Together AI charges $0.88/M for Llama 3.3 70B. Groq serves the same model at $0.59/M at 250 tokens/sec. DeepInfra at $0.23/M is the cheapest. Here is the full switching guide.
Together AI charges $0.88/M tokens for Llama 3.3 70B on serverless - the same rate for input and output. Groq serves that model at $0.59/$0.79 per 1M at 250+ tokens/second. DeepInfra runs it at $0.23/$0.40. packet.ai Token Factory at $0.59/M flat. The together ai pricing gap is real, and switching costs less than staying once you hit production scale.
Key takeaways
Together AI built one of the most complete open-model inference platforms available. Over 200 models, a well-documented together ai api, serverless inference, dedicated GPU endpoints, fine-tuning, and batch processing in one place. For prototyping and low-volume inference, it is a strong starting point. The gaps show up at production scale: per-token rates that are mid-market rather than cheapest, no cached-input discount on popular models like Llama 3.3 70B, egress fees that most competitors waive, and dedicated GPU rates ($6.49/hr H100) well above managed GPU clouds.
This guide covers six alternatives across three use cases: teams switching because of cost (cheap llm api seekers), teams switching because of speed (latency-sensitive inference), and teams switching because Together AI's GPU rental rates are too high relative to alternatives. For the full per-token pricing table across all major LLM providers, see the cheapest LLM API providers guide. For the self-host vs managed API break-even calculation, see the LLM inference cost breakdown.
All token rates verified August 2026 from provider pricing pages. Llama 3.3 70B used as the comparison model across providers.
Together AI egress rate from markaicode.com pricing analysis (June 2026). Token rates from provider pricing pages, AI Pricing Guru (July-August 2026). Together AI Llama 3.3 70B rate confirmed from together.ai/models page. packet.ai Token Factory rate from packet.ai blog (August 2026). Groq rate from AI Pricing Guru Llama pricing guide (May 2026).
packet.ai Token Factory is an OpenAI-compatible inference API running on owned B200 infrastructure with an overcommit scheduler that achieves 80-100% GPU utilisation - the structural reason rates sit below most competitors. Llama 3.3 70B at $0.59/M input and output, Llama 3.1 8B at $0.06/M, DeepSeek V4 Pro at $0.87/$1.74, Qwen 3.5 at $0.30/$1.80, Kimi K3 available. No cold starts, no egress fees, OpenAI-compatible endpoint - drop in without rewriting client code.
The model catalog is narrower than Together AI's 200+: Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi K3, and expanding monthly. For teams whose inference workload runs on those models and who want to drop Together AI's egress fee and cut per-token rates, Token Factory is the direct swap. For teams that also need GPU access without per-token billing, packet.ai GPU cloud starts at $0.66/hr for RTX 6000 Pro and $1.43/hr for A100 80GB - no minimum commitment.
Best for: Teams running Llama 3.3 70B or 8B workloads that want Together AI pricing minus the egress fee and at a lower per-token rate. Drop-in compatible via OpenAI-compatible API endpoint.
Groq runs on custom LPU (Language Processing Unit) hardware purpose-built for inference throughput. Llama 3.3 70B at $0.59/$0.79 per 1M tokens at 250+ tokens/second output - roughly 10x the throughput of standard GPU-based inference at comparable or lower cost than Together AI. Groq also serves Llama 3.1 8B at $0.05/$0.08 per 1M - the cheapest 8B rate on this list.
Groq's constraint is model catalog depth. It serves a curated set of Llama, Mistral, Qwen, and Gemma models - no image generation, no video, no audio, no fine-tuning. Together AI's 200+ model catalog with multimodal capabilities has no equivalent on Groq. For teams whose workload is purely LLM text inference and where response latency directly affects user experience or pipeline throughput, Groq is the switch. For teams that need Together AI's broader platform capabilities alongside fast inference, Groq does not replace the full stack.
Best for: Real-time applications, streaming chatbots, latency-sensitive agent pipelines. Groq's 250+ tok/sec output is the fastest published rate for Llama 3.3 70B among managed inference providers.
DeepInfra is the cheapest published host for Llama 3.3 70B at $0.23/$0.40 per 1M tokens - roughly 3x below Together AI's $0.88 rate. No egress fees. OpenAI-compatible API. Wide model catalog covering Llama, Mistral, Mixtral, DeepSeek, Qwen, and embedding models. Standard throughput - not Groq-fast, but competitive with Together AI on latency for most workloads.
DeepInfra's platform is leaner than Together AI's: no dedicated GPU endpoints, no fine-tuning pipeline, no GPU cluster rental. It is a pure serverless inference API. For teams that use Together AI solely for serverless token inference and want the cheapest llm api alternative, DeepInfra is the most direct price reduction. For teams that also need Together AI's training and dedicated endpoint capabilities, DeepInfra does not cover that use case.
Best for: Cost-first teams running high-volume Llama or Mistral inference on serverless. The cheapest published per-token rate for Llama 3.3 70B in August 2026.
Fireworks AI prices Llama 3.3 70B at approximately $0.90/$0.90 per 1M tokens - within a few cents of Together AI. The differentiation is not price but throughput at long context: Fireworks' FireAttention kernel delivers faster inference on long prompts compared to standard attention implementations, according to Fireworks' own benchmark documentation. For teams running RAG pipelines or agent loops with 16K+ context windows, Fireworks' throughput advantage compounds across many requests. No egress fee, OpenAI-compatible together ai api drop-in.
Fireworks also supports fine-tuning on select models and dedicated deployment for custom fine-tuned adapters - covering some of the same ground as Together AI's platform. Model catalog is narrower than Together AI at roughly 50+ models versus 200+.
Best for: Long-context workloads where throughput matters more than per-token cost. Teams running RAG or agent pipelines with high prefix re-use. Near-Together AI pricing with better long-context throughput.
OpenRouter is not an inference provider - it is a routing layer that sits in front of 300+ models across multiple providers including Together AI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, DeepInfra, and others. Single API key, single billing account, automatic fallback routing. For teams that need both open-weight models (Llama, Mistral, DeepSeek) and closed frontier models (GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 5, Gemini 2.5 Pro) under one endpoint, OpenRouter covers the full catalog without maintaining multiple API clients.
OpenRouter's pricing passes through underlying provider rates plus a small routing margin. For pure Llama inference at the cheapest rate, going direct to DeepInfra or Groq is cheaper than routing through OpenRouter. The value is catalog breadth and routing logic, not price leadership. Together AI's catalog is a subset of what OpenRouter routes to.
Best for: Teams that need open-weight and closed frontier models through one endpoint. Teams that want automatic cost-optimized routing across providers without managing multiple API clients.
Nebius runs open-weight model inference from EU data centers in Finland and Paris with contractual data residency guarantees. Llama 3.3 70B from $0.13/$0.40 per 1M tokens - cheaper than Together AI on input tokens. Zero egress fees. For teams in regulated industries under GDPR or EU AI Act constraints that currently use Together AI for cost reasons, Nebius is the only alternative on this list that combines competitive pricing with contractual EU data residency. Together AI has no EU data residency path.
Nebius is newer than Together AI and the model catalog is smaller. The platform includes Hugging Face model import and fine-tuning tooling alongside raw inference. Not a replacement for Together AI's full platform - a replacement for the inference layer when EU data residency is non-negotiable.
Best for: EU-regulated workloads requiring data residency. Cheaper than Together AI on input tokens for Llama 3.3 70B with contractual GDPR compliance.
The alternatives above beat Together AI on specific dimensions. None beat it on all of them simultaneously. Stay on Together AI if your workload relies on any of these:
Stay on Together AI
Switch to an alternative
Last reviewed: August 25, 2026. Together AI pricing from together.ai/models page and AI Pricing Guru (August 2026). Groq and DeepInfra rates from AI Pricing Guru Llama pricing guide (May-July 2026). packet.ai Token Factory rates from packet.ai blog (August 2026). Together AI egress fee from markaicode.com pricing analysis (June 2026). Together AI dedicated GPU rates from eesel.ai Together AI pricing guide (June 2026) and UsagePricing.com (June 2026). Pricing changes frequently - verify on provider pages before committing. For the full per-token comparison across all major LLM APIs, see cheapest LLM API providers in 2026. For the self-host vs managed API break-even, see LLM inference cost in 2026.
Same models. Same API. Fraction of the cost. Start free — no credit card required.
Start Building →
