Groq vs Together AI vs Fireworks: Best LLM Inference API in 2026

If you're serving open-weight models, an inference API saves you from owning GPUs. Groq, Together AI, and Fireworks AI are three of the strongest — but they optimize for different priorities.

Quick verdict

• Groq — unmatched inference speed via custom LPU hardware; pick it for latency-sensitive agents, voice, and chat.
• Together AI — the broadest open-model catalog with strong price-performance and fine-tuning.
• Fireworks AI — fast serving with a focus on production reliability and compound/agentic workloads.

Speed

Groq is the headline here: its LPU architecture delivers token throughput that makes interactive apps feel instant, which is a real differentiator for voice assistants and multi-step agents where latency compounds. Together and Fireworks are both fast on GPUs and more than adequate for most apps, but if raw tokens-per-second is your bottleneck, Groq stands apart.

Model catalog and flexibility

Together AI hosts one of the largest catalogs of open models and offers fine-tuning and dedicated endpoints, making it a strong all-rounder when you want choice. Fireworks focuses on high-performance serving of popular open models plus tooling for building compound AI systems. Groq's catalog is more curated around the models its hardware serves best. If you need a specific or long-tail open model, Together is most likely to have it.

Pricing

All three bill per token and undercut frontier closed models substantially. Groq's per-token prices are competitive and paired with its speed advantage. Together and Fireworks are both aggressively priced on popular open models, with dedicated-capacity options for steady high volume. Because rates shift often, run your workload through our LLM cost calculator and test on real traffic before committing.

Which should you pick?

Choose Groq when latency is the priority and your models are in its catalog. Choose Together AI when you want the widest model selection and fine-tuning. Choose Fireworks for reliable, high-performance production serving and agentic workloads. All three appear on our best LLM inference APIs guide and offer free credits, so benchmarking your actual prompts across all three is cheap and worth doing.

Features and pricing as of August 2026; verify current details with each vendor.