OpenRouter
A unified API gateway providing single-point access to hundreds of AI language models from multiple providers
- Also known as
- openrouter
Available worldwide
What is OpenRouter?
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.
OpenRouter pricing
Plans, per-tier features and add-ons, dated and linked to live pricing. Pricing changes often; always verify at source before you rely on it.
Free tier available. Pay-as-you-go at 5.5% platform fee. Enterprise from $25k/month.
Free
FreeEvaluation tier with limited access to test the platform
- models
- 25+ free models
- providers
- 4 free providers
- rate_limit
- 50 requests/day
- 25+ free models
- 4 free providers
- Chat and API access
- Community support
Pay-as-you-go
Usage-based pricing scaled by model and tokens consumed
- models
- 500+ models
- providers
- 80+ providers
- 500+ models from 80+ providers
- Automatic fallback routing
- Activity logs and export
- Auto-routing and preferred vendor selection
- Budgets and spend controls
- Prompt caching
- Management API key
- Email support
- No minimum spend
Enterprise
Contact salesVolume-based commitment with dedicated support and custom policies
- free_inference_value
- $25,000 list price/month
- 500+ models, 80+ providers
- Custom data policies and model/provider routing policies
- Managed policy enforcement
- SSO/SAML authentication
- Contractual SLAs
- Support SLA with shared Slack channel
- High global rate limits
- Optional dedicated limits
- Invoicing options
- Volume commitment pricing
What OpenRouter does
The capabilities that matter for llm gateways, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Openai compatible API
- ✓
- Automatic failover
- ✓
- Routing strategy
- Cost based
- Caching
- Exact
- Virtual key management
- ✓
- Budget spend controls
- ✓
- Rate limiting
- ✓
- Guardrails moderation
- -
- Request cost observability
- ✓
- Streaming support
- ✓
- Deployment model
- Managed SaaS
- Open source
- ✓
- Pricing model
- Usage based saas
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Web
- Cloud / SaaS
Integrations (11)
Independently observed- Vercel AI SDK
- Claude Code
- Cursor
- OpenAI SDK
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Meta
- Mistral
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Terraform
OpenRouter alternatives
Other llm gateways we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- Cloudflare AI GatewayMonitor and manage AI application traffic and costslow · 37%
- LiteLLMUnified API gateway that routes requests across 100+ LLM providers through a single OpenAI-compatible interfacelow · 36%
- UnifyVirtual AI teammates that automate work across your existing toolsmedium · 55%
- Eden AIUnified gateway providing access to hundreds of AI models from multiple providers through a single standardized APIhigh · 76%
- Not Diamondlow · 5%
- Keywords AIA unified API gateway for accessing thousands of language models with automatic failover, caching, and real-time cost controlsmedium · 74%
Compare OpenRouter
Side by side against other llm gateways, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The Vioscale score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for OpenRouter, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | 80 | 0.08 | 6.7 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 100 | 0.05 | 4.9 | ✓ |
| Price level | 80 | 0.05 | 4.2 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 55 | 0.04 | 2.2 | ✓ |
| Reliability | 0 | 0.07 | 0.0 | - |
| Security posture | 5 | 0.07 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Caching: exact · Open source: Yes · Pricing model: usage-based-saas · Rate limiting: Yes · Deployment model: managed-SaaS · Routing strategy: cost-based | mediumsource · 2026-08-21 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 80 | mediumsource · 2026-08-21 · 60% |
Market
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | PrimaryMarkets: … · AvailabilityScope: global · AvailableCountries: … · NotAvailableCountries: … | highsource · 2026-08-21 · 75% |
Pricing
Security
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Gdpr | Yes | highsource · 2026-08-21 · 75% |