OpenRouter alternatives: 7 AI routers and gateways compared
Updated
OpenRouter is the widest model marketplace around, with more than 500 models behind one key. It's a good product, and if you need a model nobody else carries, stay on it.
Teams start looking elsewhere for three reasons. The fee: OpenRouter adds 5.5% to every credit purchase, so what it earns grows with what you spend. Control: some companies need the gateway on their own servers, or logs and guardrails their security team will sign off on. And model choice: OpenRouter now has two automatic routers, but they make calling models easier, not cheaper: picking the right model for each job is still on you.
Below are seven alternatives, what each one is built for and how each one charges. We make one of them, Zabio, so it's listed first, and we say where the others beat us. Everything else comes from each company's own public pages, with sources at the end.
The short answer
- Want the bill to go down without picking a model for every request: Zabio.
- Need the gateway on your own servers: LiteLLM.
- Need logs, guardrails and governance for a large team: Portkey.
- Want the closest hosted swap for OpenRouter: Requesty.
- Already build on Vercel and want zero markup: Vercel AI Gateway.
- Already run on Cloudflare: Cloudflare AI Gateway.
- Want routing, model hosting and the rest of your cloud on one bill: DigitalOcean Inference Router.
1. Zabio: a router that picks the model and keeps none of the saving
Best for: teams that want a smaller bill without choosing a model for every request.
Zabio is a hosted, OpenAI-compatible router for 114 chat models from 10 vendors: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, xAI, Mistral AI, Together AI, TypeSafe AI, Alibaba Cloud (International), and Alibaba Cloud (US). Send model auto and it reads each request, picks the model and reasoning setting that fit the job, and says why in the response. You can also name a line (auto/best, auto/balanced, auto/cheap) or any model directly.
How it charges: the provider's list price plus a (see the pricing page) service fee on every call, and (see the pricing page) per auto request for automatic model choice. No cut of what routing saves, no subscription, no fee on top-ups, and no cut of your cache or batch discounts. Calls on your own vendor keys pay no service fee.
Here is one call, routed with auto, against your usual model named directly:
| Routed with auto | Baseline model, named directly | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider list price | 0.0100 USD | 0.0500 USD |
| Service fee | (see the pricing page) | (see the pricing page) |
| Fixed fee for the request | (see the pricing page) | (see the pricing page) |
| You pay | (see the pricing page) | (see the pricing page) |
What sets it apart: every response carries the model that answered, why it was picked, what the call cost and what it saved. Smart Splitting answers long-document questions from a verified excerpt when that's cheaper, about a third less in our tests. Team quotas, per-key spend caps and model allow lists come included.
Switching: point base_url at https://api.zabio.ai/v1 and use your Zabio key. The OpenAI SDKs and tools built on them keep working. You start on the free plan: 100 requests a day, no card.
The trade-off: 114 chat models against OpenRouter's 500+. It's a young company, in open beta, hosted only in the United States.
Zabio vs OpenRouter · Pricing · Calculator · Playground · Quickstart
2. LiteLLM: the open-source proxy you run yourself
Best for: teams whose gateway has to live inside their own infrastructure.
LiteLLM is an open-source proxy that puts 140+ providers behind one OpenAI-style API. It can route between models you configure, sending simple prompts to cheaper models and hard ones to stronger ones. It's free to self-host, with an enterprise license by quote for SSO, organizations and audit logs. You pay the providers and your own servers.
The trade-off: you run, patch and scale it, and you keep a separate account and bill with every provider.
3. Portkey: observability and governance for large teams
Best for: companies that need detailed logs, guardrails and access policy before anything else.
Portkey, now part of Palo Alto Networks, is an AI gateway covering 1,600+ models, with traces, analytics, budgets and rate limits. Routing follows rules you write: conditions, load balancing and fallbacks. There's a free developer tier and paid plans for the hosted platform, or an open-source gateway you host. You pay the providers directly.
The trade-off: it tells you a lot about every call but doesn't choose the model for you.
4. Requesty: the closest hosted swap for OpenRouter
Best for: teams that want OpenRouter's shape (one key, hundreds of models) with more built-in controls.
Requesty is a hosted gateway for 600+ models, with routing, caching, failover, guardrails, analytics and EU data residency. Its smart routing classifies requests by task type and sends each one to a model suited to it. It charges a 5% markup on model cost, with no seats and no minimum spend.
The trade-off: like OpenRouter's fee, the markup grows with every dollar you spend.
5. Vercel AI Gateway: zero markup if you already build on Vercel
Best for: teams on Vercel or the AI SDK who already know which model each request needs.
Vercel AI Gateway puts hundreds of models behind one key, with fallbacks across providers, budgets and usage dashboards. It charges the provider's list price with no markup on tokens, from prepaid credits, and bringing your own keys adds no fee either (on the paid tier).
The trade-off: you pick the model. If you already send each request to the cheapest model that can do it, this is the cheapest hosted option on the list.
6. Cloudflare AI Gateway: a free proxy at the edge
Best for: teams already running on Cloudflare.
Cloudflare AI Gateway sits between your app and the major AI providers, with analytics, caching and rate limiting at no charge. With your own provider keys there's no fee; with Unified Billing, in open beta, Cloudflare adds 5% to the credits you buy and passes provider prices through. Logs above your plan's quota, Logpush and guardrails are billed separately.
The trade-off: it's a control plane, not a model picker. Routing is what you configure.
7. DigitalOcean Inference Router: routing and hosting on one cloud bill
Best for: teams that want inference, routing and their servers with one provider.
DigitalOcean's Inference Router matches each request to a task you define, then picks from that task's pool of up to three models by cost, speed, an order you set, or DigitalOcean's own benchmarks. During its public preview the router adds no fee of its own: you pay the per-token price of the model that answers, and pricing after the preview hasn't been announced.
The trade-off: you set up the tasks and pools, and each pool holds three models at most.
OpenRouter alternatives side by side
| Alternative | What it is | Fee on top of provider prices | Picks the model for you | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter (for reference) | Hosted marketplace, 500+ models | 5.5% on every credit purchase | Yes: Auto Router and Jev Router | Hosted |
| Zabio | Hosted router, 114 chat models from 10 vendors | A (see the pricing page) service fee, plus (see the pricing page) per auto request; no cut of the saving | Yes, per request, with the reason in every response | Hosted, United States |
| LiteLLM | Open-source proxy | None to self-host; enterprise license by quote | Between models you configure | Your servers |
| Portkey | Gateway for observability and governance | None on tokens; free tier, then paid plans | No, routing rules you write | Hosted, or open source on your servers |
| Requesty | Hosted gateway, 600+ models | 5% on model cost | Yes, by task type | Hosted |
| Vercel AI Gateway | Hosted gateway, hundreds of models | None on tokens | No, you pick the model | Hosted |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | Proxy in front of the major AI providers | None with your keys; 5% on credits with Unified Billing | No, routing you configure | Cloudflare's network |
| DigitalOcean Inference Router | Router over model pools you define | None during the public preview | Yes, within pools of up to 3 models | DigitalOcean's cloud |
How to choose
Start with who picks the model. If you want to keep choosing models yourself, go with the lowest fee that fits your stack: Vercel or Cloudflare if you're already there, LiteLLM if it has to run on your servers, Portkey if governance comes first.
If you'd rather hand that choice off, look at what you keep. Zabio adds a small service fee and a small fixed fee per auto request, and every cent its routing saves stays with you.
Questions
- What is the best OpenRouter alternative?
- It depends on why you're leaving. For a smaller bill without picking models yourself, Zabio. To self-host, LiteLLM. For observability and governance, Portkey. For the closest hosted swap, Requesty.
- Is there an OpenRouter alternative with no markup?
- Vercel AI Gateway charges the provider's list price with no markup on tokens. Cloudflare AI Gateway charges nothing when you bring your own provider keys, and LiteLLM is free to self-host. Zabio charges no service fee on calls made with your own vendor keys; their auto requests pay only a small fixed fee for automatic model choice.
- Is there a self-hosted OpenRouter alternative?
- Yes. LiteLLM is the usual choice, and Portkey's gateway is open source too.
- Which OpenRouter alternatives pick the model for you?
- Zabio, Requesty and DigitalOcean Inference Router choose a model for each request, and LiteLLM can route between models you configure. OpenRouter has its own Auto Router and Jev Router. Vercel, Cloudflare and Portkey send each call to the model you name or follow rules you write.
- How hard is it to switch from OpenRouter?
- Usually two lines. Most of these speak the OpenAI API, so you change the base URL and the API key. Model names differ between services, so check any you hard-code, or send model auto to a router that picks for you.
- Is Zabio cheaper than OpenRouter?
- Compared with sending every call to the same model on OpenRouter, usually yes. In our worked example, a call that costs about 0.0528 USD through OpenRouter on your usual model (0.0500 plus the 5.5% fee) costs 0.0100 USD at list price on Zabio, plus Zabio's small service fee and fixed fee, because auto moves it to a cheaper model that does the job. When a call has nothing to save, you pay the provider price plus Zabio's service fee; the current rate is on the pricing page.
Checked 29 September 2026 on each company's own pages. Sources: Requesty pricing, Vercel AI Gateway FAQ, Cloudflare AI Gateway pricing, DigitalOcean Inference Router, DigitalOcean Inference limits, OpenRouter pricing, OpenRouter Auto Router, Jev Router on OpenRouter, LiteLLM, LiteLLM enterprise, Portkey.