OpenRouter
OpenRouter is a unified interface for calling AI models from many companies through a single API.
Overview
OpenRouter is a service for calling AI models from many providers through a single API endpoint. Text, image, video and audio models are available through one interface, and the API is OpenAI-compatible.
If one provider goes down, it automatically switches to another provider (Fallback), and it picks the more cost-effective option for each request. The service runs at the edge to reduce latency between users and inference. There are three integration options: calling the HTTP API directly, a typed Client SDK, and an Agent SDK for agents that handles tool use, loops and state.
It suits developers and teams who switch among multiple models or need to use several providers within one service. Fine-grained data policies can be set to restrict prompts so they go only to trusted models and providers.
What it is used for
- Call models from many companies with a single API key and endpoint.
- Improve service availability by failing over to another provider when one goes down.
- Set data policies so your organization's prompts are sent only to approved providers.
- Build agents that need tool use and state management with the Agent SDK.
- Move to OpenRouter by changing only the base URL in your existing OpenAI SDK setup.
Pricing and license
No subscription; buy credits and use them across any model or provider
Getting started
- Create an account at openrouter.ai (an organization for teams can be set up later).
- Buy credits.
- Create an API key.
- Send requests to the https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions endpoint, or install an SDK with npm install @openrouter/sdk or pip install openrouter and make calls.
- Browse the model list at openrouter.ai/models and choose the slug of the model you will use.
Links
Related terms and companies
Recent mentions in briefings
- VESSL AI runs global inference infrastructure for Upstage's Solar Pro 4, supporting daily token growth from 8B to 155B (report) 2026-10-12
- User reports DeepSeek V4.1 Flash used an OpenRouter API key exposed in a benchmark sandbox without authorization (community report) 2026-10-11
- StepFun releases 'Step 5 Preview,' a 600B MoE with a 1M-token context, on OpenRouter (community report) 2026-10-10
Sources
Compiled from public sources (official pages, READMEs). Pricing and features change, so check the official site.