OpenRouter

OpenRouter sits between your application and AI model providers. You send requests to one API, and OpenRouter routes them to the right provider. It supports over 400 models from 60+ providers, including Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, Meta Llama, Mistral, DeepSeek, and many others. The API is OpenAI SDK-compatible.

The main value proposition is convenience and reliability. Instead of managing API keys and client libraries for each provider, you use one endpoint. If a provider goes down, OpenRouter can automatically failover to another provider serving the same model. You can also set data policies to control which providers receive your prompts, useful for compliance requirements.

Pricing is pay-as-you-go. You buy credits and spend them across any model. Some models are available for free (with rate limits), while others are priced at or near the direct provider rate. OpenRouter adds a small margin on some models. There is no subscription or minimum spend.

OpenRouter is useful if you want to experiment across many models without setting up separate accounts, or if you need provider redundancy for production workloads. The trade-off is an extra hop of latency and giving a third party access to your prompts. For latency-sensitive applications where you know exactly which model you want, going direct to the provider may be better.