# OpenRouter vs Together AI Inference

> OpenRouter and Together AI Inference score within a point of each other for llm inference, 68.5 and 67.8 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-together-inference
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-together-inference.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-19

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.

- OpenRouter: grade B, 68.5/100, rank #232 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openrouter.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openrouter.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

### OpenRouter (B)

Good 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)

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:
- 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

| Category | Weight | OpenRouter | Together AI Inference | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 60 | Together AI Inference +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 93 | Together AI Inference +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 85 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 70 | Together AI Inference +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | OpenRouter +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 65 | OpenRouter +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 73 | Together AI Inference +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.5 · B** | **67.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | OpenRouter | Together AI Inference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model router | HTTP API |
| Vendor | OpenRouter | Together Computer, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1` | `https://api.together.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | 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 | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-31 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-31 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | 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 | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 226 stars | 10 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (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.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with OpenRouter or Together AI Inference

- [Claude API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Claude API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Antseed vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-together-inference.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-openrouter.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Cerebras Inference vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cerebras Inference vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebras-inference-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-together-inference.md)
- [DeepInfra vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-openrouter.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-together-inference.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Glimpse vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Glimpse vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Fireworks AI Inference vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Fireworks AI Inference vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fireworks-inference-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [GroqCloud vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-openrouter.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Jais 3 vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Meta Model API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Meta Model API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Novita AI vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Novita AI vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-together-inference.md)
- [OpenAI API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [OpenAI API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [OpenRouter vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [OpenRouter vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [OpenRouter vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-routerplus.md)
- [OpenRouter vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-sambanova.md)
- [OpenRouter vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [OpenRouter vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Prism Inference vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-together-inference.md)
- [RouterPlus vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-together-inference.md)
- [SambaCloud vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-together-inference.md)
- [SiliconFlow vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-together-inference.md)
- [StepFun API vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Together AI Inference vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/together-inference-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Together AI Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-together-inference.md)
- [Antseed vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-openrouter.md)

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