Head-to-head comparison
OpenRoutervsTogether AI
OpenRouter is a multi-provider gateway routing across 300+ models from many vendors. Together AI is a single-provider open-model inference platform.
At a glance
| OpenRouter | Together AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Coding |
| Function | Multi-model gateway | Open-model inference |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | Free credits, then pay-per-token | Free credits, then $0.20-$5/M tokens |
| Editor rating | 4.7 / 5 | — |
| Released | May 2023 | June 2022 |
OpenRouter
Pros
- No code rewrites when switching models
- Often cheaper than direct provider APIs
- Genuinely easy to A/B test models
Cons
- Adds a small latency hop
- Some advanced features (caching, tool use) provider-dependent
- Free tier credits run out fast
Together AI
Pros
- Fastest inference for Llama 4 / Qwen3
- Pricing 60-80% cheaper than frontier closed models
- Strong fine-tuning tooling
Cons
- Only open-weight models — no GPT or Claude
- Closed-source models still better at some tasks
- Some bleeding-edge models added late
Which one should you pick?
Pick OpenRouter if
You want to access closed and open models (GPT-5.6, Claude Opus 4.8, Llama 4, etc) through one API. Vendor flexibility is the win.
See OpenRouter details →Pick Together AI if
You've committed to open-source models and want the fastest, cheapest inference on Llama 4 / Qwen3 / DeepSeek V3 specifically.
See Together AI details →Bottom line
OpenRouter for vendor diversity. Together AI for open-model performance. Many teams use OpenRouter for early prototyping and Together AI for production-scale open-model inference.