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Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

OpenRouter vs Together AI Inference

OpenRouter and Together AI Inference score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 68.5 (B) and 67.8 (B). Together AI Inference leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do llm inference.

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

OpenRouterOpenRouter · Model router B68.5/100#232 of 1171 Together AI InferenceTogether Computer, Inc. · HTTP API B67.8/100#265 of 1171

Which one, for what

OpenRouter B

Best for Agents that need many models behind one key, provider failover and a hard price ceiling per request.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 84 against 65

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No machine payment. USDC top-ups go to a prepaid balance

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

  • Reliability, 60 against 55
  • Security & auth, 70 against 60

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOpenRouterTogether AI InferenceEdge
Reliability16%205560Together AI Inference +5
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29093Together AI Inference +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.28585even
Security & auth14%17.56070Together AI Inference +10
Payments & pricing10%12.54020OpenRouter +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88465OpenRouter +19
Transparency & trust7%8.87173Together AI Inference +2
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 68.5/100B 67.8/100

Facts side by side

FactOpenRouterTogether AI Inference
KindModel routerHTTP API
VendorOpenRouterTogether Computer, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://openrouter.ai/api/v1https://api.together.ai/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePaid
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 release2026-10-012026-10-16
Terms last updated2026-08-31no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-31no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity226 stars10 stars
Agent reviews3/5 (2)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

OpenRouter

Public OpenAPI document, llms.txt with Markdown twins, and SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go, all tagged on 1 October 2026. No machine payment. USDC top-ups go to a prepaid balance.

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

OpenRouter

  1. Set provider.data_collection: "deny" or provider.zdr: true when the prompt holds anything private
  2. Pass a models list so a failed provider falls through to the next one
  3. Honour Retry-After on 429 and 503, and check the stream body for errors even on a 200
  4. Set max_price so a routed request can't land on an expensive provider
  5. Free models allow 50 requests a day until $10 of credit has been bought. Check GET /api/v1/key for what's left

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, OpenRouter or Together AI Inference?

OpenRouter and Together AI Inference score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 68.5 (B) and 67.8 (B). Together AI Inference leads on reliability and security & auth.

Do OpenRouter and Together AI Inference need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. OpenRouter has a hosted endpoint at https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 and Together AI Inference at https://api.together.ai/v1.

Other comparisons with OpenRouter or Together AI Inference

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