Price checkPer per million tokens
Free ModelsFreePay-as-you-goCustom
See all 2 plans
Quick Answer
Last verified:
Medium confidence

OpenRouter costs Free to $75 per per million tokens as of May 2026, with 2 plans available including a free tier. Plan: Free Models (free). Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: Yes

OpenRouter offers 2 pricing tiers: Free Models, Pay-as-you-go. The Pay-as-you-go plan is developers and teams wanting model flexibility without multiple provider accounts.

Compared to other llm api providers software, OpenRouter is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.

  • 4 documented hidden costs beyond list price
Last verified: | Sources: 1 pricing pages and reviews

How much does OpenRouter cost?

OpenRouter offers a free plan with 1 paid tiers from $Infinity to $75/per million tokens. Plans include Free Models (free), Pay-as-you-go (custom pricing).

OpenRouter Pricing Overview

OpenRouter has 2 pricing plans, including a free tier. Paid plans range from $0 to $75/per million tokens. The Free Models plan is free and is best for experimentation and development with free open-source models. The Pay-as-you-go plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for developers and teams wanting model flexibility without multiple provider accounts.

OpenRouter with a None minimum commitment, requiring Not applicable — pay-as-you-go credits, no subscription notice to cancel.

There are at least 4 documented hidden costs beyond OpenRouter's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.

This pricing was last verified in May 6, 2026 from 1 independent sources.

Try OpenRouter Free

OpenRouter is a unified LLM gateway that routes requests to the best available provider for each model. With a single API key, you access 300+ models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, and dozens of smaller providers. OpenRouter charges passthrough rates (provider cost + small markup) with transparent pricing at openrouter.ai/models. Popular models include GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, Gemini Flash, Llama 3, and many free/community models. The platform is ideal for teams that want model flexibility without managing multiple provider accounts and keys.

How OpenRouter Pricing Compares

Compare OpenRouter pricing against top alternatives in LLM API Providers.

Groq $0-$3.0/per million tokens Compare → Together AI $0.03-$9.95/per million tokens / hour Compare → Fireworks AI $0-$9/per million tokens / hour Compare →

All OpenRouter Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
Free Models rateLimit: 20 req/min on free modelsreliability: Best-effort availability Free Free Experimentation and development with free open-source models
Pay-as-you-go billing: Prepay credits, minimum $5 Custom Custom Developers and teams wanting model flexibility without multiple provider accounts
View all features by plan

Free Models

  • Community-hosted free models
  • Rate limited (20 requests/minute)
  • Llama 3.1 8B (free), Gemini Flash 1.5 (free), Mistral 7B (free)
  • No credit card required
  • Subject to availability

Pay-as-you-go

  • 300+ models across all providers
  • Single API key for all models
  • OpenAI-compatible endpoint
  • Automatic fallback routing
  • Provider-level rate limits respected
  • Real-time pricing at openrouter.ai/models
  • No markup on most popular models
Try OpenRouter Free

Usage-Based Rates

Per-unit pricing for OpenRouter API usage.

Pay-as-you-go

Model Unit Rate
GPT-4o 1M input tokens $2.50 OpenAI — passthrough
GPT-4o 1M output tokens $10.00 OpenAI — passthrough
GPT-4o mini 1M input tokens $0.150 OpenAI — passthrough
GPT-4o mini 1M output tokens $0.600 OpenAI — passthrough
Claude Sonnet 3.7 1M input tokens $3.00 Anthropic — passthrough
Claude Sonnet 3.7 1M output tokens $15.00 Anthropic — passthrough
Claude Haiku 3.5 1M input tokens $0.800 Anthropic — passthrough
Claude Haiku 3.5 1M output tokens $4.00 Anthropic — passthrough
Gemini 2.0 Flash 1M input tokens $0.100 Google — passthrough
Gemini 2.0 Flash 1M output tokens $0.400 Google — passthrough
Gemini Flash 1.5 1M input tokens $0.075 Google — passthrough
Gemini Flash 1.5 1M output tokens $0.300 Google — passthrough
Llama 3.3 70B (via Meta) 1M input tokens $0.120 Meta/community hosted — passthrough
Llama 3.3 70B (via Meta) 1M output tokens $0.300 Meta/community hosted — passthrough
Mistral Large 2 1M input tokens $2.00 Mistral — passthrough
Mistral Large 2 1M output tokens $6.00 Mistral — passthrough
DeepSeek-R1 1M input tokens $0.550 DeepSeek — passthrough
DeepSeek-R1 1M output tokens $2.19 DeepSeek — passthrough
  • Passthrough pricing — rates reflect provider costs, may have small markup
  • Prices change frequently as providers update rates
  • Verify current rates at openrouter.ai/models before building cost-sensitive applications
  • Some models have zero-cost free variants with rate limits

Compare OpenRouter vs Alternatives

Before committing to OpenRouter, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.

VSGroq
Free

Prototyping and evaluation

Full comparison
VSTogether AI
From $0.03/per million tokens / hour

Variable-volume API usage

Full comparison
VSFireworks AI
Free

Variable-volume API usage

Full comparison

All OpenRouter alternatives & migration guides

What Companies Actually Pay for OpenRouter

Median per-1M-token pricing across 320 models
Input $0.400/1M
Output $1.25/1M
Flagship models in this provider's catalog
Model Input /1M Output /1M Blended /1M
openai/o1-pro $150.00 $600.00 $375.00
openai/gpt-5.4-pro $30.00 $180.00 $105.00
anthropic/claude-opus-4.6-fast $30.00 $150.00 $90.00
openai/gpt-5.2-pro $21.00 $168.00 $94.50
anthropic/claude-opus-4.1 $15.00 $75.00 $45.00
Review scores
Top pricing complaints
5% platform fee plus $0.35 per deposit applied on top of all provider costsFree models are unreliable with frequent timeouts and require pauses between requestsSame model can cost 3–7x more depending on which provider OpenRouter routes toProvider discounts (e.g., DeepSeek off-peak 50–75% savings) are not automatically passed through
Source: OpenRouter API — medians aggregated from 320 models routed. Reflects router-surface pricing (may include modest markup vs direct provider rates).

OpenRouter Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size

Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.

Weekend Developer Experimentation $0 Year 1 total

Light exploration of multiple models over a weekend, testing integrations and comparing model outputs with budget-tier models.

Daily AI Coding Assistant Use $5 Year 1 total

Standard daily use of Claude models via OpenRouter for software development workflows using tools like Cline or Claude Code.

Heavy Creative Writing with Premium Models $30 Year 1 total

Intensive daily use of Claude Opus-class models via OpenRouter for long-context creative writing projects with extensive system prompts.

Reddit r/ChatGPTCoding user report: 'I've been playing with a bunch of models this weekend and only spent like 30 cents'

How OpenRouter Pricing Compares

Software Starting Price Top Price
OpenRouter Free $75/per million tokens
Amazon Bedrock $0.07/per million tokens $75/per million tokens
Anyscale $0.15/per million tokens $5/per million tokens
Baidu ERNIE API $0.1/per million tokens $10/per million tokens
Cerebras Inference API $0.1/per million tokens $6/per million tokens
Claude API $0.03/per million tokens $75/per million tokens

Detailed pricing comparisons:

Browse all LLM API Providers pricing →

4 OpenRouter Hidden Costs Beyond the List Price

Beyond the listed price, OpenRouter has at least 4 documented hidden costs that can significantly increase total cost of ownership.

Watch for 4 hidden costs
  • Platform Markup Fee 5% of license costs
    low 3 sources
    Reddit "Openrouter costs 5% + .35 on top of the provider cost. You need to read the Terms of Service to find out the real pricing, it's not very transparent and not cheap."
    Reddit "It deducts credits from your account equal to 5% of the cost of the request. Not good for users who want more control over their usage."
    Reddit "OpenRouter adds 5% on top of the model provider's base prices"
  • Provider Pricing Variability 100-700% of base provider costs
    medium 2 sources
    Hacker News "It's not uncommon when using brokers to see outliers like this. What happens basically is that some models are very popular and have many different providers, and are priced 'close to the metal' since the routing will normally pick the cheapest op..."
    Reddit "Also beware of being "ripped off" in terms of pricing for R1. I looked at some requests that some other team members had made with R1 and saw they were costing a lot relatively speaking."
  • Free Model Reliability and Downtime 5-15% of license costs
    low 2 sources
    Reddit "In my experience the free models are somewhat fragile, timeouts, requires sleep between invocations. So I ended up using these paid models."
    Reddit "I think this happens when there is high load on the servers. The free models on openrouter also suffer from this time to time. Need to re-roll or delete the empty and resend for a response."
  • Provider Discounts Not Automatically Passed Through 10-75% of license costs
    low 1 source
    Reddit "Hi! Thanks for the ping. We don't currently have support for this (haven't built it into our system) - we do intend to have better support for this kind of discounted pricing in the future."
Tip

Ask your OpenRouter sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Intelligence sourced from 2 independent sources
Reddit User discussions Hacker News Tech community
Key claims include inline source attribution. Data verified against multiple independent sources. 15 source citations total.

OpenRouter Contract Terms

OpenRouter contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require Not applicable — pay-as-you-go credits, no subscription. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.

Contract Terms
Auto-Renewal No
Cancellation Notice Not applicable — pay-as-you-go credits, no subscription
Minimum Commitment None
Mid-Term Downgrade Allowed
Payment Terms Credits purchased in advance; billed per token at time of use
Price Escalation No published schedule; per-token rates are set by underlying providers and may change without notice
Note

No tiers or contracts exist; users simply stop purchasing credits

Based on 1 verified source

How to Negotiate OpenRouter Pricing

OpenRouter contracts are negotiable. These 5 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.

Negotiation Playbook 5 tactics
Add Your Own Provider API Key for Discounts high success

For providers that offer time-based discounts (e.g., DeepSeek's 50–75% off-peak pricing), add your own provider API key in OpenRouter's settings. OpenRouter will charge that key at the provider's discounted rate rather than the standard OpenRouter markup rate.

OpenRouter official (OpenRouter-Toven, Reddit r/openrouter, 2025-03-29)
Filter to Lowest-Cost Models for Simple Tasks high success

Use OpenRouter's pricing filter to sort models from low to high and identify free or near-free models for simple tasks. Reserve expensive flagship models only for tasks that require the best quality, reducing overall spend significantly.

Reddit r/ChatGPTCoding
Explicitly Exclude High-Cost Providers high success

For popular models hosted by multiple providers, explicitly exclude high-cost providers in your settings. Some providers charge $7/million tokens for models available at under $1 elsewhere. Pinning to a specific low-cost provider (e.g., Nebius, Fireworks) prevents unexpected expensive routing.

Reddit r/SillyTavernAI, r/CLine
Use Prompt Caching to Cut Input Token Costs high success

Many OpenRouter models support prompt caching with cached input prices at 10–20% of standard input rates. Structure prompts with large, stable system prompts above the model's caching threshold to maximize cache hits and reduce input costs by up to 90% on repeat calls.

Reddit r/CLine (OpenRouter prompt caching docs reference)
Go Direct to Provider API at Scale medium success

For high-volume production usage of a single provider's models, bypass OpenRouter's 5% fee entirely by integrating directly with the provider API. OpenRouter is most cost-effective for experimentation across many models; at scale the per-request markup compounds.

Reddit r/CLine, r/DeepSeek
High success Medium Low / difficult

Full negotiation guide →

OpenRouter Pricing FAQ

01 How much does OpenRouter cost?

OpenRouter uses passthrough pricing — you pay the model provider's rate plus a small platform markup. GPT-4o costs $2.50/M input and $10/M output (same as OpenAI direct). Many community-hosted open-source models are free with rate limits. Paid models require a minimum $5 credit purchase.

02 Does OpenRouter have free models?

Yes. OpenRouter offers several free models including community-hosted Llama 3.1 8B, Gemini Flash 1.5, and Mistral 7B. Free models are rate-limited to 20 requests/minute and subject to availability.

03 Is OpenRouter cheaper than using providers directly?

For most popular models, OpenRouter charges approximately the same as provider list prices with a small markup. The value is API key consolidation and automatic routing, not price — you won't save money vs direct provider access, but you gain flexibility and model switching.

04 How many models does OpenRouter support?

OpenRouter supports 300+ models from providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, Perplexity, and community-hosted open-source models. The full model list with live pricing is at openrouter.ai/models.

05 What is OpenRouter's API compatibility?

OpenRouter is fully OpenAI-compatible. Set your base URL to https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 and use any OpenAI-compatible SDK. Model names use the format provider/model-name (e.g., openai/gpt-4o, anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet).

06 Does OpenRouter automatically apply provider discounts like DeepSeek's off-peak pricing?

No. OpenRouter does not currently pass through time-based provider discounts automatically. To benefit from DeepSeek's 50–75% off-peak rates or similar provider discounts, you must add your own provider API key in OpenRouter's settings — OpenRouter will then charge that key directly at the discounted rate.

07 Are there truly free models on OpenRouter?

Yes, OpenRouter's Free Models tier ($0) includes a rotating selection of LLMs. However, free models have rate limits, are prone to timeouts under high load, and often require pauses between requests. For any production or high-frequency use, paid Pay-as-you-go models are significantly more reliable.

08 Can I use OpenRouter without a subscription?

Yes. OpenRouter's Pay-as-you-go tier has no monthly fee, no contract, and no auto-renewal. You purchase credits in advance and consume them at per-token rates. The Free Models tier requires no payment at all. As of early 2026, there is no subscription plan available — OpenRouter has publicly floated the idea but not launched one.

Is this pricing incorrect? — we'll verify and update it.