Comparison

Cloudflare AI Gateway vs OpenRouter

No leader: the top candidate OpenRouter has only 0.34 confidence (low), below the 0.35 needed to declare a winner. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Cloudflare AI Gateway65
OpenRouter67
Score
vioscaleAI score
Cloudflare AI Gateway65 / 100low · 35%
OpenRouter67 / 100low · 34%
Pricing
Free tier
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
Model
Cloudflare AI Gatewayfreemium
OpenRouterfreemium
Price level
Cloudflare AI Gatewaylow
OpenRouterlow
Starting price
Cloudflare AI Gateway$0.05
OpenRouter–
Transparent
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
Integrations
Count
Cloudflare AI Gateway6
OpenRouter80
Security
Gdpr
Cloudflare AI Gateway–
OpenRouter✓
Trust center
Cloudflare AI Gateway–
Market
Availability
Cloudflare AI GatewayAvailable worldwide
Content
Faq
Cloudflare AI Gateway5 items
OpenRouter6 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for llm gateways. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capabilities
Openai compatible API
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
Automatic failover
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
Routing strategy
Cloudflare AI Gateway-
OpenRouterCost based
Caching
Cloudflare AI GatewayExact
OpenRouterExact
Virtual key management
Cloudflare AI Gateway-
OpenRouter✓
Budget spend controls
Cloudflare AI Gateway-
OpenRouter✓
Rate limiting
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
Guardrails moderation
Cloudflare AI GatewayBuilt in
OpenRouter-
Request cost observability
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
Streaming support
Cloudflare AI Gateway-
OpenRouter✓
Deployment model
Cloudflare AI GatewayManaged SaaS
OpenRouterManaged SaaS
Open source
Cloudflare AI Gateway✗
OpenRouter✓
Pricing model
Cloudflare AI GatewayUsage based saas
OpenRouterUsage based saas

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Cloudflare AI Gateway

An intermediary service that routes AI model requests through Cloudflare's network to provide visibility, caching, rate limiting, cost tracking, and data loss prevention. It enables organizations to observe and control AI traffic without modifying their existing tools or coding agents.

Independently observed

OpenRouter

OpenRouter provides a unified, OpenAI-compatible API that consolidates access to over 500 language models from 80+ providers. It features automatic failover for reliability, cost-optimized routing, transparent provider pricing with modest platform fees, and support for multiple deployment and authentication methods.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Cloudflare AI Gateway

from $0.05/million requestsHybridFree tier

Free for core features (caching, rate limiting, analytics). Paid log storage and Logpush available on Workers Paid plan.

  • FreeFree
    • dashboard analytics
    • caching
    • rate limiting
    • DLP scanning
  • Workers Paid$0.05 per million requests
    • 10M log storage per gateway
    • Logpush available
as of verify ↗

OpenRouter

HybridFree tier

Free tier with 50 requests/day, or pay-as-you-go at 5.5% markup

  • FreeFree
    • Chat and API access
    • 25+ free models
    • 4 free providers
    • 50 requests/day rate limit
    • Community support
  • Standard5.5% platform fee on provider pricing
    • Pay-as-you-go usage billing
    • 500+ models
    • 80+ providers
    • Email support
    • Budgets and spend controls
    • +2 more
  • BusinessContact sales
    • Fee discounts available
    • 500+ models
    • 80+ providers
    • Custom rate limits
    • Invoicing options
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Custom pricing
    • 500+ models
    • 80+ providers
    • Dedicated support team
    • Contractual SLAs
    • +2 more
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓
CLI
Cloudflare AI Gateway✗
OpenRouter✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Cloudflare AI Gateway✓
OpenRouter✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (3)
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic
  • Claude Code

Cloudflare AI Gateway

18 total - 15 not shared
  • Workers AI
  • Vectorize
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol)
  • Third-party LLM models
  • Google Gemini
  • Replicate
  • Cloudflare Workers
  • Agent Memory
  • Cloudflare Workers AI
  • Cloudflare Vectorize
  • Claude Desktop
  • GitHub Copilot CLI
  • OpenAI Codex
  • OpenCode
  • Pi
Independently observed

OpenRouter

11 total - 8 not shared
  • Vercel AI SDK
  • Cursor
  • OpenAI SDK
  • Google
  • Meta
  • Mistral
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP)
  • Terraform
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Cloudflare AI Gateway or OpenRouter: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.