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Updated 13 Nov 2026 · prices read on vendor pages

11 best OpenRouter alternatives in 2027

Mehmet ElmicenniReviewed by Mehmet Elmicenni, founder of Zekai•Prices checked •How we check

The short answer

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.

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Best overallSee in table →
Vercel AI Gateway logo

Vercel AI Gateway

0% markup, pay as you go · free plan
Best free planSee in table →
Portkey logo

Portkey

$49/mo · free plan

7.3
Best open sourceSee in table →
LiteLLM logo

LiteLLM

Free to self-host · MIT (some parts under a separate licence)

9.5
11alternatives compared
4with a free plan
5open source
$9/mocheapest paid · Hugging Face Inference Providers
5.5% platform feeOpenRouter starts at
01 · Zekai Price Ledger

Which OpenRouter alternatives are worth it in 2027?

The OpenRouter alternatives worth considering depend on what you want to change. Vercel AI Gateway and Cloudflare AI Gateway state no markup on provider tokens. LiteLLM is a self-hosted open-source proxy. Portkey adds guardrails and logs. Together AI, Hugging Face and Amazon Bedrock host models themselves rather than routing to other providers.

ToolTypeStarting priceFree plan limitBest forCost for your teamChecked
OpenRouter logo
OpenRouterThe tool you are replacing
 You are here
5.5% platform feeStandard, pay-as-you-go; no subscription
 25+ free models, 50 requests a day One API key for hundreds of models — 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
Vercel AI Gateway logo
Vercel AI Gateway Not yet reviewed by ZekaiBest overall
 Free
0% markup, pay as you goCredits at provider list price
 Monthly free credit, subset of models, lower rate limits Teams already deploying on Vercel $0 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
Cloudflare AI Gateway logo
Cloudflare AI Gateway Zekai score 9.3Cheapest paid
 Free
Provider cost; 5% on Unified Billing creditsWorkers Free or Paid; Unified Billing
 100,000 logs total across all gateways (Legacy Logs, Workers Free) Caching and logging in front of any provider $0 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
Portkey logo
Portkey Zekai score 7.3Best free plan
 Free plan + paid
$49/moProduction, monthly
 10k recorded logs per month, 3-day log retention Gateway with guardrails and observability — 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
Together AI logo
Together AI Zekai score 9.1
Pay per tokenServerless inference; e.g. gpt-oss-120B $0.15 in / $0.60 out per 1M tokens
 No free plan Hosting open models with dedicated GPUs — 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
Hugging Face Inference Providers logo
 Free plan + paid
$9/moPRO, monthly; includes $2 inference credits monthly
 Free account; inference credits not listed on pricing page Open models from the Hub via many providers — 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
Amazon Bedrock logo
Amazon Bedrock Zekai score 7.1
Pay per tokenOn-demand; e.g. DeepSeek v3.2 $0.62 in / $1.85 out per 1M tokens (US East)
 No free plan Models inside an AWS account — 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
LiteLLM logo
LiteLLM Zekai score 9.5Best open source
 Open source
$0 self-hosted (hosted)Open Source, self-hosted
 No limit, self-hosted (MIT (some parts under a separate licence)) Self-hosted OpenAI-compatible proxy for 100+ providers $0 11 Nov 2026 Pricing ↗
one-api-pro logo
one-api-pro Zekai score 7.3
 Open source
Free (self-hosted)
 No limit, self-hosted (MIT) Reselling API access with subscription plans $0 14 Nov 2026 Code ↗
Bifrost logo
Bifrost Zekai score 8.3
 Open source
Free (self-hosted)
 No limit, self-hosted (Apache-2.0) Fast self-hosted gateway with a web UI $0 13 Nov 2026 Code ↗
New API logo
New API Zekai score 7.8
 Open source
Free (self-hosted)
 No limit, self-hosted (AGPL-3.0) Self-hosted gateway with usage and cost controls $0 13 Nov 2026 Code ↗
Portkey AI Gateway logo
Portkey AI Gateway Zekai score 7.6
 Open source
Free (self-hosted)
 No limit, self-hosted (MIT) Lightweight open-source LLM router $0 13 Nov 2026 Code ↗

Every price was read on the vendor's own pricing page on the date shown. The Cost Finder assumes one entry plan per person, so it multiplies by your team size; yearly prices are shown per month, and team or business plans can cost more per seat. "Not checked" means we could not confirm a public price.

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02 · Free plan

Is there a free version of OpenRouter?

Yes. OpenRouter has a Free plan with no platform fee, 25+ free models from 4 free providers, and a limit of 50 requests a day. Paid usage runs on pay-as-you-go credits: Standard carries a 5.5% platform fee and Business 8%. Bring-your-own-key use has no fee up to $25,000 a month of list-price inference.

Source: OpenRouter pricing page, read 11 Nov 2026.

Free$0

25+ free models, 50 requests a day

Paid from5.5% platform fee

Standard, pay-as-you-go; no subscription

03 · Free alternatives

What are the best free OpenRouter alternatives?

The best free OpenRouter alternative is Portkey's Developer plan, free forever with 10k recorded logs a month. LiteLLM's open-source edition is also free if you host it yourself. OpenRouter itself offers 25+ free models at 50 requests a day, and Vercel AI Gateway gives a monthly free credit on a subset of models.

Vercel AI Gateway logo

Vercel AI Gateway

Best overallFree
Monthly free credit, subset of models, lower rate limits
vs OpenRouter →
Cloudflare AI Gateway logo

Cloudflare AI Gateway

Cheapest paidFree
100,000 logs total across all gateways (Legacy Logs, Workers Free)
vs OpenRouter →Zekai review
Portkey logo

Portkey

Best free planFree plan + paid
10k recorded logs per month, 3-day log retention
Paid from $49/mo
vs OpenRouter →Zekai review
Hugging Face Inference Providers logo

Hugging Face Inference Providers

Free plan + paid
Free account; inference credits not listed on pricing page
Paid from $9/mo
vs OpenRouter →Zekai review
04 · Open source

What are the best open-source OpenRouter alternatives?

Open-source OpenRouter alternatives are LiteLLM (MIT proxy, Postgres for spend tracking), Bifrost (Apache-2.0, starts with one command), Portkey's gateway (MIT), New API (AGPL-3.0, Compose with PostgreSQL and Redis) and one-api-pro (subscription plans). You run the server and hold your own provider keys.

LiteLLM logo

LiteLLM

MIT (some parts under a separate licence)★ 63.2k GitHub stars · 13 Nov 2026
To self-host: Python proxy run via pip or Docker with your own provider API keys and a Postgres database for virtual keys and spend tracking.
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
13 Nov 2026
Last release 13 Nov 2026
Source code ↗Managed hosting slot
one-api-pro logo

one-api-pro

MIT★ 933 GitHub stars · 13 Nov 2026
To self-host: Docker image ghcr.io/modelbus/one-api-pro for amd64 and arm64 or a prebuilt binary; needs upstream provider keys and a persistent data volume.
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
31 Oct 2026
Last release 31 Oct 2026
Zekai open-source pageSource code ↗Managed hosting slot
Bifrost logo

Bifrost

Apache-2.0★ 9.5k GitHub stars · 13 Nov 2026
To self-host: Run npx -y @maximhq/bifrost or docker run -p 8080:8080 maximhq/bifrost, then add provider keys in the web UI on localhost:8080.
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
13 Nov 2026
Last release 10 Nov 2026
Zekai open-source pageSource code ↗Managed hosting slot
New API logo

New API

AGPL-3.0★ 51.9k GitHub stars · 13 Nov 2026
To self-host: Run the Docker image with SQLite to try it, or docker compose with PostgreSQL and Redis; set SESSION_SECRET and replace example passwords first.
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
13 Nov 2026
Last release 13 Nov 2026
Zekai open-source pageSource code ↗Managed hosting slot
Portkey AI Gateway logo

Portkey AI Gateway

MIT★ 13.4k GitHub stars · 13 Nov 2026
To self-host: Run npx @portkey-ai/gateway (needs Node.js and npm) or the Docker image, then send requests with your own provider keys.
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
25 May 2026
Last release 12 Jan 2026
Zekai open-source pageSource code ↗Managed hosting slot
05 · Side by side

How does OpenRouter compare with each alternative?

OpenRouter is a hosted router: one key, hundreds of models, a 5.5% platform fee on Standard. Vercel and Cloudflare pass tokens through with little or no markup. LiteLLM and one-api-pro are self-hosted. Portkey charges a flat $49 Production plan. Together, Hugging Face and Bedrock serve models themselves instead of routing to other providers.

01
Vercel AI Gateway logo

OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway

Best overallFree0% markup, pay as you go · checked 11 Nov 2026
The differenceVercel 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 to Vercel AI Gateway ifyou route most traffic through Vercel-hosted apps and want provider list prices with no platform fee
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want 25+ free models and a catalogue spanning 80+ providers behind one key
Visit Vercel AI GatewayPrice alert
02
Cloudflare AI Gateway logo

OpenRouter vs Cloudflare AI Gateway

Cheapest paidFreeProvider cost; 5% on Unified Billing credits · checked 11 Nov 20269.3
The differenceCloudflare 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 to Cloudflare AI Gateway ifyou already run on Cloudflare and want caching and logging in front of providers you contract yourself
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want a single catalogue of hundreds of models routed and billed without managing provider accounts
Pros
  • Unmetered DDoS protection is included on all network plan tiers including free
  • R2 object storage eliminates standard cloud network egress charges
Cons
  • Free tier standard log retention is capped at 24 hours
  • Free plan customer support is restricted to community forums and Discord

Pros and cons from the Zekai review of Cloudflare AI Gateway · Verdict: Global security & compute

Visit Cloudflare AI GatewayRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
03
Portkey logo

OpenRouter vs Portkey

Best free planFree plan + paid$49/mo · checked 11 Nov 20267.3
The differencePortkey 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 to Portkey ifyou need guardrails, logs and fallbacks under a flat monthly plan rather than a percentage of spend
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want pay-as-you-go access to many models without a subscription or your own provider contracts
Pros
  • Free Developer plan with 10K requests per month
  • Open source option you can host yourself
Cons
  • Free plan is marked not suitable for production workloads
  • Free plan allows no overage past 10K requests

Pros and cons from the Zekai review of Portkey · Verdict: LLM gateway + governance

Visit PortkeyRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
04
Together AI logo

OpenRouter vs Together AI

Pay per token · checked 11 Nov 20269.1
The differenceTogether 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 to Together AI ifyou mainly serve open-weight models and need dedicated endpoints, reserved throughput or fine-tuning
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou need closed models from several labs reachable through the same key and request format
Pros
  • Access to a wide library of top open-source models
  • No infrastructure to manage for serverless endpoints
Cons
  • Requires technical expertise to configure and manage
  • Pricing varies significantly depending on model and token volume

Pros and cons from the Zekai review of Together AI · Verdict: Open-source AI cloud

Visit Together AIRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
05
Hugging Face Inference Providers logo

OpenRouter vs Hugging Face Inference Providers

Free plan + paid$9/mo · checked 11 Nov 20269.3
The differenceInference 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 to Hugging Face Inference Providers ifyou already work from the Hugging Face Hub and want its open models served through one account
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want proprietary frontier models and a model catalogue separate from a code-hosting hub
Pros
  • Massive ecosystem of open-source models and datasets
  • Dramatically accelerates AI development cycles
Cons
  • The sheer number of options can be overwhelming for newcomers
  • Advanced fine-tuning requires deep ML knowledge

Pros and cons from the Zekai review of Hugging Face Inference Providers · Verdict: AI Development Hub

Visit Hugging Face Inference ProvidersRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
06
Amazon Bedrock logo

OpenRouter vs Amazon Bedrock

Pay per token · checked 11 Nov 20267.1
The differenceBedrock 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 to Amazon Bedrock ifyour workloads and compliance controls already live in AWS and you want model access billed there
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want models from many outside providers without an AWS account or regional setup
Pros
  • Access to a wide variety of foundation models in one place
  • No infrastructure management required for underlying compute
Cons
  • Pricing varies significantly by model provider and usage tier
  • Requires technical familiarity with cloud infrastructure

Pros and cons from the Zekai review of Amazon Bedrock · Verdict: Production-scale AI platform

Visit Amazon BedrockRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
07
LiteLLM logo

OpenRouter vs LiteLLM

Best open sourceOpen source$0 self-hosted (hosted) · checked 11 Nov 20269.5
The differenceLiteLLM 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 to LiteLLM ifyou want to self-host the gateway, keep provider keys in-house and set per-team budgets
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou prefer not to run servers and want hosted routing, one invoice and managed uptime
Pros
  • Allows switching providers without rewriting application code
  • Supports direct Python library integration or standalone proxy server
Cons
  • Self-hosting requires setup and maintenance of gateway infrastructure
  • High issue backlog with over 1,800 open issues on GitHub

Pros and cons from the Zekai review of LiteLLM · Verdict: Fast unified LLM gateway

Visit LiteLLMRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
08
one-api-pro logo

OpenRouter vs one-api-pro

Open sourceFree (self-hosted)7.3
The differenceone-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 to one-api-pro ifyou operate a gateway for many users and need subscription billing and clustered deployment
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou are a developer or small team wanting a hosted endpoint rather than operating infrastructure
Visit one-api-proRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
09
Bifrost logo

OpenRouter vs Bifrost

Open sourceFree (self-hosted)8.3
The differenceApache-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 to Bifrost ifyou want a self-hosted gateway that starts from one command and keeps provider keys on your server
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want one hosted API key and one invoice with no gateway to operate
Visit BifrostRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
10
New API logo

OpenRouter vs New API

Open sourceFree (self-hosted)7.8
The differenceAGPL-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 to New API ifyou want to run a gateway for several users with its own access, usage and cost controls
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want hosted model access without running a database, Redis or an admin console
Visit New APIRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
11
Portkey AI Gateway logo

OpenRouter vs Portkey AI Gateway

Open sourceFree (self-hosted)7.6
The differenceMIT-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 to Portkey AI Gateway ifyou want a small open-source router with fallbacks and load balancing that you run yourself
Stay with OpenRouter ifyou want hosted routing across providers with one billing relationship
Visit Portkey AI GatewayRead the Zekai reviewPrice alert
06 · What changed

Why do people leave OpenRouter?

  • 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. (source)

  • 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. (source)

  • BYOK carries a fee of 5% on usage above $25,000 a month of list-price inference, per the FAQ. (source)

08 · FAQ

Questions people ask about OpenRouter alternatives

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.

09 · Method

How did Zekai check this page?

Zekai independently reviews AI tools. For this page we read each vendor's own pricing and product pages and recorded the starting price, the free-plan limit and the date of the check. Only tools that do the same job as OpenRouter are listed, and sponsors never change the order or the scores.

Mehmet Elmicenni, founder of Zekai
Mehmet Elmicenni

Founder of Zekai. Reviews the alternatives pages and the price checks behind them.

About the founder · How Zekai scores tools

JSON copyMarkdown copy
1 · Same job onlyEvery alternative does the same task as OpenRouter; tools for other jobs are left out.
2 · Vendor pages onlyPrices and free limits come from each vendor's own pricing page, never from blogs.
Zekai score0–10, from four published weights: ease 25%, output quality 30%, value 20%, time saved 25%. How we score
3 · Re-checkedA price older than 35 days is re-read or the page falls back to an older version.
Change log

  • Page rebuilt on v6; all prices re-read on vendor pages.

  • Open-source options expanded; each now shows licence, commercial use, hardware and setup.

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