OpenRouter is a popular LLM API aggregator. One API key to manage all others.

For AI users this means that they only have to enter their Anthropic and OpenAI API keys once (into OpenRouter) and then they can use their Openrouter API key in all of thier downstream apps, such as Cursor or Cline. Openrouter also partners with the foundation model companies to provide periods of free model use, such as the recent promotion with Grok.

We like OpenRouter because you can see what models are currently popular for different use cases as measured by how many tokens end users consume.

You can also see token consumption by app, which doubles as a nifty distribution mechanism.

Openrouter makes money by charging 5.5% fee (minimum of $0.80) when you purchase credits or a 5% on top of the upstream model charges if you bring your own key (e.g., from Anthropic). But in May, Vercel launched their AI Gateway product; an alternative to Openrouter with no markup.

The AI Gateway also provides statistics on the most popular models and apps, although not as detailed as those of OpenRouter (yet).

In response, as of October, OpenRouter changed the pricing of their "bring your own key" plan to let the first 1M requests have no markup.

A classic example of commoditizing your complement by Vercel and perhaps another indicator that AI tooling might be dominated by free open-source solutions, as Bret Taylor eloquently explains.