# 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.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/together-ai-vs-particle-ai · By The Subconscious Team · Updated September 30, 2026

## How they compare

Particle.AI is a very early startup whose product is visible mainly through Vercel AI Gateway. There it serves a handful of fast, cheap open models with 1M context, such as GLM 5.3 Flash at $0.10 in and $0.40 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, thirty-plus text models plus media and embeddings, 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 3.5 seconds on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. 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 each one does

### 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.

### 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. Public detail about funding and founders is thin as of this writing.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Together AI for

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

### 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

## At a glance

| Attribute | Together AI | Particle.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Flagship models | Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.2, Qwen 3.8 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Speed | 0.99s TTFT on DeepSeek V4 Pro | ~157 tok/s on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Price | Parity with Fireworks and Baseten | $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash) |
| Customization | LoRA and full SFT; RL in beta | - |
| Deployment | Serverless, dedicated, GPU clusters | Via Vercel AI Gateway |
| Long context | 512K on DeepSeek V4 Pro | 1M |

## FAQ

### 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: $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

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

Together AI: 512K on DeepSeek V4 Pro. Particle.AI: 1M.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Together AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-together-ai.md), [Subconscious vs Particle.AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-particle-ai.md).

Full profiles: [Together AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/together-ai.md), [Particle.AI](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/particle-ai.md).