Together AI vs Chroma
Open-source LLM infra — inference + fine-tuning + dedicated GPUs + image/video/audio
vs. Open-source vector DB designed for AI apps — embeddings-first, dev-friendly
Pricing tiers
Together AI
Pay-as-you-go
Per-token pricing for serverless inference. No minimum.
$0 base (usage-based)
Dedicated Endpoints
Single-tenant GPU endpoints billed hourly.
$0 base (usage-based)
Batch API (50% off)
50% discount for async batch processing on most serverless models.
$0 base (usage-based)
Reserved GPU Clusters
6+ day commitments with discounted reserved rates.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Custom. Private deployments, VPC, SLAs, dedicated support.
Custom
Chroma
Cloud — Free
$5 free credits. Great for trying it out.
Free
Cloud — Pro
$100 credits included, then usage-based. Dedicated resources, SOC2, priority support.
$0 base (usage-based)
Self-Host (OSS)
MIT-licensed. Embedded or Docker. Free forever.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud — Enterprise
Custom. VPC, compliance, dedicated support.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing payg on Together AI vs cloud-free on Chroma.
| Metric | Together AI | Chroma |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Together AI · 14 features
- Audio (ASR + TTS) — Whisper Large v3 + Cartesia Sonic-3.
- Batch API — 50% discount for async processing.
- Code Interpreter — LLM with integrated code execution.
- Code Sandbox — Secure Python execution environment.
- Dedicated Endpoints — Single-tenant GPU endpoints for consistent latency.
- Embeddings — BGE + nomic + mxbai embedding models.
- Fine-Tuning — LoRA + full fine-tune + DPO on Llama, Qwen, Mistral.
- Image Generation — FLUX.2, SD3, Ideogram, etc.
- OpenAI-Compat API — Drop-in OpenAI SDK replacement.
- Private Deploy — Dedicated tenant + VPC.
- Reranker — Rerank model for RAG retrieval refinement.
- Reserved Clusters — Discounted GPU clusters for committed use.
- Serverless Inference — 200+ open models. OpenAI-compatible API.
- Video Generation — Veo 3.0, Kling 2.1, Vidu 2.0.
Chroma · 11 features
- Client-Server Mode — Run Chroma via Docker; clients connect over HTTP.
- Collections — Named groups of embeddings + metadata.
- Distributed (Cloud) — Horizontal scaling on Chroma Cloud.
- Embedded Mode — In-process Python — chromadb.Client() and go. Zero setup.
- Embedding Functions — Plug-in embedders (OpenAI, Cohere, SentenceTransformers, HF).
- Full-Text Search — BM25 + vector hybrid.
- Metadata Filters — Where-clause query language.
- Migration Tools — Import from Pinecone + other stores.
- Multi-Modal — Text + image embeddings (CLIP, etc.).
- Python + JS APIs — Same API shape across both SDKs.
- Serverless Cloud — Pay for storage + queries, auto-scale.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Together AI | Chroma |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Together CLI | — |
| SDK | together-js, together-python | chromadb (JS/TS), chromadb (Python) |
| REST | Code Sandbox / Interpreter, Dedicated Endpoints, Together REST API (OpenAI-compat) | Chroma HTTP API |
| MCP | — | Chroma MCP |
| OTHER | — | Docker Server, Embedded Mode (in-process Python) |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Together AI and Chroma are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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