Getting Started with Together AI

Two hundred-plus open AI models — text, images, video, speech — on one prepaid account. There is no free trial: it starts with a small prepaid top-up on a card.

Current prices: Free, from $0.04/M input tokens · See all plans

Last reviewed 2026-10-14 · for Together AI

How it works

You sign in, put a small amount of money on the account, then open Together's playground in a browser, pick a model (the AI "brain" that does the actual thinking) from a long list, and type into a box. An answer comes back and the cost comes off your balance. Swap the model, ask again.

What it is

Together AI is infrastructure, not an app. It runs openly published models — made by other labs, not by Together — on its own machines and rents access through an API (a way for programs to talk to each other without a person clicking). Chatbots built on DeepSeek, Qwen or Llama often have something like Together underneath.

What sets it apart from the other rent-a-model companies is range: one account and one balance reach 200-plus models across about ten kinds of work, so a video clip and a page of text bill to the same place. It will also train a model on your own examples, or rent you the machines themselves by the hour. There is a plain chat window too — Together Chat, hosted in the US and Canada — separate from the developer platform.

Before you start

There is no free trial, and that is the first thing to know. Together removed its free tier in a July 2025 billing change; reaching the platform now means putting a minimum amount of credit on a card up front, and at a zero balance your access is suspended until you top it up. If you want to try open models without paying, Groq's free tier or a model on your own computer are the honest starting points — come back once you know what you want to build.

For text, that minimum goes further than you would expect: serverless chat is billed per million tokens at low rates, and a few models currently cost nothing per use. Video is the exception, billed per clip at a few cents each.

Nothing to install — a browser covers everything here. Together Chat may be usable without the card: it launched free with a daily allowance, though Together no longer publishes its limits, so treat what you get there as a bonus rather than a plan.

Security & privacy

What you type runs on Together's servers. Its privacy policy is unusually direct: Together says it does not use data collected from you to train its models without your explicit opt-in, and that consent is revocable. A zero-retention option in the Privacy and Security settings goes further, stopping your text and the answers being stored at all.

Practical rules

Together's terms explicitly prohibit sending financial, medical or sensitive personal data — a rule you agree to at signup, not general caution.
Make an API key (a password that identifies your app, and that spends your money) only when you have code to put it in.
Set a usage limit before switching on auto-reload, which buys more credit from your card whenever the balance runs low.

What it's good (and not good) at

Best at

Breadth on one bill — text, image, video and speech models from many different labs, on a single account
Running the big open families — DeepSeek, Qwen, Llama, GLM — so the machine bill is not yours
Growing without switching vendor: pay-as-you-go, training on your own examples, or whole machines by the hour

Okay at

Being looked around cheaply — the minimum top-up is a small door charge, but it is a door charge
The hardest reasoning and coding, where the leading closed models are still ahead
Stability of any single model name; the catalogue turns over constantly

Avoid

Sending financial, medical or sensitive personal data — Together's own terms list it as prohibited use, not merely discouraged
Hardcoding a model name. The published retirement policy gives ordinary models two to three weeks' notice and preview models under 24 hours, and an upgrade redirects your requests to a new version after three days
Making it your first ever AI tool — with no free trial there is nowhere to look around before paying

First things to try

Spend the first dollar in the playground, not in code

Picks a mid-sized chat model in the browser playground and asks it something you already know the answer to.

Why this one: Together takes the minimum top-up before it shows you anything, so the number going down is your own prepaid balance, not a promotional grant burning off. Watching one real request cost real money is the fastest way to build accurate cost instincts.

Ask one question of three models from three different labs

Sends the same question to a DeepSeek, a Qwen and a GLM model, changing only the dropdown.

Why this one: The catalogue passes 200 models across about ten kinds of work, so one balance buys comparisons that are not limited to text: answer the question, then generate a picture of the answer from the same account, billed per megapixel rather than by the word.

Tweak: Then make one short video and stop. Video bills per clip, a few cents each, and it is the only thing here that visibly moves a small starting balance.

Try Together Chat before deciding you need the platform

Opens Together Chat — the plain chat window, separate from the developer platform — and asks it the questions you came with; Together's own pages suggest it works without the card, though the limits aren't published.

Why this one: Same open models in an ordinary chat window, on machines in the US and Canada, and the one route here that does not begin with a card. If it does everything you came for, what you wanted was a chatbot rather than an AI cloud — and you have saved the top-up.

Common pitfalls

The minimum top-up is a door charge, not a subscription. People arrive expecting a free tier that has not existed since July 2025, and find they cannot send a single request.
Reading 'free model' as 'free account'. A model or two in the catalogue currently costs nothing per use, but you still need the funded balance to reach it.
Assuming Together built these models. It hosts open models made by other labs; whether one is any good this month is a question about DeepSeek or Qwen, not about Together.

Where to next

More developer platforms like this one Running open models on your own machine, for free

Want the full picture first? See the Together AI overview for pricing, the free tier and related tools.