Together AI Common Errors

Overview

Together AI provides OpenAI-compatible inference, fine-tuning, and batch processing across 100+ open-source models (Llama, Mixtral, Qwen, FLUX). Common errors include model-not-available failures when requesting deprecated or gated models, token limit violations that differ per model architecture, and fine-tune job failures from dataset formatting issues. The API is compatible with any OpenAI client library at base_url = 'https://api.together.xyz/v1'. Model IDs use the full namespace format (e.g., meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct) and must match exactly. This reference covers inference, fine-tuning, and deployment errors.

Error Reference

Error Handler

interface TogetherError {
  code: number;
  message: string;
  category: "auth" | "rate_limit" | "validation" | "billing";
}

function classifyTogetherError(status: number, body: string): TogetherError {
  if (status === 401) {
    return { code: 401, message: body, category: "auth" };
  }
  if (status === 402) {
    return { code: 402, message: body, category: "billing" };
  }
  if (status === 429) {
    return { code: 429, message: "Rate limit exceeded", category: "rate_limit" };
  }
  return { code: status, message: body, category: "validation" };
}

Debugging Guide

Authentication Errors

Together uses Bearer token authentication. Pass TOGETHERAPIKEY via Authorization: Bearer header or set it in the client constructor. Keys do not expire but can be revoked. If using the OpenAI client library, set baseurl='https://api.together.xyz/v1' and pass the Together key as apikey.

Rate Limit Errors

Rate limits vary by plan tier and are enforced per-key. Free tier allows 5 requests/second; paid tiers scale higher. Use the batch inference API (/v1/batch) for non-real-time workloads at 50% cost reduction. Check X-RateLimit-Remaining header to monitor quota.

Validation Errors

Model IDs must match exactly (e.g., meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct). Use client.models.list() to enumerate available models. Token limits vary per model -- Llama 3.1 supports 128K context while older models may support only 4K. Fine-tune datasets must be JSONL with each line containing a messages array in chat format. Empty messages arrays or missing role fields cause silent validation failures. Validate each JSONL line independently before uploading.

Error Handling

Quick Diagnostic

# Verify API connectivity and list available models
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOGETHER_API_KEY" \
  https://api.together.xyz/v1/models

Resources

• Together AI Documentation
• API Reference
• Supported Models

Next Steps

See together-debug-bundle.