Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run
Tencent Cloud TokenHub vs Together AI Inference
Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against Tencent Cloud TokenHub's 59.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Tencent Cloud TokenHub leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do llm inference.
Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 529 models comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Teams in or near Tencent Cloud that want one key and bill for Tencent's Hy models and Chinese open-weight models (DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, Qwen, MiMo) with per-key limits and CNY billing.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 65
Watch for
Sign-up needs a Tencent Cloud account with real-name verification. The international site answered with a bot check, so access from outside China was not established
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, 75 against 46
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 73
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 54
Watch for
A $15 credit purchase is required before platform access; no free trial
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Reliability Together AI Inference +29
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 46
Hosted reading. No public status page was found. status.cloud.tencent.com did not answer and the Tencent Cloud health dashboard documentation answered with a bot check (0). With no page there is no incident record to read (5 of 30). The announcements carry one incident, DeepSeek's directly supplied models unavailable from 9:06 to 13:04 Beijing time on 15 October 2026 after a fault at DeepSeek, compensated with vouchers. Rate limits are per model, shown in the console and returned by DescribeModelQuota. The public docs give numbers only for batch jobs (20 created a minute, 10 active), image models (5 concurrent) and DeepSeek V4 Flash and Pro (2,500 and 500 concurrent), with the rules for self-serve increases (8 of 15). Six 429 codes separate RPM, TPM, TPD, concurrency and upstream capacity, 429s may carry Retry-After and the docs advise exponential backoff. No idempotency guidance, though inference calls are not writes (13 of 15). The TokenHub SLA promises 99.5% monthly availability with vouchers of 10, 25 or 50 per cent of the month's fee. It excludes free use and third-party deployed models such as DeepSeek's directly supplied ones (10). Generally available since 7 April 2026, with some models marked preview (10).
Together AI Inference 75
Graded as listed, on the hosted API lines. Public Better Stack status page at status.together.ai with a component for each serverless model plus the website and playground (20). The page shows 90 daily ticks per component, read on 1 November 2026 for 4 August to 1 November, and no incident was posted in that time (the feed's newest items are maintenance windows in April and July 2026). Monitors record downtime on single models, the longest Kimi K3 for 7 hours 18 minutes on 22 August and Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B for 5 hours 34 minutes on 13 August, and on the busiest days five of about 20 monitored models were down for up to 1 hour 40 minutes (14 October) or about 20 minutes (1 September). Each hit one model or a subset of the catalogue, so the record reads as minor incidents only (20). The current serverless page gives no numeric general request ceiling (0). Explicit 429 and 503 backoff guidance (15). Provisioned throughput has a published 99% eligible-request commitment (10). Serverless inference is generally available (10). 20 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 10 = 75.
Schema & documentation Together AI Inference +20
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 73
Router, scored on the API lines. No OpenAPI file for the inference routes. Field pages document the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic Messages formats as TokenHub implements them, and the control plane is a Tencent Cloud API 3.0 service (version 2026-03-22) with typed parameters, API Explorer and SDKs (12 of 25). An llms.txt at cloud.tencent.com/document/product/1823/llms.txt links a Markdown copy of each docs page (10). The docs say which models support thinking, tools, structured output and caching, how TokenHub departs from each standard protocol, and which DeepSeek model suits which job. The quickstart's examples still use deepseek-v3, which is not in the model list, and Qwen3.5 stays in the list with a past shutdown date (13 of 20). Protocol pages list each field with type, required flag and default, and control-plane parameters carry enums and required flags (10 of 15). Examples in curl, Python, Node.js, Java and Go, and an error page listing 30 codes with HTTP status, cause and fix (14 of 15). Paths carry /v1, release notes are dated monthly from 7 April to 24 October 2026, and the control-plane API has a dated history of 26 releases to 18 September 2026 (14 of 15).
Together AI Inference 93
Public OpenAPI 3.1 (25), llms.txt and Markdown docs (10), endpoint and model-capability guidance (16 of 20), typed inputs and constraints (13 of 15), examples and documented errors (14 of 15), and versioned endpoints with a dated changelog (15).
Transparency & trust Together AI Inference +20
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 54
Closed service under the TokenHub Terms of Service (effective 14 September 2026), the SLA (23 April 2026), a special note on third-party deployed models and the Tencent Cloud Service Agreement, naming Tencent Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. The CLI is Apache-2.0 (18 of 30). The terms and the FAQ agree that inputs are processed on the customer's instructions and not used for training, and clause 2.14 limits retention to what the service needs without periods. The TokenHub privacy policy on privacy.qq.com renders only with JavaScript and was not read (15 of 30). Dated retirement notices, shutdown dates in the model list, a pre-offline status in /v1/models and a DiscontinuedAt field in the control API. Clause 6.3 refunds paid, unused tokens when a third-party model is removed. No minimum notice period is written (13 of 20). Clause 2.13 places processing generally in mainland China for the China site and in Singapore for the international site, and the third-party model list names DeepSeek's Hangzhou company with a link to its terms. No subprocessor list was found (13 of 20).
Together AI Inference 74
Proprietary service with published terms and Apache-2.0 SDK (15). Docs distinguish default content storage, training opt-in, organisation ZDR and passthrough models, but default content retention has no fixed duration in the reviewed pages (25 of 30). Public lifecycle policy gives a two-week migration window for breaking model upgrades and 2 or 3 weeks' notice for serverless removals, though removals on 19, 21, 25 and 27 August 2026 were posted only on the day (15 of 20). North American hosting and enterprise residency options are described; full subprocessor locations were not established (10 of 20).
Payments & pricing Tencent Cloud TokenHub +15
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 35
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token prices for every model are public in CNY for Guangzhou and Singapore, with DeepSeek's peak and off-peak rates (20). Each account gets 1M free tokens per language model, valid for a year, in a campaign running to 31 December 2026. No card is mentioned, but the account needs real-name verification, so this line takes 15 of 20. A person signs up and completes real-name verification in a browser. Keys can then be created in code or by thcli auth login, but only from that account (0).
Together AI Inference 20
No machine payment protocol found in the reviewed billing and inference docs (0). Public token and capacity prices (20). No free trial and a $15 minimum first credit purchase (0). Browser account and payment setup required (0).
Maintenance & community Tencent Cloud TokenHub +8
Tencent Cloud TokenHub 73
Closed service, read on the model lines. The newest release note is dated 24 October 2026 and the price page was updated on 31 October (30). The four retirement notices read gave 21 to 33 days, and eligible callers are switched to a successor at its price. No minimum notice period is written, and DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash (directly supplied) was moved to the 1017 version under the same ids on 17 October 2026 in a notice dated two days later (7 of 12). 18 retirement notices from 21 April to 22 October 2026, 12 of them since 3 August (3 of 8). Dated release notes and announcements, ticket and phone support around the clock and a Q&A community (13 of 15). Replies on the THCLI repository were not sampled (3 of 10). Tencent Cloud SDK 3.0 in several languages covers the control plane and tencent-tokenhub-cli 1.0.2 was published on 30 October 2026. No inference SDK of its own (12 of 15). The CLI has four releases since 15 September 2026, lists no runtime dependencies and needs Node.js 18 or later. CI not checked (5 of 10).
Together AI Inference 65
Graded as listed, on the tool lines. Changelog entries on 22 and 23 October 2026 (Python SDK 3.0, TypeScript SDK 1.0, MiniMax M3.1 Flash on serverless and post-training) (30). 43 dated changelog days and 16 Python SDK tags from 3 August, v2.33.1 to v3.0.0 (20). Support responsiveness not tested (0). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs, both given new majors on 22 October (15). Dependency and CI health not audited (0).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Tencent Cloud TokenHub | Together AI Inference | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 46 | 75 | Together AI Inference +29 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 73 | 93 | Together AI Inference +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 83 | 85 | Together AI Inference +2 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 71 | 70 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 20 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 73 | 65 | Tencent Cloud TokenHub +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 54 | 74 | Together AI Inference +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -3 | |
| Total | C 59.5/100 | B 67.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Tencent Cloud TokenHub | Together AI Inference |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model router | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Tencent Cloud | Together Computer, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1 | https://api.together.ai/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the TokenHub Terms of Service, the TokenHub SLA and the Tencent Cloud Service Agreement, with a special note for third-party deployed models. The tencent-tokenhub-cli package is Apache-2.0 | 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 | 2026-10-24 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 204 npm/wk | 10 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
Tencent Cloud TokenHub
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Tencent Cloud TokenHub
Keys can be limited to chosen models, source IPs and token quotas, errors name their source and code, and a 99.5% SLA covers paid use of models Tencent runs. Sign-up needs a Tencent Cloud account with real-name verification, prices are in CNY, no public status page was found, and 18 model retirement notices ran from April to October 2026.
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, shared capacity has no fixed throughput guarantee, and several serverless models were removed in August 2026 the day the removal was posted.
Before you call either
Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Use
https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1with keys made for Guangzhou andhttps://tokenhub-intl.tencentmaas.com/v1with keys made for Singapore. Keys do not work across the two - Send the key as
Authorization: Beareron the OpenAI paths and asx-api-keyon/v1/messages - Parse
error.codeas a string or a number, since 429 codes can come back as integers, and wait forRetry-Afterbefore retrying - Take model ids from
GET /v1/modelsand watch forpre-offline. The quickstart'sdeepseek-v3example is not in the current model list - Expect DeepSeek prices to double on weekdays from 9am to noon and 2pm to 6pm Beijing time, when the peak rate applies
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. Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B leaves serverless on 4 November and MiniMax M3 and Inkling on 6 November 2026.
- Pin the SDK major version. Python SDK 3.0 and TypeScript SDK 1.0 (22 October 2026) drop
/v1from the base URL and thebetapaths
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Tencent Cloud TokenHub or Together AI Inference?
Together AI Inference scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against Tencent Cloud TokenHub's 59.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Tencent Cloud TokenHub leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.
Do Tencent Cloud TokenHub and Together AI Inference need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Tencent Cloud TokenHub and Together AI Inference without installing anything?
Yes. Tencent Cloud TokenHub has a hosted endpoint at https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1 and Together AI Inference at https://api.together.ai/v1.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/tencent-tokenhub-vs-together-inference.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/tencent-tokenhub.json·/api/v1/tools/together-inference.json - From a terminal
anchor compare tencent-tokenhub together-inference(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "tencent-tokenhub", "b": "together-inference"}at/mcp, no key