OpenRouter
by OpenRouter · openrouter.ai ↗
Unified API gateway that routes requests to hundreds of large language models from many providers.
llm-api gateway infrastructure
- Category
- Platforms & Infrastructure
- Business model
- Paid
- Availability
- Global
- Launched
- 2023
- Record updated
- 2026-07-29
- Documentation
- openrouter.ai ↗
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- US
Overview
OpenRouter is a unified API gateway that routes requests to hundreds of AI models from many providers through one endpoint and one bill. Developers use an OpenAI-compatible API to switch between frontier and open models without separate accounts. Pricing passes through each model's usage rates, with some free models available.
Key features
- Single OpenAI-compatible API for hundreds of models
- Automatic fallbacks and provider routing
- Unified billing across providers
- Free and low-cost model options
Use cases
- Comparing models without provider lock-in
- Adding fallbacks for reliability in production
- Accessing many models with a single integration
Pricing
OpenRouter passes through each model's usage pricing with a small fee on credits; several models are available free with limits.
Frequently asked questions
What is OpenRouter?
OpenRouter is an API gateway that gives developers one endpoint and one bill for hundreds of AI models from many providers.
Is OpenRouter compatible with the OpenAI API?
Yes. OpenRouter exposes an OpenAI-compatible API, so most existing clients work by changing the base URL.
Does OpenRouter have free models?
Yes. Some models are offered free with rate limits; paid usage follows each model's per-token pricing.
Similar products
- Amazon Bedrock — Managed AWS service for building applications with foundation models from multiple providers via one API.
- Amazon Nova — AWS portfolio of Amazon-built foundation models and services for text, multimodal, speech, custom model building, and UI-automating agents.
- Azure AI Foundry — Microsoft's platform for building, evaluating, and deploying AI applications and agents on Azure.
- Baseten — Platform for deploying and serving machine-learning models as scalable APIs.
- Cerebras — AI compute company whose inference cloud serves open language models on wafer-scale hardware.
- Civitai — Community platform for sharing and discovering open image-generation models, LoRAs, and generated art.
All OpenRouter alternatives → · All Platforms & Infrastructure products →
Sources
This record was last reviewed on 2026-07-29.
Machine-readable record: /api/products/openrouter.json · Spot an error? Suggest a correction