Together AI vs Particle.AI

Particle.AI serves a few cheap Flash-class models with 1M context through Vercel AI Gateway. Together is a full open-model platform with training and clusters.

By The Subconscious Team · Updated October 29, 2026

Together AI vs Particle.AI: key differences

Particle.AI is a very early startup that launched its own API in October 2026 and also sells through Vercel AI Gateway. Its own API serves a handful of cheap open models with 1M context, such as GLM 5.3 Flash at $0.15 in and $0.50 out and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at $0.25 in and $1 out, all with cache reads at $0.03 per million. Together runs a much larger catalog, about 20 text models plus media models, with serverless, batch, dedicated and cluster options and managed fine-tuning.

The two fit different roles. Particle works well as a price-optimized route or fallback inside a multi-provider gateway, and teams can try it with no new contract. Its catalog is tiny, its public track record thin, and latency on some listings trails faster hosts, like about 1.9 seconds to first token on Particle-1 via Vercel AI Gateway. Together is the kind of provider a team builds a primary stack on, with SLAs, rollout tooling and training. A gateway setup could route cheap Flash calls to Particle and keep everything else on Together.

What Together AI and Particle.AI do

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 to about 20 open models, including GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, Kimi K3, Qwen 3.8 Flash and MiniMax M3.1 Flash, plus image, video and speech models. Token prices sit at parity with Fireworks and Baseten.

Example models: Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Full Together AI profile

Particle.AI

Particle AI is an early San Francisco infrastructure startup with a mission to make intelligence as cheap and abundant as electricity. The team works on post-training, inference optimization and distributed systems, all aimed at pushing down cost per unit of intelligence. It is still hiring its founding team and works fully in person. Mixpanel founder Suhail Doshi started it, with backing from Y Combinator, 8VC, Caffeinated Capital and angels including Patrick Collison, Adam D'Angelo and Aaron Levie.

Example models: Particle-1, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash

Full Particle.AI profile

Should you choose Together AI or Particle.AI?

Together AI

Choose Together AI for

A primary open-model host with SLAs
Fine-tuning and serving custom checkpoints
Large models beyond the Flash class

Particle.AI

Choose Particle.AI for

Cheap high-volume Flash-class calls with 1M context
A fallback route inside Vercel AI Gateway
Trying a new host with no new contract

Together AI vs Particle.AI at a glance

Attribute	Together AI	Particle.AI
Model access	Open weights	Open weights plus its own Particle-1 tune
Flagship models	Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Qwen 3.8 Flash	Particle-1, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash
Speed	0.99s TTFT on DeepSeek V4 Pro	~110 tok/s on Particle-1 (Vercel AI Gateway)
Price	Parity with Fireworks and Baseten	$0.15 in, $0.50 out (GLM 5.3 Flash); $0.25 in, $1 out (Particle-1)
Customization	LoRA and full SFT; RL via Post-Training	Unknown
Deployment	Serverless, dedicated, GPU clusters	Serverless API, Vercel AI Gateway
Long context	1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3	1M

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Together AI and Particle.AI?

Particle.AI serves a few cheap Flash-class models with 1M context through Vercel AI Gateway. Together is a full open-model platform with training and clusters.

When should I choose Together AI over Particle.AI?

A primary open-model host with SLAs; Fine-tuning and serving custom checkpoints; Large models beyond the Flash class.

When should I choose Particle.AI over Together AI?

Cheap high-volume Flash-class calls with 1M context; A fallback route inside Vercel AI Gateway; Trying a new host with no new contract.

Is Together AI or Particle.AI cheaper?

Together AI: Parity with Fireworks and Baseten. Particle.AI: $0.15 in, $0.50 out (GLM 5.3 Flash); $0.25 in, $1 out (Particle-1). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

Which has more context, Together AI or Particle.AI?

Together AI: 1M on DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, Kimi K3, GLM 5.3. Particle.AI: 1M.

Related comparisons

Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious. Our inference stack treats a long-horizon trace as the primary workload, so speed, cost, and accuracy hold up deep into the trace.

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