vioscaleAI
Comparison

OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway

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.

OpenRouter full profile →Vercel AI Gateway full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
OpenRouter67
Vercel AI Gateway33
Score
vioscaleAI score
OpenRouter67 / 100low · 34%
Vercel AI Gateway33 / 100medium · 60%
Pricing
Free tier
OpenRouter✓
Vercel AI Gateway–
Model
OpenRouterfreemium
Vercel AI Gatewaycommercial
Price level
OpenRouterlow
Vercel AI Gatewayunknown
Transparent
OpenRouter✓
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Integrations
Count
OpenRouter80
Vercel AI Gateway2
Security
Gdpr
OpenRouter✓
Vercel AI Gateway–
Hipaa
OpenRouter–
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Trust center
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
OpenRouter6 items
Vercel AI Gateway6 items

Capabilities

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

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

What each one is

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

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

Vercel AI Gateway

AI Gateway provides a single integration point for routing requests to multiple AI model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, and others) through an OpenAI-compatible API. It includes budget controls, unified billing, usage tracking, and automatic failover to ensure reliable access to language models.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

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 ↗

Vercel AI Gateway

Usage-based

Usage-based pricing with no platform markup; invoicing available with no payment processing fees

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Web
OpenRouter✓
Vercel AI Gateway✓
CLI
OpenRouter✓
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
OpenRouter✓
Vercel AI Gateway✓

Integrations

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

In common (3)
  • Vercel AI SDK
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic

OpenRouter

11 total - 8 not shared
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • OpenAI SDK
  • Google
  • Meta
  • Mistral
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP)
  • Terraform
Independently observed

Vercel AI Gateway

7 total - 4 not shared
  • SpaceXAI
  • Google Gemini
  • Cohere
  • AssistLoop
Independently observed
Still deciding?

OpenRouter or Vercel AI Gateway: 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.