Together AI Free Credits (2026): Is There a Free Trial?

Short answer: Together AI does not give free credits to new sign-ups anymore. Its billing docs say it does not currently offer free trials, and you need to buy at least $15 in credits before you can use the platform. After that, top-ups can be as small as $5, and purchased credits do not expire. If you are a startup, Together's separate accelerator program is the only official route to free credits.

We list this offer as expired. Checked against Together AI's billing, spend controls, rate limits and pricing pages on 2026-10-17. Third-party sites that still promise $1, $5 or $25 in signup credit are out of date.

What Together AI's docs say today

The credits page is clear: Together AI does not currently offer free trials, and access to the platform requires a minimum $15 credit purchase. Together is fully prepaid, which means you need a positive balance to use anything. If your balance reaches zero, API access is suspended until you add credits.

• First purchase: at least $15 per organization.
• Later purchases: at least $5.
• Expiry: prepaid credits do not currently expire. Together says it will notify customers in advance if that changes.
• What credits pay for: serverless API requests, dedicated model inference, fine-tuning jobs, evaluation jobs and all other Together services.
• Contract customers: organizations with an active Scale or Enterprise contract keep their existing billing terms.

If you got free or promotional credits some other way (for example from an event or a partner program) and still cannot use the API, Together's docs suggest checking whether your balance is free credit or purchased credit. Platform access requires the $15 minimum purchase either way.

How to start with the $15 minimum, step by step

1. Register at api.together.ai.
2. Open your organization's billing settings. In the Credit balance card, select Add credits.
3. Enter at least $15 and confirm. The purchase uses your default payment method. Card purchases usually show up in a few moments; do not submit the purchase again while it is pending.
4. Go to your project's API keys page, select Create key, name it and copy the value. Together shows new keys only once.
5. Set the key as the TOGETHER_API_KEY environment variable and install the official SDK (pip install together or npm install together-ai), or point the OpenAI SDK at Together's base URL.
6. Send a test request (example below).

curl -X POST "https://api.together.ai/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOGETHER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What are the top 3 things to do in New York?"}]}'

This is the same example Together uses in its quickstart. If you pay by US bank account (ACH) instead of card, credits arrive only after the payment clears, usually in 1 to 3 business days.

How far $15 goes: worked examples

Because there is no free tier, the useful question is how much testing $15 buys. These examples use prices from Together's pricing page on 2026-10-17 and a simple workload: 1,000 chat requests, each with 2,000 input tokens and 500 output tokens. That is 2 million input tokens and 0.5 million output tokens.

Several models also have a lower cached-input price (for example MiniMax M3 input drops from $0.30 to $0.06 per million when cached), so apps that reuse a long system prompt pay less than the table shows. Since credits do not expire, $15 spent on a small open model can last a hobby project many months.

What about the $0 models?

Together's pricing page sometimes lists individual models at $0 per token, either permanently (on 2026-10-17, for example, Ternary Bonsai 27B) or as short promotions with an end date. These are real, but they do not make Together free: you still need the $15 minimum purchase to access the platform, and promotional prices end on the stated date. Check the pricing page for what is free right now.

Spend controls and rate limits

Prepaid billing has one advantage: your maximum loss is your balance. Together's spend controls page explains the tools you have:

• The cut-off is not exact. Together warns that metering has a short delay, so a little usage can land after you hit zero, and you are responsible for it.
• Auto-recharge does not cap spend. It keeps buying credits as you use them. If you want a hard ceiling, leave it off.
• Setting ACH as default turns auto-recharge off, even if a card is also saved.
• API keys have no separate limits. Projects share the organization's balance, and keys cannot have their own spending caps yet. Budgets and spend alerts are listed as coming soon.

On rate limits, Together's rate limits page says most users can use serverless inference without hitting limits, but high request volumes or large bursts can trigger 429 Too Many Requests or 503 Service Unavailable errors during busy periods. Retry with exponential backoff. The older Build Tier system, where limits rose with your total spend, is no longer described in the current docs. If you need guaranteed throughput, Together sells provisioned throughput with an SLA.

Is Together AI worth $15 if you only want to experiment?

Together is built for people who will keep paying: it hosts a large catalog of open models, supports fine-tuning and dedicated endpoints, and bills from one prepaid balance. That makes the $15 entry fee reasonable in some cases and poor value in others.

• Good fit: you want one account for serverless inference, fine-tuning and later dedicated endpoints; you need a specific open model that free providers do not host; or you are comparing open-model hosts on price and want real numbers from your own workload.
• Good fit: you prefer prepaid billing. With auto-recharge off, your total risk is the balance you loaded, which suits students and side projects that worry about surprise bills.
• Poor fit: you only need a few hundred requests to try an idea. A no-card free tier from another provider will cost nothing and serve the same purpose.
• Poor fit: you need a free tier for a class or workshop. Every organization needs its own $15 purchase, so the cost adds up across students.

Free alternatives to Together AI

If you just want to try open models without paying, these providers still have no-card free options:

Fireworks AI is the closest like-for-like competitor and is also pay-as-you-go; see Fireworks AI free credits for what is free there. For a broader overview, read our guide to free AI API keys.

Startups: the one route to free Together credits

Together AI runs a Startup Accelerator that gives qualifying startups platform credits in tiers, plus engineering support. It is an application-based program, not a sign-up bonus, so you need a company and a product that fits their criteria. Our guide on how to get free AI credits lists other startup programs that include inference credits.

History of the signup credit

• Earlier: Together AI gave new accounts a small free credit to test the API. Amounts reported by third parties varied over the years, from a dollar or two up to larger sums, and many blog posts still repeat them.
• Later: Together moved to a fully prepaid model with a minimum first purchase, and its docs began stating that it does not offer free trials.
• Now (October 2026): no free trial, a $15 minimum first purchase, $5 minimum top-ups, and credits that do not expire.

Common mistakes

• Buying less than $15 first. The first purchase for an organization must be at least $15.
• Re-submitting a pending payment. Together warns against submitting the purchase again while it is pending, which can lead to duplicate charges.
• Expecting old invoices to be paid by new credits. Credits bought after an invoice is generated cannot clear past-due balances; those must be paid separately.
• Leaving auto-recharge on for experiments. Auto-recharge keeps funding usage. For test projects, a manual top-up and the $0 cut-off are safer.