Subconscious
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Subconscious vs Together AI

Together AI offers the broadest open-model catalog. Subconscious goes deep instead, with an inference stack designed top to bottom for agent traces past 200K tokens.

By The Subconscious Team · Updated

Subconscious vs Together AI: key differences

Both sell open weights, so the question is breadth versus depth. Together runs thirty-plus open text models, including DeepSeek V4, Kimi K3, GLM 5.2 and Qwen 3.8, plus image, video, speech and embeddings, with LoRA and full SFT training and RL in closed beta. Its serving stack comes from the team behind FlashAttention and Medusa, and its token prices sit at parity with Fireworks and Baseten. Subconscious focuses its managed API on GLM 5.3 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and changes what happens inside a long trace. It prunes the KV cache instead of rereading context, delivers 2x faster task completion and 50% to 80% lower cost than standard inference, and bills only what it processes.

For a team that wants to fine-tune on proprietary data, run experiments on reserved H100s from $3.19 an hour, or try a new open model days after release, Together is the stronger platform. For coding and research agents that run for an hour and grow past 200K tokens, per-token pricing on the full context adds up with every step, and that is where Subconscious's processed-token billing and a 5M+ effective context window pay off. Subconscious's dedicated and on-prem deployments can also run nearly any open model, which keeps the door open for teams with a specific checkpoint in mind.

What Subconscious and Together AI do

Subconscious

Subconscious is an MIT CSAIL spinout in Kendall Square that builds inference for long-horizon agents, the workloads where a single trace runs past 200K tokens and often into the millions. Its runtime drops in as a replacement for vLLM or SGLang. Instead of rereading an ever-growing context on every step, it prunes the KV cache and preserves suffix state, and Subconscious co-designs the runtime with post-trained model variants it calls Marathon. Against open models on standard inference, Subconscious delivers 2x faster task completion, delivers a 5M+ effective context window, cuts cost 50% and up to 80%, and scores neutral to 10% better on agentic benchmarks.

Example models: GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Full Subconscious profile

Together AI

Together AI is the broadest open-model platform in the category. One bill covers per-token serverless inference, batch at up to 50% off, provisioned throughput with a 99% SLA, dedicated deployments, raw GPU clusters, managed fine-tuning and code sandboxes for agents. The text catalog runs past thirty open models, including DeepSeek V4, Kimi K3, GLM 5.2, Qwen 3.8 and MiniMax M3, plus image, video, speech and embedding models. Token prices sit at parity with Fireworks and Baseten.

Example models: Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 Pro

Full Together AI profile

Should you choose Subconscious or Together AI?

Subconscious

Choose Subconscious for

  • Long agent traces where per-token billing on full context compounds
  • Coding agents on GLM 5.3 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash past 200K tokens
  • Dedicated or on-prem long-horizon serving

Together AI

Choose Together AI for

  • Training, post-training and serving on one bill
  • Raw GPU clusters for large experiments
  • A broad catalog spanning text, image, video and speech

Subconscious vs Together AI at a glance

AttributeSubconsciousTogether AI
Model accessOpen weightsOpen weights
Flagship modelsGLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 FlashKimi K3, DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.2, Qwen 3.8
Speed2x faster task completion0.99s TTFT on DeepSeek V4 Pro
Price50–80% lower cost; billed on processed tokensParity with Fireworks and Baseten
CustomizationMarathon post-trained variantsLoRA and full SFT; RL in beta
DeploymentManaged API, dedicated, on-premServerless, dedicated, GPU clusters
Long context5M+ effective context512K on DeepSeek V4 Pro

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Subconscious and Together AI?

Together AI offers the broadest open-model catalog. Subconscious goes deep instead, with an inference stack designed top to bottom for agent traces past 200K tokens.

When should I choose Subconscious over Together AI?

Long agent traces where per-token billing on full context compounds; Coding agents on GLM 5.3 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash past 200K tokens; Dedicated or on-prem long-horizon serving.

When should I choose Together AI over Subconscious?

Training, post-training and serving on one bill; Raw GPU clusters for large experiments; A broad catalog spanning text, image, video and speech.

Is Subconscious or Together AI cheaper?

Subconscious: 50–80% lower cost; billed on processed tokens. Together AI: Parity with Fireworks and Baseten. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

Which has more context, Subconscious or Together AI?

Subconscious: 5M+ effective context. Together AI: 512K on DeepSeek V4 Pro.

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Run your longest agent traces on Subconscious

Point the OpenAI or Anthropic SDK, or the coding agent you already use, at Subconscious. Keep Together AI for the work it does best and send the long runs to us.

Get an API keyRead the docs