# GroqCloud vs Together AI Inference

> GroqCloud scores 74.5 (BB) to Together AI Inference's 67.8 (B) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-19

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.

- GroqCloud: grade BB, 74.5/100, rank #70 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq.json
- Together AI Inference: grade B, 67.8/100, rank #265 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/together-inference.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/together-inference.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 407 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### GroqCloud (BB)

Good 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)

Good 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

| Category | Weight | GroqCloud | Together AI Inference | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 60 | GroqCloud +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 93 | Together AI Inference +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 85 | Together AI Inference +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 82 | 70 | GroqCloud +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | GroqCloud +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 65 | GroqCloud +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 73 | GroqCloud +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.5 · BB** | **67.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GroqCloud | Together AI Inference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Groq | Together Computer, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | `https://api.together.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | 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 | 2026-09-21 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-22 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-12 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | 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 | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 619 stars | 10 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (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.


## For agents

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

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