Comparison

OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway

On the evidence we track, OpenRouter leads this comparison with a composite score of 80/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
OpenRouter80
Vercel AI Gateway42
Score
Vioscale score
OpenRouter80 / 100low · 36%
Vercel AI Gateway42 / 100low · 41%
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 Gateway7
Security
Gdpr
OpenRouter
Vercel AI Gateway
Hipaa
OpenRouter
Vercel AI Gateway
Market
Availability

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

Leader

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.

Independently observed

Vercel AI Gateway

A unified API gateway that routes requests across multiple AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceXAI, Gemini, and others), providing automatic failover, intelligent routing based on cost and latency, and consolidated billing with zero platform fees.

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

Leader
HybridFree tier

Free tier available. Pay-as-you-go at 5.5% platform fee. Enterprise from $25k/month.

  • FreeFree
    • 25+ free models
    • 4 free providers
    • Chat and API access
    • Community support
  • Pay-as-you-go5.5% platform fee on model usage, fee discounts available
    • 500+ models from 80+ providers
    • Automatic fallback routing
    • Activity logs and export
    • Auto-routing and preferred vendor selection
    • Budgets and spend controls
    • +4 more
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • 500+ models, 80+ providers
    • Custom data policies and model/provider routing policies
    • Managed policy enforcement
    • SSO/SAML authentication
    • Contractual SLAs
    • +5 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

Leader
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

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