# LiteLLM vs OpenRouter

| Attribute | LiteLLM | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 57.6 (35% (low)) | 66.6 (34% (low)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A gateway that consolidates language model API requests across 140+ providers through a single endpoint, with centralized cost tracking, budget controls, rate limiting, and team-based access management. Available as open-source software for self-hosted deployment or as an enterprise managed service. It is indexed under Llm Gateways.","source":"https://litellm.ai","question":"What is LiteLLM?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"LiteLLM does not publish its prices. Pricing is quoted on request, across 2 plans (Free and Enterprise), so the figure depends on your seat count and requirements. We record this as a pricing-transparency signal rather than guessing a number. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://litellm.ai","question":"How much does LiteLLM cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"LiteLLM supports the web and Linux. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://litellm.ai","question":"What platforms does LiteLLM support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. LiteLLM can be deployed cloud / SaaS, air-gapped and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://litellm.ai","question":"Can LiteLLM be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 29 integrations for LiteLLM, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, AWS Bedrock, Cloudflare, Google VertexAI, Meta Llama and Mistral AI, plus 21 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://litellm.ai","question":"What does LiteLLM integrate with?","confidence":0.6}]` | `[{"answer":"OpenRouter aggregates 500+ language models from 80+ providers through a single, OpenAI-compatible API interface. It offers automatic fallback routing, cost control, usage analytics, and data policy management for teams deploying AI applications at scale. It is indexed under Llm Gateways.","source":"https://openrouter.ai","question":"What is OpenRouter?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"OpenRouter offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans are also available: Free, Pay-as-you-go and Enterprise. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://openrouter.ai/pricing","question":"Is OpenRouter free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"OpenRouter supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://openrouter.ai","question":"What platforms does OpenRouter support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for OpenRouter, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://openrouter.ai","question":"Can OpenRouter be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 10 integrations for OpenRouter, including Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI SDK, Anthropic, Google, Meta and Mistral, plus 2 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://openrouter.ai","question":"What does OpenRouter integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for OpenRouter. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as OpenRouter not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://openrouter.ai/privacy","question":"What security certifications does OpenRouter have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source AI gateway that abstracts access to over 140 language model providers behind a single OpenAI-compatible API, enabling teams to implement spend tracking, request routing, and governance controls without changing application code. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"open_source":true,"pricing_model":"open-source-self-host","rate_limiting":true,"deployment_model":"self-hosted","routing_strategy":"cost-based","architecture_model":"open_source_proxy","automatic_failover":true,"budget_spend_controls":true,"guardrails_moderation":"built-in","openai_compatible_api":true,"virtual_key_management":true,"request_cost_observability":true,"bring_your_own_keys_byok_routing":true,"mit_or_apache_permissive_oss_license":true,"custom_rate_limiting_by_user_or_tenant_id":true,"universal_api_key_for_100_plus_llm_providers":true,"auto_fallback_routing_on_rate_limit_or_downtime":true,"organization_wide_cost_tracking_and_chargebacks":true}` | `{"caching":"exact","open_source":true,"pricing_model":"usage-based-saas","rate_limiting":true,"deployment_model":"managed-SaaS","routing_strategy":"cost-based","streaming_support":true,"architecture_model":"managed_cloud_saas","automatic_failover":true,"budget_spend_controls":true,"openai_compatible_api":true,"virtual_key_management":true,"request_cost_observability":true,"bring_your_own_keys_byok_routing":true,"custom_rate_limiting_by_user_or_tenant_id":true,"streaming_token_support_server_sent_events":true,"universal_api_key_for_100_plus_llm_providers":true,"zero_data_retention_and_prompt_logging_opt_out":true,"auto_fallback_routing_on_rate_limit_or_downtime":true,"organization_wide_cost_tracking_and_chargebacks":true,"semantic_caching_for_repeat_queries_and_cost_savings":false}` |
| integrations.count | 140 | 80 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"AWS Bedrock"},{"name":"Cloudflare"},{"name":"Google VertexAI"},{"name":"Meta Llama"},{"name":"Mistral AI"},{"name":"NLP Cloud"},{"name":"OVHCloud"},{"name":"vLLM"},{"name":"Nvidia NIM"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Discord"},{"name":"Microsoft Teams"},{"name":"PagerDuty"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"AWS Secrets Manager"},{"name":"Google Cloud Secret Manager"},{"name":"MCP servers"},{"name":"Gemini"},{"name":"Bedrock"},{"name":"VertexAI"},{"name":"Langfuse"},{"name":"Langsmith"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Email"},{"name":"Webhook"},{"name":"S3"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Azure Data Lake"},{"name":"GCP Secret Manager"},{"name":"Amazon S3","native":true,"category":"storage","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Google Gemini","native":true,"category":"llm","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Lunary","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"MLflow","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Vercel AI SDK"},{"name":"Claude Code"},{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"OpenAI SDK"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"Google"},{"name":"Meta"},{"name":"Mistral"},{"name":"Model Context Protocol (MCP)"},{"name":"Terraform"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Open Source","summary":"Free forever, self-hosted","features":["100+ LLM providers, one OpenAI API","Virtual keys, users & teams","Spend tracking","Budgets + rate limits","LLM fallbacks","Request/response logging","Prometheus metrics","Admin UI"],"description":"Free forever, self-hosted","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing by annual request volume and deployment needs","features":["Everything in Open Source, plus:","SSO + SCIM","OIDC / JWT auth","Audit logs","Secret managers + key rotation","Org & team admins","Multi-region control plane","24/7 support & SLAs","Dedicated support & onboarding","Volume discount tiers"],"commitment":"annual","description":"Annual deployment priced by request volume and architecture","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free open-source self-hosted tier; Enterprise priced to scale","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.litellm.ai/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-02T10:55:52.193Z","freeTrialDays":30,"billingPeriods":["year"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free, 50 requests/day","features":["Chat and API access","25+ free models","4 free providers","50 requests/day rate limit","Community support"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"models":"25+","providers":"4","requests_per_day":"50"}},{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"5.5% platform fee on provider pricing","features":["Pay-as-you-go usage billing","500+ models","80+ providers","Email support","Budgets and spend controls","Activity logs and export","Auto-routing and vendor selection"],"components":[{"kind":"percentage","rate":5.5}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Business","summary":"Custom pricing with volume discounts","features":["Fee discounts available","500+ models","80+ providers","Custom rate limits","Invoicing options"],"contactSales":true},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom enterprise pricing and support","features":["Custom pricing","500+ models","80+ providers","Dedicated support team","Contractual SLAs","SSO/SAML","Custom rate limits"],"contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free tier with 50 requests/day, or pay-as-you-go at 5.5% markup","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://openrouter.ai/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-02T10:53:56.899Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://openrouter.ai/privacy |

## Capabilities (Llm Gateways)

| Capability | LiteLLM | OpenRouter |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Openai compatible API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic failover | ✓ | ✓ |
| Routing strategy | Cost based | Cost based |
| Caching | - | Exact |
| Virtual key management | ✓ | ✓ |
| Budget spend controls | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rate limiting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Guardrails moderation | Built in | - |
| Request cost observability | ✓ | ✓ |
| Streaming support | - | ✓ |
| Deployment model | Self hosted | Managed SaaS |
| Open source | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Open source self host | Usage based saas |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T18:31:12.794Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*