CvsT
Cohere vs Together AI
Comparing two ai & llm apis platforms on pricing, features, free tier, and trade-offs.
Quick summary
Cohere — Enterprise LLM platform with Command R+. Cohere targets enterprise use cases with Command R+ (their flagship), strong RAG tooling, native multilingual embeddings, and private deployment options.
Together AI — Run open-source AI models in production. Together AI hosts 200+ open-source models (Llama, Mixtral, Qwen, DeepSeek, Flux) with competitive pricing, fine-tuning, and dedicated endpoints.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Cohere | Together AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay per token | Pay per token |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Streaming | Yes | Yes |
| Embeddings | Yes | Yes |
| Max Output | 4K | 8K |
| Fine-tuning | Yes | Yes |
| Context Window | 128K | 128K |
| Flagship Model | Command R+ | Llama 3.3 405B |
| Reasoning Model | Command R+ | DeepSeek R1 |
| Function Calling | Yes | Yes |
| EU Data Residency | Yes | No |
C
Cohere
Enterprise LLM platform with Command R+
Pros
- Best-in-class multilingual embeddings
- Purpose-built for RAG
- On-premise and VPC deployment
- Strong enterprise security
Cons
- Smaller model family
- Not competitive with GPT-4o on general tasks
- Less community content
T
Together AI
Run open-source AI models in production
Pros
- 200+ open-source models one API
- Fine-tuning infrastructure built in
- Dedicated endpoints for SLA workloads
- Image generation (Flux) too
Cons
- No proprietary frontier model
- Pricing varies wildly per model
- Documentation sometimes out-of-sync
Which should you choose?
Choose Cohere if a free tier is important for your stage. Choose Together AI if a free tier is important for your stage.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Cohere or Together AI?
There is no universal “better.” For most teams, Together AI is the safer default because Together AI has a larger community and more third-party integrations, which often translates to better long-term support. For edge cases, the comparison table above highlights where each tool wins.
Is Cohere cheaper than Together AI?
Cohere starts at Pay per token, while Together AI starts at Pay per token. Exact costs depend on usage — check both vendors' calculators before committing.
Can I migrate from Cohere to Together AI?
Migration difficulty depends on how deeply Cohere-specific features (APIs, SDK conventions, data schemas) are baked into your app. Most ai & llm apis migrations take days to weeks. Both vendors typically publish migration guides — check their docs.
Is Cohere or Together AI open source?
No — both Cohere and Together AI are proprietary managed services. If open source is a requirement, see our alternatives pages.
Does Cohere or Together AI have a free tier?
Both Cohere and Together AI offer a free tier.
Which is best for startups and indie hackers?
Startups usually optimize for the lowest friction to ship and the cheapest possible free tier. The one with the most generous free tier here is Together AI. For production workloads, revisit the trade-offs in the feature table above.