindly after a timeout; there's no idempotency key, so list jobs and check first
4. Download with checkpoint=adapter if you'll merge locally; merged weights for a 70B model are a large stream
5. Tear down the dedicated endpoint once evaluation ends, since it bills while idle

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Axolotl or Together AI Fine-tuning?

Axolotl scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Together AI Fine-tuning's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Together AI Fine-tuning leads on transparency & trust.

### Which is cheaper for finetune sft, Axolotl or Together AI Fine-tuning?

Axolotl, at free against $0.34 per 1M tokens for Together AI Fine-tuning. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Can an agent call Axolotl and Together AI Fine-tuning without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Axolotl. Together AI Fine-tuning has a hosted endpoint at https://api.together.ai/v1.

### Are Axolotl and Together AI Fine-tuning open source?

Axolotl is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Together AI Fine-tuning.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axolotl-vs-together-fine-tuning.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axolotl-vs-together-fine-tuning.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "axolotl", "b": "together-fine-tuning"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare axolotl together-fine-tuning`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/axolotl.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/together-fine-tuning.json

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