Together AI vs Groq
Both are alternatives to OpenAI API (ChatGPT). Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Groq vs Together AI — same comparison, one verdict.
Together AI and Groq are closely matched on ownership (46 vs 42) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Together AI
One API for the whole open-model universe — Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen and more.
Together AI is a hosted inference cloud for open models: one OpenAI-compatible API serving Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral and dozens more, priced from about $0.05 to $9 per million tokens (Llama 3.3 70B around $0.88). The platform itself is commercial, but everything it serves is open-weight — so unlike a closed lab API, your exit is real: the same model you call today can run on your own GPUs tomorrow. A strong bridge for teams not ready to operate vLLM themselves.
Groq
The speed king — open models at 500+ tokens/second on custom LPU chips.
Groq runs open models (Llama and friends) on its custom LPU hardware and is, as of mid-2026, the fastest mainstream inference API available — 500+ tokens per second, at prices mostly under $1 per million tokens (Llama 3.3 70B at $0.59/$0.79). If your product's bottleneck is latency — voice agents, live UX, rapid tool loops — Groq is the honest answer. It's a proprietary hosted platform, but like Together, the models themselves are open, so you're renting speed, not locking in your stack.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Together AI | Groq | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 46 | 42 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Local-first data | No | No |
| License | Proprietary (platform); serves open-weight models | Proprietary (platform); serves open-weight models |
| Pricing | Usage-based, ~$0.05–$9 per 1M tokens by model; intro credits for new accounts | Most models under $1 per 1M tokens; Llama 3.3 70B $0.59/$0.79; batch −50% |
Together AI edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on OpenAI API (ChatGPT)? Is OpenAI API (ChatGPT) free? What it actually costs →
Together AI
Strengths
- +Huge open-model catalog behind one OpenAI-compatible API
- +The models are open — migrating to self-hosting later is realistic
- +Often far cheaper than closed frontier APIs for comparable tasks
Trade-offs
- −A hosted US cloud — your prompts transit their infrastructure
- −Quality/cost varies widely across the catalog; you do the picking
Groq
Strengths
- +Fastest inference on the market (500+ tok/s)
- +Very low prices on open models
- +OpenAI-compatible API — near drop-in
Trade-offs
- −Hosted-only; custom hardware means no self-host path for the speed
- −Model catalog is narrower than Together's
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Together AI
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and huge open-model catalog behind one OpenAI-compatible API.
Choose Groq
if fastest inference on the market (500+ tok/s).
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — a hosted US cloud — your prompts transit their infrastructure, and hosted-only; custom hardware means no self-host path for the speed. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
Together AI vs Groq — common questions
Is Together AI a better fit than Groq for local & sovereign ai?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Together AI scores 46 to Groq's 42 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Groq earns its place on a different axis — fastest inference on the market (500+ tok/s). Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Neither of these is local-first by default, so plan the exit at the point you adopt rather than later. Export what matters on a schedule instead of trusting you can retrieve it on demand — that is the most common way a local & sovereign ai migration turns into a project instead of an afternoon.
Are Together AI and Groq both alternatives to OpenAI API (ChatGPT)?
Yes — both appear in our OpenAI API (ChatGPT) comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off OpenAI API (ChatGPT) and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
More OpenAI API (ChatGPT) head-to-heads
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Facts verified 2026-07-04. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.