Checked 2026-10-26
OpenRouter alternatives compared by the fee on top
OpenRouter and six alternatives ranked by what each adds over the developer's list price on $100 of usage, every figure dated and sourced, with RelaySwitch's own row read from the live catalog.
An OpenRouter alternative is judged on one number first: what $100 of usage at the developer's list price costs on it. OpenRouter answers $105.50 on a card top-up (list plus 5.5%, read 2026-10-19); the gateways that bring your own keys answer $100 plus a server or a plan; and RelaySwitch answers $38.12 on the four-model basket below, because its rows sit under list and nothing is added on the top-up. Card or crypto, no identity check, no subscription.
- Chat models here
- 469
- With a list price
- 76
- Under list, in and out
- 70
- $100 of list usage here
- $38.12
01The fee on top, gateway by gateway
| Gateway | What it adds | $100 of list usage | Pay | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRoutersource, read 2026-10-19 | List + 5.5% on card top-ups (8% on Business), $0.80 minimum, 5% on crypto | $105.50 | Prepaid credit; BYOK with a $25,000 a month free allowance | 470 on its model list |
| Requestysource, read 2026-10-19 | List + 5% on model cost | $105 | Pay as you go; free tier on free models, 200 requests a day | 600+ (its pricing page) |
| Cloudflare AI Gatewaysource, read 2026-10-19 | List + 5% on credits bought through Unified Billing; none with your own provider keys | $105 on Unified Billing, $100 on your own keys | Unified Billing credits, or your own provider keys | Your providers' models |
| Vercel AI Gatewaysource, read 2026-10-19 | List, no markup on tokens; payment processing fees on credit purchases may apply | $100 plus any card processing fee | Prepaid credits; a $5 a month free tier on a subset of models | 400+ (its home page) |
| LiteLLMsource, read 2026-10-19 | No fee: you run the proxy and each provider bills you at its list price | $100 plus the server you run it on | Open source, self-hosted; Enterprise priced by request capacity | Your providers' models |
| Portkeysource, read 2026-10-19 | No per-token fee; a plan priced by logged requests ($0 Developer, $49 a month Production) | $100 plus the plan | Your own provider keys; the plan covers the gateway | Your providers' models |
| RelaySwitchlive catalog | Under list: 70 of the 76 chat models with a list price are priced under it on input and output, Claude Sonnet 5.5 by 40% in and 70% out; no fee on top-ups | $38.12 | Prepaid from $10, no subscription; Card, Apple Pay, PayPal, USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL; no KYC | 469 chat and 101 image, video, speech and 3D models |
Competitor figures were read on 2026-10-19 from the linked pages and are typed here with that date; our row is computed from the catalog at render.
02The $100 basket, worked
One flagship per developer, a million tokens in and two hundred thousand out on each, at the developer's list price and at ours.
| Model | List in / out | Ours in / out | Basket at list | Basket here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2.00 / $10.00 | $1.20 / $3.00 | $4.00 | $1.80 |
| GPT-5.5 | $5.00 / $30.00 | $1.80 / $9.00 | $11.00 | $3.60 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | $1.32 / $3.96 | $0.792 / $2.376 | $2.112 | $1.2672 |
| GLM 5.3 | $1.092 / $3.432 | $0.3276 / $1.0296 | $1.7784 | $0.5335 |
| Total | $18.8904 | $7.2007 |
At list the basket is $18.8904; on OpenRouter with a card top-up it is that plus 5.5%; here it is $7.2007.
03Same models, our ids
Model ids here are the developer's ids without a vendor prefix. The OpenRouter ids people ask about most, next to ours:
| OpenRouter id | Here | Ours in / out |
|---|---|---|
anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 | claude-opus-5-5 | $2.80 / $10.00 |
anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | $1.20 / $3.00 |
anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 | claude-haiku-5-5 | $0.06 / $0.15 |
openai/gpt-6.1-sol | gpt-6.1-sol | $0.60 / $3.00 |
openai/gpt-5.5 | gpt-5.5 | $1.80 / $9.00 |
google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | $1.20 / $7.20 |
google/gemini-3.8-flash | gemini-3.8-flash | $0.4925 / $2.25 |
x-ai/grok-4.7 | grok-4.7 | $0.60 / $1.80 |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro | deepseek-v4-pro | $0.792 / $2.376 |
moonshotai/kimi-k3 | kimi-k3 | $0.90 / $4.50 |
qwen/qwen3.7-max | qwen3.7-max | $0.6471 / $1.9412 |
z-ai/glm-5.3 | glm-5.3 | $0.3276 / $1.0296 |
04Switching
bash
1
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.relayswitch.io/v1"2
export OPENAI_API_KEY="YOUR_RELAYSWITCH_KEY"bash
1
# Claude Code (Anthropic format, Claude ids)2
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.relayswitch.io/v1"3
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="YOUR_RELAYSWITCH_KEY"4
# Cursor: Settings > Models > OpenAI API Key + Override OpenAI Base URL = https://api.relayswitch.io/v15
# Cline, Kilo Code: provider "OpenAI Compatible", base URL https://api.relayswitch.io/v16
# SillyTavern: Chat Completion > Custom (OpenAI-compatible), https://api.relayswitch.io/v17
# Janitor AI: Proxy URL https://api.relayswitch.io/v1/chat/completionsWhat stays the same
The OpenAI request and response shape, streaming, tool calls. The Claude ids also answer the Anthropic Messages format. The guides have each tool's exact fields.
Questions
- Is there an OpenRouter alternative without a fee on credit purchases?
- Yes. On 2026-10-19 Vercel AI Gateway sold tokens at list with no platform fee on credits (card processing fees aside), LiteLLM and Portkey add no fee because you bring your own provider keys, and RelaySwitch charges nothing on top-ups from $10 and prices 70 of 76 listed chat models under the developer's list. OpenRouter, Requesty and Cloudflare's Unified Billing add 5% to 5.5% to the credit.
- Can I pay in crypto?
- Here, yes: USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH or SOL to a prepaid balance with no fee added and no identity check; the balance is the same USD credit a card produces. OpenRouter's FAQ listed a 5% fee on crypto top-ups on the 2026-10-12 read.
- Which platforms are cheaper than OpenRouter for Claude Sonnet?
- OpenRouter bills Claude Sonnet 5.5 at Anthropic's list ($2.00 in, $10.00 out per million tokens) plus its top-up fee. Here it is $1.20 in and $3.00 out, from the live catalog, with nothing added on the top-up.
- Are there uncensored models on this key?
- 136 uncensored and abliterated builds, on the uncensored page with prices. OpenRouter's public list carried one model named Uncensored and no abliterated builds on the 2026-10-19 read.
- Do I have to change my code?
- Two values: the base URL becomes https://api.relayswitch.io/v1 and the key becomes yours. Model ids are the developer ids without a vendor prefix; the table above maps the OpenRouter ids people ask about most.
Under list, nothing added on the top-up
Prepaid from $10. Card or crypto, no KYC.