OpenRouter alternatives
OpenRouter charges when you buy credits: 5.5% Standard, 8% Business (vendor page, 2026-11-10). Alternatives either charge less on that layer, charge on another layer, or ask you to run it yourself.
| Alternative | How it differs | $1,000, credits | $10,000, credits | $10,000, own keys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel AI Gateway | None; you cover payment-processing fees | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | 5% on Unified Billing credits ($100 credit costs $105) | $50 | $500 | $0 |
| Portkey | None; self-hostable | $49 | $49 | $49 |
| Helicone | None; self-hostable | $79 | $79 | $79 |
| LiteLLM | None; self-hostable | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Kong AI Gateway (Konnect) | None; self-hostable | $25 | $25 | $25 |
| Bifrost (Maxim) | None; self-hostable | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| TrueFoundry AI Gateway | None | $95 | $95 | $95 |
| Continuum | None | $0 | $0 | $0 |
OpenRouter itself at the same inputs: $55 ($1,000), $550 ($10,000), $0 ($10,000, own keys). Gateways that only forward your own keys show no funding fee because you pay the provider directly; they charge for logs instead. Flatkey is not modelled because its price depends on the model mix.
Which to look at first
- You want zero fee on tokens: Vercel AI Gateway (paid tier, no markup, own keys free).
- You self-host: LiteLLM or Bifrost (fees zero, infrastructure yours).
- You want logs and governance: Portkey.