OpenRouter - 25+ Free AI Models Aggregation Platform

🏢 Provider Information

Provider Name: OpenRouter
Official Website: https://openrouter.ai
Console: https://openrouter.ai/keys
Type: Freemium - Provides 25+ free models

📋 Product Overview

OpenRouter is an AI model aggregation platform that provides 25+ 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 25+ 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
• 🔑 BYOK Support - Use your own API keys (1M free requests/month)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Most Complete Models!)

🔐 Registration and Account

Registration Requirements

Registration Steps

🎯 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 25+ free models

2. API Service

• Type: RESTful API
• Features: Fully compatible with OpenAI API format
• Models: 25+ free models, including Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, etc.
• Quota: Basic 50 times/day, top-up $10 upgrades to 1000 times/day

3. BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

• Type: Use your own provider API keys
• Features: Route through OpenRouter, billing at original provider
• Free Quota: 1 million BYOK requests per month free
• Use Cases: Users who already have OpenAI/Anthropic accounts

📊 Quota Overview

Basic Free Tier (No Top-up)

Upgraded Free Tier ($10 Lifetime Top-up)

⚠️ 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 (:free tagged) don’t incur charges
• BYOK users get 1 million free requests per month

🤖 Free Models List (Featured)

🏆 Top Large Models

🚀 High-Performance Models

⚡ Lightweight Fast Models

🎨 Multimodal Models

💻 Code-Specialized Models

🌟 Core Advantages

1. Model Aggregation

Unified Interface:

• One API key accesses 25+ free models
• No need to register each provider separately
• Unified billing and monitoring

Smart Routing:

• Automatically select optimal provider
• Load balancing
• Failover

2. BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

Use Your Own Keys:

• Support using your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other provider keys
• Enjoy OpenRouter’s routing and failover features
• 1 million BYOK requests per month free

Use Cases:

• Already have provider accounts with balance
• Need higher request quotas
• Want to leverage OpenRouter’s smart routing

3. OpenAI Compatibility

Seamless Migration:

# 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

4. 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
• BYOK: Use your own keys, 1 million requests/month free

⚠️ 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
• 💡 Tip: Free model count changes dynamically, check official model list

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

💡 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