Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run
Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Together AI Inference
Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against Cohere Chat API (Command models)'s 64.7 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Cohere Chat API (Command models) leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do llm inference.
Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 407 models comparisons
Which one, for what
Cohere Chat API (Command models) B
Best for Teams that want Command models for RAG with citations, tool use and multilingual work, and that may later move to a private deployment or Model Vault.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 65
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Production keys work like trial keys on Command A+, Reasoning, Translate and Vision. The docs send production use of those models to sales or to Model Vault
Best for Together AI Inference serves open models through an OpenAI-compatible API, with serverless requests, batch processing, dedicated model deployments and provisioned throughput.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 84
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 72
- Security & auth, 70 against 57
Watch for
A $15 credit purchase is required before platform access; no free trial
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Cohere Chat API (Command models) | Together AI Inference | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 64 | 60 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +4 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 84 | 93 | Together AI Inference +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 72 | 85 | Together AI Inference +13 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 57 | 70 | Together AI Inference +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 20 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 72 | 65 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 74 | 73 | Cohere Chat API (Command models) +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | B 64.7/100 | B 67.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Cohere Chat API (Command models) | Together AI Inference |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cohere | Together Computer, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat | https://api.together.ai/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cohere's Commercial SaaS Agreement. The SDKs are MIT | Proprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences. |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-04-08 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-01 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 10 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |
Verdicts
Cohere Chat API (Command models)
A public OpenAPI file, Markdown twins of every docs page and SDKs in four languages make the Chat API easy for an agent to read. Production keys do not cover the four newest Command models, whose limits are set by sales, and the SaaS agreement lets Cohere share API data with third parties.
Together AI Inference
A broad inference API with project-scoped keys, SDKs and multiple capacity options. Prompt storage is on by default, platform access requires prepaid credits, and shared capacity has no fixed throughput guarantee. Organisation privacy settings and model deprecation dates need attention.
Before you call either
Cohere Chat API (Command models)
- Call
POST https://api.cohere.com/v2/chatwithAuthorization: bearer <key>.modelandmessagesare the only required fields - Use
command-a-03-2025,command-r-08-2024,command-r-plus-08-2024orcommand-r7b-12-2024for production traffic. Newer variants stay at trial limits on a production key - Keep a trial key under 20 chat requests a minute and 1,000 calls a month, and do not use it for commercial work
- Set
response_formatwith ajson_schemafor structured output, and tell the model to produce JSON when usingjson_objectwithout a schema - Ask the account Owner to turn off training under Data Controls in the dashboard before sending confidential prompts
Together AI Inference
- Create a project-scoped key and set TOGETHER_API_KEY. Avoid deprecated legacy keys.
- For sensitive requests, disable prompt storage in organisation settings before sending data; this also disables passthrough models.
- Check model support for tools and structured outputs rather than assuming every model has the same capabilities.
- Back off on 429 and 503 responses. Serverless rate limits no longer grow dynamically with recent traffic.
- Check the deprecation schedule before choosing a model; Llama 3.3 70B Turbo is scheduled to leave serverless on 22 October 2026.
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Cohere Chat API (Command models) or Together AI Inference?
Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against Cohere Chat API (Command models)'s 64.7 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Cohere Chat API (Command models) leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.
Do Cohere Chat API (Command models) and Together AI Inference need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Cohere Chat API (Command models) and Together AI Inference without installing anything?
Yes. Cohere Chat API (Command models) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cohere.com/v2/chat and Together AI Inference at https://api.together.ai/v1.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/cohere-chat-vs-together-inference.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/cohere-chat.json·/api/v1/tools/together-inference.json - From a terminal
anchor compare cohere-chat together-inference(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "cohere-chat", "b": "together-inference"}at/mcp, no key