What it does
OpenRouter gives one API, compatible with the OpenAI format, for hundreds of AI models from many providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral and DeepSeek, with automatic fallbacks between providers. Several models are free to use (their ids end in ':free'). Responses are JSON. Free models are limited to 20 requests per minute and 50 per day, or 1,000 per day once you have bought at least 10 credits; other models are paid per token. An official MCP server at https://mcp.openrouter.ai/mcp lets AI agents look up models, prices and credits.
At a glance
- API key
- Needed, free · More APIs with a free key
- Pricing
- Free models are limited to 20 requests per minute and 50 per day, or 1,000 per day once you have bought at least 10 credits; other models are paid per token.
- From the browser
- Yes (CORS)
- Formats
- JSON
- Interface
- REST, MCP
- Provider
- openrouter.ai
More information: https://openrouter.ai/docs/quickstart
Compare: OpenRouter vs Groq API · OpenRouter vs GitHub Models
Used in: Build a chatbot on free AI API tiers
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Example request
curl
curl 'https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models'JavaScript
const response = await fetch("https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models");
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);Python
import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models",
timeout=30,
)
print(response.json())The JavaScript works in a web page as well as in Node.js 18 or newer.