OpenRouter

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OpenRouter

🏢 Provider Information

Provider Name: OpenRouter
Official Website: https://openrouter.ai
Console: https://openrouter.ai/keys
Type: Freemium - Provides 47+ free models

📋 Product Overview

OpenRouter is an AI model aggregation platform that provides 47+ free models from multiple providers through a unified API interface, allowing developers to access various AI models without registering multiple services.

Core Features:

🎯 Model Aggregation - One API access to 47+ free models
🔄 OpenAI Compatible - Fully compatible with OpenAI API format
🎁 Abundant Free Models - Llama 3.3 405B, DeepSeek, Qwen, etc.
🚀 Smart Routing - Automatically select optimal provider
💰 Flexible Pricing - Free tier + pay-as-you-go

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Most Complete Models!)

🔐 Registration and Account

Registration Requirements

Requirement	Required	Notes
Account Registration	✅ Required	Supports email, Google, Discord
Email Verification	✅ Required	Need to verify email
Phone Verification	❌ Not Required	Phone number not needed
Credit Card Binding	❌ Not Required	Completely free, no payment info needed
Top-up Suggestion	💡 Optional	$10 upgrades to 1000 req/day

Registration Steps

Register Account

Visit https://openrouter.ai, click “Sign In” in the upper right corner. Choose registration method:

Google Account (recommended, fastest)
Discord Account
Email Registration

Verify Email

If using email registration, check your inbox, click the verification link, return to OpenRouter to complete registration.

Create API Key

After logging in, go to console: https://openrouter.ai/keys
Click “Create Key” button
Name the key (e.g., “My Free API Key”)
Optional: Set monthly limit (recommend setting to $0 to avoid accidentally using paid models)
Click “Create” to create the key
⚠️ Important: Immediately copy and save your API key

(Optional) Top-up to Upgrade Quota

If 50 daily requests aren’t enough:

Click on the balance display in the upper right corner
Select “Add Credits”
Top-up $10 (supports credit card, PayPal, Alipay, WeChat Pay)
After top-up, automatically upgrade to 1000 requests/day
💡 Tip: Top-up amount won’t be automatically deducted, only consumed when using paid models

🎯 Provided Services

OpenRouter provides two main services:

1. Playground Service

Type: Web testing interface
Access URL: https://openrouter.ai/playground
Features: Test all free models directly, view usage statistics
Supports: All 47+ free models

2. API Service

Type: RESTful API
Features: Fully compatible with OpenAI API format
Models: 47+ free models, including Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, etc.
Quota: Basic 50 times/day, top-up $10 upgrades to 1000 times/day

📊 Quota Overview

Basic Free Tier (No Top-up)

Limit Type	Quota	Notes
Daily Requests	50 requests/day	Shared across all free models
Requests Per Minute	20 requests/min	Shared across all free models
Available Models	47+ models	Models marked as `:free`
Cost	$0	Completely free

Upgraded Free Tier ($10 Lifetime Top-up)

Limit Type	Quota	Notes
Daily Requests	1,000 requests/day	20x increase
Requests Per Minute	20 requests/min	Remains the same
Available Models	All free models	No restrictions
Cost	$10 one-time	Permanently enjoy high quota

⚠️ Important Notes:

Top-up amount can be used for paid models, free models don’t consume balance
Can set credit limit to $0 to prevent accidentally using paid models
Free models never incur charges

🤖 Free Models List (Featured)

🏆 Top Large Models

Model Name	Parameters	Context	Features
Llama 3.3 70B	70B	128K	Meta’s latest
Llama 3.1 405B	405B	128K	Ultra-large parameters
DeepSeek R1 0528	-	64K	Reasoning expert (latest)
DeepSeek V3.1	-	64K	Chinese optimization

🚀 High-Performance Models

Model Name	Parameters	Context	Features
Qwen 3 235B	235B	128K	Alibaba Qwen flagship
Mistral Small 3.1	24B	32K	Mistral efficient
Gemma 3 27B	27B	8K	Google open-source

⚡ Lightweight Fast Models

Model Name	Parameters	Context	Features
Llama 3.2 3B	3B	128K	Lightweight and fast
Gemma 3 4B	4B	8K	Small but powerful
Mistral 7B	7B	32K	Classic efficient

🎨 Multimodal Models

Model Name	Parameters	Context	Features
Qwen 2.5 VL 7B	7B	32K	Vision support
Nemotron Nano 12B VL	12B	32K	NVIDIA multimodal

💻 Code-Specialized Models

Model Name	Parameters	Context	Features
Devstral 2512	-	32K	Mistral code expert
Qwen 3 Coder	-	32K	Qwen code version

🌟 Core Advantages

1. Model Aggregation

Unified Interface:

One API key accesses 47+ models
No need to register each provider separately
Unified billing and monitoring

Smart Routing:

Automatically select optimal provider
Load balancing
Failover

2. OpenAI Compatibility

Seamless Migration:

Python

# Migrate from OpenAI by just changing two lines
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",  # Change this line
    api_key="YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY"              # Change this line
)

# Everything else is exactly the same

3. Flexible Pricing

Multi-tier Options:

Free tier: 50 times/day
Upgraded tier: $10 lifetime, 1000 times/day
Paid tier: Pay-as-you-go, only paid models charge

⚠️ Usage Notes

Quota Management

Basic free tier 50 times/day suitable for light usage
Recommend topping up $10 during development to upgrade quota
Set credit limit in console to prevent accidental charges

Model Selection

Check for :free tag in model list
Free models are already very powerful
Choose appropriate model size based on task

API Key Security

Don’t expose keys in public code
Can create different keys for different projects
Regularly check usage statistics

📊 Comparison with Other Services

Feature	OpenRouter	Google AI Studio	Groq
Free Model Count	🏆 47+	6	6
Daily Requests	50-1,000	1,500	14,400
Model Sources	Multiple providers	Google	Groq
OpenAI Compatible	✅ Fully Compatible	❌	✅
Credit Card Required	❌	❌	✅
Upgrade Cost	$10 lifetime	-	-
Mainland China Access	✅ Good	🔧 VPN Required	🔧 Stable Network Required

💡 Selection Suggestions

Reasons to Choose OpenRouter

✅ Highly Recommended:

Need to access various different models
Want OpenAI API compatibility
Need flexibility to switch between different models
Want abundant free options

✅ Suitable Scenarios:

Developing and testing different models
Building model comparison tools
Need backup model options

❌ Not Suitable For:

Need extremely high daily request quota (choose Groq)
Only using single model (choose specialized provider)
Need multimodal features (choose Google AI Studio)

📈 Upgrade Suggestions

When Should You Top-up $10?

✅ Recommend Top-up:

Daily requests exceed 50 times
Need higher development testing frequency
Want to use more advanced free models
Occasionally need to use paid models

❌ Don’t Need Yet:

Only testing occasionally
Daily requests less than 50 times
Only for learning purposes

🔗 Related Links

Official Website: https://openrouter.ai
Model List: https://openrouter.ai/models
API Documentation: https://openrouter.ai/docs
Console: https://openrouter.ai/keys
Usage Statistics: https://openrouter.ai/activity
Pricing Information: https://openrouter.ai/docs/limits
Discord Community: https://discord.gg/openrouter

📝 Changelog

December 2024: Added DeepSeek R1 series models
November 2024: Added Llama 3.3 70B support
2024: Continuously increasing number of free models
2024: Optimizing smart routing algorithms

📧 Support & Feedback

Official Support: https://openrouter.ai/docs
Discord Community: https://discord.gg/openrouter
Issue Reporting: Contact via Discord or official website
Feature Requests: Feedback in Discord community

Last updated on December 26, 2025

Groq DeepSeek