# Together SDK review

> Together SDK is the official Python client for Together's API, with synchronous and asynchronous clients plus a command-line interface.

Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026. Canonical page: https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/together-sdk/

## TL;DR

Together SDK is the official Python library for Together's REST API. It covers chat, completions, images, embeddings, reranking, fine-tuning and batch jobs. It is for Python 3.10+ developers building on Together-hosted models. The together-python repo holds the deprecated V1 codebase, and new development happens in the 2.0 SDK.

## Together SDK at a glance

- **Category:** [Model SDKs and gateways](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/categories/model-sdks-and-gateways/)
- **Maintained by:** Together (organization, [@togethercomputer](https://github.com/togethercomputer) on GitHub)
- **License:** Apache 2.0
- **Language:** Python, Makefile, Dockerfile
- **Repository:** [github.com/togethercomputer/together-python](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python)
- **Website:** [pypi.org/project/together](https://pypi.org/project/together/)
- **npm package:** [together-ai](https://www.npmjs.com/package/together-ai) 0.58.0
- **PyPI package:** [together](https://pypi.org/project/together/) 2.42.0
- **Latest release:** [v1.5.36](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python/releases/tag/v1.5.36) on GitHub, Oct 21, 2026
- **First published:** Apr 5, 2023

## What Together SDK does

- Together SDK sends chat completions with plain text, image, or video content, and supports streaming responses.
- Together SDK generates images, creates embeddings, and reranks documents through Together-hosted models.
- Together SDK uploads training files and creates, lists, cancels, and downloads fine-tuning jobs.
- Together SDK submits batch inference jobs, which have a 24-hour turnaround time.
- Together SDK can return token-level logprobs, which you can use to estimate the model's confidence in its outputs.
- Together SDK includes a `together` CLI for chat, completions, image generation, files, fine-tuning, and listing models.
- Together SDK 2.0 includes type definitions for all request params and response fields, and an RL training SDK.

### How it works

Together SDK is a Python package that calls Together's REST API. You create a Together or AsyncTogether client, and it reads the TOGETHER_API_KEY environment variable by default. The 2.0 library uses httpx for HTTP requests. Its async client can optionally use aiohttp instead. The same package installs a CLI that streams output to stdout by default.

## How to install Together SDK

**With pip**

```
pip install together
```

**With uv**

```
uv add together
```

**With the Tinker extra**

```
pip install 'together[tinker]'
```

### Requirements

- Python 3.10 or later.
- A Together.ai account and a Together API key.
- Python 3.11 or later for the Tinker-compatible post-training entry point.

### First steps

1. Create a Together.ai account and copy an API key from the settings page.
2. Set your key as an environment variable: export TOGETHER_API_KEY=xxxxx
3. Create a client with `client = Together()` and call `client.chat.completions.create` with a model and messages.
4. List the available models with `together models list`.

## Who Together SDK is for

- Python developers calling Together-hosted open models for chat, completions, or vision.
- Teams fine-tuning models on Together from Python code or the command line.
- Developers building retrieval pipelines that need embeddings and reranking from one client.
- Workloads with large inference jobs that can tolerate a 24-hour batch turnaround.

### Limitations

- Together SDK V1 in the together-python repo is deprecated and in maintenance mode. New features go to the 2.0 SDK in together-py.
- Together SDK only works with Together's API platform and requires a Together account.
- Together SDK batch inference jobs have a 24-hour turnaround time.
- Together SDK deprecated prompt cache support in both the SDK and the CLI in v1.5.35.

## Usage data (the week of Oct 25–31, 2026)

- Board rank: #347 overall, #22 in Model SDKs and gateways, momentum score 22
- Downloads that week: 541.1k (+3% vs 4-week average)
- New GitHub stars per week (last 12 weeks): Aug 9: 0; Aug 16: 0; Aug 23: 0; Aug 30: 0; Sep 6: 0; Sep 13: 1; Sep 20: 0; Sep 27: 0; Oct 4: 0; Oct 11: 0; Oct 18: 0; Oct 25: 0

## Together SDK alternatives

| Rank | Tool | Stars | Downloads/wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | [thinking-orbs](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/jakubantalik-thinking-orbs/) | 3.9k | 1.4M |
| #2 | [Headroom](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/headroomlabs-ai-headroom/) | 78.5k | 125.8k |
| #3 | [LiteLLM](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/litellm/) | 62.5k | 23.1M |
| #4 | [Honcho](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/plastic-labs-honcho/) | 7.9k | – |
| #5 | [Anthropic SDK](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/anthropic-sdk/) | 4k | 111M |
| #6 | [Hugging Face Hub](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/hf-hub/) | 4k | 68.3M |

## Together SDK FAQ

### Is Together SDK free and open source?

Yes. Together SDK's source code is on GitHub (togethercomputer/together-python) under the Apache 2.0 license, so you can use it for free.

### How do I install Together SDK?

Run `pip install together`. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

### Is Together SDK still maintained?

Yes. The togethercomputer/together-python repository was last updated on Oct 21, 2026, and the latest release, v1.5.36 on GitHub, came out on Oct 21, 2026.

### How popular is Together SDK?

Together SDK has 81 GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 0 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 0 a week. Its main package had about 541.1k downloads that week, +3% against its own 4-week average. That made it #22 among LLM SDKs and gateways on the Devtoolwatch Board.

### What are the best alternatives to Together SDK?

Other LLM SDKs and gateways on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: thinking-orbs (#1), Headroom (#2), LiteLLM (#3), Honcho (#4), Anthropic SDK (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

### Is the together-python repo still the current Together SDK?

No. The together-python repo holds Together Python V1, which is deprecated and in maintenance mode. All new development happens in the 2.0 SDK at together-py. A migration guide is available at docs.together.ai.

### How do I set my Together API key?

Together SDK reads the TOGETHER_API_KEY environment variable by default. You can also pass api_key to the client directly. The 2.0 docs recommend storing the key in a .env file with python-dotenv so it stays out of source control.

### Does Together SDK support async code?

Yes. Together SDK provides an AsyncTogether client that you use with await. Its functionality is otherwise identical to the synchronous client. In the 2.0 SDK, the async client can optionally use aiohttp as its HTTP backend.

### Can Together SDK send images or video to a model?

Yes. Together SDK chat completions accept multi-modal content arrays. Use `image_url` items for images and `video_url` items for video, alongside text items.

### Does Together SDK have a command-line tool?

Yes. Together SDK installs a `together` CLI. It covers chat completions, completions, image generation, files, fine-tuning, and models. Chat and completions output streams to stdout by default, and `--no-stream` turns streaming off.

## Sources

1. [togethercomputer/together-python on GitHub](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python)
2. [Together SDK README](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python/blob/main/README.md)
3. [together-ai on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/together-ai)
4. [together on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/together/)
5. [Together SDK website](https://pypi.org/project/together/)
6. [Release v1.5.36 (Oct 21, 2026)](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python/releases/tag/v1.5.36)
7. [Release v1.5.35 (Jan 21, 2026)](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python/releases/tag/v1.5.35)
8. [Release v1.5.34 (Dec 23, 2025)](https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python/releases/tag/v1.5.34)
9. [Hacker News: PyPI Was Subpoenaed](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36061407)
10. [Hacker News: Black, the uncompromising Python code formatter, is stable](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30130315)
11. [Hacker News: Pypi.org is running a survey on the state of Python packaging](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32751603)
12. [Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/)