Concept beginner · 3 min read

What is Together AI inference

Quick answer

Together AI inference is a cloud-based API platform that hosts large language models and provides fast, scalable inference via OpenAI-compatible endpoints. It enables developers to integrate powerful AI models like meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo with simple API calls using the OpenAI SDK pattern.

Together AI inference is a cloud API service that hosts large AI models and delivers fast, scalable inference through OpenAI-compatible endpoints.

How it works

Together AI inference hosts large language models on cloud infrastructure optimized for low-latency and high-throughput. It exposes these models via OpenAI-compatible REST APIs, allowing developers to send chat or text prompts and receive generated completions. This works like a remote AI engine where your application sends requests and Together AI returns model outputs instantly. The platform manages scaling, model updates, and infrastructure, so you focus on building AI-powered features.

Think of it as renting a powerful AI brain in the cloud that you query via standard API calls, without needing to manage hardware or model hosting yourself.

Concrete example

Use the OpenAI Python SDK with Together AI by setting the base_url to Together's API endpoint and your API key in environment variables. Here's a minimal example calling a large Llama 3.3 model:

python

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ["TOGETHER_API_KEY"], base_url="https://api.together.xyz/v1")

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain retrieval-augmented generation."}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

output

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is an AI technique that combines a retrieval system with a language model to generate answers grounded in external knowledge bases, improving accuracy and relevance.

When to use it

Use Together AI inference when you need access to large, high-performance AI models without managing infrastructure. It's ideal for applications requiring:

Scalable, low-latency AI model inference
OpenAI-compatible API integration
Access to state-of-the-art Llama 3.3 and other large models
Rapid deployment without DevOps overhead

Do not use it if you require fully on-premises hosting or offline inference, as Together AI is a cloud service.

✅

Key Takeaways

Together AI inference provides OpenAI-compatible APIs for large AI models like Llama 3.3.
It handles scaling and infrastructure, enabling fast, reliable AI inference in the cloud.
Use it to integrate powerful AI models quickly without managing hardware or deployments.

Verified 2026-04 · meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo

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