# OpenRouter Alternatives 2027: 11 Paid, Free & Open-Source

Source: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/openrouter/
Prices checked: 2026-11-13 (Zekai Price Ledger)

The best OpenRouter alternatives in 2027 are Vercel AI Gateway (best overall, 0%), Portkey (best free plan) and LiteLLM (best open source, MIT (some parts under a separate licence)). OpenRouter itself starts at 5.5%. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 13 Nov 2026; 8 more are compared below, including 2 with a free plan and 4 open source.

| Tool | Type | Starting price | Free plan limit | Licence | Best for | Price checked | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter (the tool being replaced) | — | 5.5% platform fee | 25+ free models, 50 requests a day | — | — | 2026-11-11 | [pricing](https://openrouter.ai/pricing) |
| Vercel AI Gateway | Free | 0% markup, pay as you go | Monthly free credit, subset of models, lower rate limits | — | Teams already deploying on Vercel | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://vercel.com/ai-gateway) [pricing](https://vercel.com/docs/ai-gateway/pricing) |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | Free | Provider cost; 5% on Unified Billing credits | 100,000 logs total across all gateways (Legacy Logs, Workers Free) | — | Caching and logging in front of any provider | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/) [pricing](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/reference/pricing/) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/cloudflare-ai-gateway/) |
| Portkey | Free plan + paid | $49/mo | 10k recorded logs per month, 3-day log retention | — | Gateway with guardrails and observability | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://portkey.ai) [pricing](https://portkey.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/portkey/) |
| Together AI | Paid | Pay per token | No free plan | — | Hosting open models with dedicated GPUs | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.together.ai) [pricing](https://www.together.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/together-ai/) |
| Hugging Face Inference Providers | Free plan + paid | $9/mo | Free account; inference credits not listed on pricing page | — | Open models from the Hub via many providers | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://huggingface.co/docs/inference-providers) [pricing](https://huggingface.co/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/hugging-face/) |
| Amazon Bedrock | Paid | Pay per token | No free plan | — | Models inside an AWS account | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/) [pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/pricing/) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/amazon-bedrock/) |
| LiteLLM | Open source | $0 self-hosted (hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT (some parts under a separate licence) | Self-hosted OpenAI-compatible proxy for 100+ providers | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.litellm.ai) [pricing](https://www.litellm.ai/pricing) [code](https://github.com/BerriAI/litellm) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/litellm/) |
| one-api-pro | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Reselling API access with subscription plans |  | [site](https://github.com/modelbus/one-api-pro) [code](https://github.com/modelbus/one-api-pro) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/one-api-pro/) |
| Bifrost | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | Apache-2.0 | Fast self-hosted gateway with a web UI | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost) [code](https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/bifrost/) |
| New API | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | AGPL-3.0 | Self-hosted gateway with usage and cost controls | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://github.com/QuantumNous/new-api) [code](https://github.com/QuantumNous/new-api) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/new-api/) |
| Portkey AI Gateway | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Lightweight open-source LLM router | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://portkey.ai) [code](https://github.com/Portkey-AI/gateway) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/portkey-gateway/) |

## How each alternative compares with OpenRouter

- **Vercel AI Gateway** (Free, 0% markup, pay as you go, checked 2026-11-11): Vercel states it charges no markup and no platform fee on tokens, including with your own key, where OpenRouter applies a 5.5% platform fee on Standard. Switch if you route most traffic through Vercel-hosted apps and want provider list prices with no platform fee. Stay with OpenRouter if you want 25+ free models and a catalogue spanning 80+ providers behind one key.
- **Cloudflare AI Gateway** (Free, Provider cost; 5% on Unified Billing credits, checked 2026-11-11): Cloudflare passes provider inference through with no markup and adds a 5% fee only on credits bought via Unified Billing; gateways add caching, rate limiting and logs. Switch if you already run on Cloudflare and want caching and logging in front of providers you contract yourself. Stay with OpenRouter if you want a single catalogue of hundreds of models routed and billed without managing provider accounts.
- **Portkey** (Free plan + paid, $49/mo, checked 2026-11-11): Portkey sells a flat $49 Production plan with guardrails, fallbacks and load balancing, plus a self-hosted open-source gateway with no request limit; OpenRouter charges a percentage fee instead. Switch if you need guardrails, logs and fallbacks under a flat monthly plan rather than a percentage of spend. Stay with OpenRouter if you want pay-as-you-go access to many models without a subscription or your own provider contracts.
- **Together AI** (Paid, Pay per token, checked 2026-11-11): Together runs open-weight models on its own GPUs, with serverless, dedicated endpoints, provisioned throughput and fine-tuning, while OpenRouter forwards requests to other providers' endpoints. Switch if you mainly serve open-weight models and need dedicated endpoints, reserved throughput or fine-tuning. Stay with OpenRouter if you need closed models from several labs reachable through the same key and request format.
- **Hugging Face Inference Providers** (Free plan + paid, $9/mo, checked 2026-11-11): Inference Providers sits inside a Hugging Face account; PRO costs $9/mo with $2 of monthly inference credits, versus OpenRouter's pay-as-you-go credits with a platform fee. Switch if you already work from the Hugging Face Hub and want its open models served through one account. Stay with OpenRouter if you want proprietary frontier models and a model catalogue separate from a code-hosting hub.
- **Amazon Bedrock** (Paid, Pay per token, checked 2026-11-11): Bedrock bills on-demand per token or hourly provisioned model units inside your AWS account, which brings regional deployment and AWS billing that OpenRouter's separate credit balance does not. Switch if your workloads and compliance controls already live in AWS and you want model access billed there. Stay with OpenRouter if you want models from many outside providers without an AWS account or regional setup.
- **LiteLLM** (Open source, $0 self-hosted (hosted), checked 2026-11-11): LiteLLM runs on your own infrastructure with virtual keys, budgets and spend tracking across 100+ providers, so you hold the provider keys; OpenRouter is a hosted service. Switch if you want to self-host the gateway, keep provider keys in-house and set per-team budgets. Stay with OpenRouter if you prefer not to run servers and want hosted routing, one invoice and managed uptime.
- **one-api-pro** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): one-api-pro is a self-hosted gateway built on one-api that adds subscription plans, active-active clusters and per-channel cost controls, aimed at operators who resell or share model access. Switch if you operate a gateway for many users and need subscription billing and clustered deployment. Stay with OpenRouter if you are a developer or small team wanting a hosted endpoint rather than operating infrastructure.
- **Bifrost** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Apache-2.0 gateway unifying 23+ providers behind one OpenAI-compatible API, started with one npx or Docker command and configured in a built-in web UI; you host it. Switch if you want a self-hosted gateway that starts from one command and keeps provider keys on your server. Stay with OpenRouter if you want one hosted API key and one invoice with no gateway to operate.
- **New API** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): AGPL-3.0 gateway with an admin console that manages routing, access, usage and costs for upstream model services; the Compose setup adds PostgreSQL and Redis. Switch if you want to run a gateway for several users with its own access, usage and cost controls. Stay with OpenRouter if you want hosted model access without running a database, Redis or an admin console.
- **Portkey AI Gateway** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): MIT-licensed gateway that routes to 250+ LLMs with retries, fallbacks and load balancing; the README says a 2.0 pre-release is merging Portkey's enterprise gateway into open source. Switch if you want a small open-source router with fallbacks and load balancing that you run yourself. Stay with OpenRouter if you want hosted routing across providers with one billing relationship.

## Open-source options in detail

- **LiteLLM** (https://github.com/BerriAI/litellm): Licence: MIT (some parts under a separate licence); Commercial use: Yes (MIT); the litellm/enterprise directory has its own licence.; Runs on: Python or Docker host; Postgres database for virtual keys and spend tracking.; Setup: moderate: Docker or pip, a config file, provider keys and Postgres.; Last commit: 2026-11-13; Last release: 2026-11-13; GitHub stars: 63,220 (2026-11-13)
- **one-api-pro** (https://github.com/modelbus/one-api-pro): Licence: MIT; Commercial use: README badge says MIT, but no LICENSE file was found; check before commercial use.; Runs on: Docker image for amd64 or arm64, or a prebuilt binary; persistent data volume.; Setup: moderate: Docker or binary, upstream provider keys and a data volume.; Last commit: 2026-10-31; Last release: 2026-10-31; GitHub stars: 933 (2026-11-13)
- **Bifrost** (https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost): Licence: Apache-2.0; Commercial use: Yes (Apache-2.0); enterprise features are sold separately.; Runs on: Node.js (npx) or Docker; web UI served on port 8080.; Setup: easy: One npx or docker command, then configure in the web UI.; Last commit: 2026-11-13; Last release: 2026-11-10; GitHub stars: 9,538 (2026-11-13)
- **New API** (https://github.com/QuantumNous/new-api): Licence: AGPL-3.0; Commercial use: Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.; Runs on: Docker host; the Compose stack adds PostgreSQL and Redis.; Setup: moderate: Docker with SQLite to try, Compose with PostgreSQL and Redis to run.; Last commit: 2026-11-13; Last release: 2026-11-13; GitHub stars: 51,887 (2026-11-13)
- **Portkey AI Gateway** (https://github.com/Portkey-AI/gateway): Licence: MIT; Commercial use: Yes (MIT).; Runs on: Node.js and npm, or Docker; the README quotes a 122kb footprint.; Setup: easy: One npx command starts it locally.; Last commit: 2026-05-25; Last release: 2026-01-12; GitHub stars: 13,378 (2026-11-13)

## Questions

### What is the best alternative to OpenRouter in 2027?
Vercel AI Gateway is the best overall OpenRouter alternative on this page (0% markup, pay as you go). For no cost, Portkey has a free plan (10k recorded logs per month, 3-day log retention). To self-host, LiteLLM is open source (MIT (some parts under a separate licence)).

### Is there a free version of OpenRouter?
Yes. OpenRouter has a free plan: 25+ free models, 50 requests a day. Paid plans start at 5.5% platform fee, checked on 11 Nov 2026.

### Is there a 100% free alternative to OpenRouter?
Yes. LiteLLM, one-api-pro, Bifrost, New API, Portkey AI Gateway are open source and free to self-host. Vercel AI Gateway, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Portkey, Hugging Face Inference Providers have a free plan with limits, shown in the table.

### What is cheaper than OpenRouter?
Cloudflare AI Gateway starts at Provider cost; 5% on Unified Billing credits, against 5.5% platform fee for OpenRouter, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026.

### Which is better, Vercel AI Gateway or OpenRouter?
Vercel states it charges no markup and no platform fee on tokens, including with your own key, where OpenRouter applies a 5.5% platform fee on Standard. Choose Vercel AI Gateway if you route most traffic through Vercel-hosted apps and want provider list prices with no platform fee. Stay with OpenRouter if you want 25+ free models and a catalogue spanning 80+ providers behind one key.

### Why are people leaving OpenRouter?
The documented reasons are: OpenRouter's pricing page lists a 5.5% platform fee on Standard pay-as-you-go and 8% on Business, so cost scales with spend (11 Nov 2026); Free models are limited to 50 requests a day on the Free plan; the FAQ says buying at least 10 credits raises the free-model limit to 1,000 requests a day (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above.

### What is better than OpenRouter?
It depends on the goal. For no markup on provider tokens, Vercel AI Gateway and Cloudflare AI Gateway state pass-through pricing. For self-hosting, LiteLLM is the open-source option. For hosting open models yourself, Together AI is the closer fit.

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