Redeeming Together AI Free Credits

⚠️ Pending Update · 2026-08-29 Verification · Content may be outdated, please refer to official docs Updated: 2026-08-29 · Status: Pending Verification

Introduction

Together AI is a hosting provider focused on open-source models, offering inference APIs for hundreds of models including Llama, Qwen, and DeepSeek. New accounts get a $5 welcome credit — enough for several hundred thousand tokens. This article walks through signup, your first call, and image generation.

架构图

flowchart TD A[Sign up at together.ai] --> B[Verify email] B --> C[Claim $5 welcome credit] C --> D[Create API Key] D --> E[Call Llama 3.3 70B] E --> F[OpenAI-compatible endpoint]

Open https://www.together.ai and click Sign Up. Log in with Google or GitHub.
Go to https://api.together.ai/settings/billing. The $5 credit is automatically credited to new accounts.
If it does not appear, enter a referral code on the Dashboard or email support@together.ai.
Create an API key at https://api.together.ai/settings/api-keys and copy the xxxxx... string.

Split keys by purpose: one for local development, another for CI with a $1 cap to prevent runaway spend.

Install and Configure

Together AI is fully OpenAI-compatible, so the openai SDK works directly:

pip install openai
export TOGETHER_API_KEY="..."

Example Call

import os
from openai import OpenAI

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

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo",
    messages=[
        {"role": "system", "content": "You are a concise assistant."},
        {"role": "user", "content": "Explain an inverted index in one sentence."},
    ],
    temperature=0.3,
    max_tokens=256,
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

Image Generation

Together also hosts Stable Diffusion / FLUX:

import requests, os, base64

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.together.xyz/v1/images/generations",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['TOGETHER_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "model": "black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-schnell-Free",
        "prompt": "a serene mountain lake at sunrise",
        "n": 1,
    },
)
img_b64 = r.json()["data"][0]["b64_json"]
with open("lake.png", "wb") as f:
    f.write(base64.b64decode(img_b64))

Browse Available Models

curl https://api.together.xyz/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOGETHER_API_KEY" | jq '.data[].id' | head

Or browse https://docs.together.ai/docs/inference-models. Models with :free are free but rate-limited.

Cost Estimation

For Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo:

Input: $0.88 / 1M tokens
Output: $0.88 / 1M tokens

The $5 credit buys roughly 5M tokens — enough for one to two weeks of prototyping. Turbo variants are 3-5x cheaper than the base; prefer them.

Model Selection and Cost Optimization

Together models fall into three tiers: :free (fully free but strictly rate-limited), Turbo variants (quantized for the best price/performance), and the original (highest accuracy, higher price). For daily development prefer Turbo — Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo is 3-5x cheaper than the base. For Chinese, try Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-Turbo; for code, Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct.

Troubleshooting

401 unauthorized: Make sure the key was copied in full with no leading or trailing spaces.
model not found: Model IDs are case-sensitive. Trust the list returned by /v1/models.
Out of credit: Add a card for pay-as-you-go, or fall back to :free models on OpenRouter.
Fine-tuning: Together offers a Fine-tuning API — see https://docs.together.ai/docs/fine-tuning.

Together AI is a cost-effective choice for commercializing open-source models.

Best Practices

$5 credit buys 500-1000 calls: Llama 3.3 70B is about $0.6/M token, so $5 lasts a while.
Together direct is faster than via OpenRouter: skipping a network hop saves 50-100ms latency.
Quantized models are cheaper: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo quantized is 1/3 the price of FP16.
Use the OpenAI SDK directly: just swap base_url and api_key, leave the rest of your code unchanged.

🚀 Get Started: One-Click Free API Access

Want to call all the free models above with a single API key, no need to sign up for each provider? Apishare.cc provides a unified API Key — one key, 100+ models, free models at zero cost.

👉 Register on Apishare.cc → Get your unified API Key

📊 Want to see more free model rankings? Check out the Sep 2026 Free LLM API Rankings →

Get Started: APIShare Free API Directory

Claim free credits: Register · Sign in
Browse all free APIs: Free API Directory

About the Free API Aggregator

The models covered in this guide are all served through the APIShare free API aggregator, which gives you one key for the whole catalog.

Full model catalog: APIShare free API directory
Sign up for a free trial key: Register and claim your API key