OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway
Two products, four fee layers. The cheaper one depends on whether you buy credits or bring your own keys, and on how many logs you keep.
gateway
OpenRouter
- Markup
- 0% (provider list price)
- Funding
- 5.5% Standard, 8% Business on credit purchases
- Own keys
- Standard and Business: first $25,000 a month of list-price inference free, then 5%
- Free tier
- 25+ free models; 50 requests a day on free models (Flatkey)
- Self-host
- no
gateway
Vercel AI Gateway
- Markup
- None; provider list rates
- Funding
- None; you cover payment-processing fees
- Own keys
- Paid tier only, no fee
- Free tier
- $5 a month credit, subset of models
- Self-host
- no
Monthly bill, gateway credits
| List-price spend | OpenRouter | Vercel AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| $100 | $5.50 | $0 |
| $1,000 | $55 | $0 |
| $10,000 | $550 | $0 |
Monthly bill, own keys
| List-price spend | OpenRouter | Vercel AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| $100 | $0 | $0 |
| $1,000 | $0 | $0 |
| $10,000 | $0 | $0 |
100,000 logs a month, 3 seats, one request = one log. Use your numbers →