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Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

GroqCloud vs Together AI Inference

GroqCloud scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Together AI Inference's 67.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Together AI Inference leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 407 models comparisons

GroqCloudGroq · Model API BB74.5/100#70 of 1171 Together AI InferenceTogether Computer, Inc. · HTTP API B67.8/100#265 of 1171

Which one, for what

GroqCloud BB

Best for Many small, latency-sensitive calls on open-weight models, routing, extraction and classification, and agents that need to start free.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 60
  • Security & auth, 82 against 70
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 72 against 65
  • Transparency & trust, 85 against 73

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Free to start without a card
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5

Watch for

Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice

Together AI Inference B

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 64
  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 80

Watch for

A $15 credit purchase is required before platform access; no free trial

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGroqCloudTogether AI InferenceEdge
Reliability16%209060GroqCloud +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26493Together AI Inference +29
Agent ergonomics13%16.28085Together AI Inference +5
Security & auth14%17.58270GroqCloud +12
Payments & pricing10%12.54020GroqCloud +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87265GroqCloud +7
Transparency & trust7%8.88573GroqCloud +12
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 74.5/100B 67.8/100

Facts side by side

FactGroqCloudTogether AI Inference
KindModel APIHTTP API
VendorGroqTogether Computer, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.groq.com/openai/v1https://api.together.ai/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (SDKs)Proprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences.
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-212026-10-16
Terms last updated2026-06-22no date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-11-12no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity619 stars10 stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (8)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

GroqCloud

Free plan with no card, at 30 requests a minute and 1,000 a day on gpt-oss. Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice.

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

GroqCloud

  1. Call /models at start-up. Four model ids stopped working between July and September
  2. Read retry-after on a 429 and the x-ratelimit-remaining-tokens header before the next call
  3. Free plan allows 8,000 tokens a minute on gpt-oss, so keep prompts small or batch them
  4. Don't build on Qwen 3.8 27B. It's a preview and previews can go at short notice
  5. Treat a 498 as Flex capacity and retry later; server errors aren't billed

Together AI Inference

  1. Create a project-scoped key and set TOGETHER_API_KEY. Avoid deprecated legacy keys.
  2. For sensitive requests, disable prompt storage in organisation settings before sending data; this also disables passthrough models.
  3. Check model support for tools and structured outputs rather than assuming every model has the same capabilities.
  4. Back off on 429 and 503 responses. Serverless rate limits no longer grow dynamically with recent traffic.
  5. 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, GroqCloud or Together AI Inference?

GroqCloud scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Together AI Inference's 67.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Together AI Inference leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

Do GroqCloud and Together AI Inference need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call GroqCloud and Together AI Inference without installing anything?

Yes. GroqCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 and Together AI Inference at https://api.together.ai/v1.

Other comparisons with GroqCloud or Together AI Inference

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