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There's a free plan; paid tiers are quoted.
OpenRouter’s Free plan costs $0 and includes 25+ free models, four free providers and 50 requests per day. It also includes five workspaces, chat and API access, and community support. Once you move to paid models, you pay model list prices plus a credit-purchase fee: 5.5% on Standard or 8% on Business. Both plans include a monthly BYOK allowance before a 5% fee applies above it. Enterprise is custom-priced.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | — | $0 | Trying the API and free models |
| Standard | — | Quote | Developers using paid models |
| Business | — | Quote | Teams needing controls and regional routing |
| Enterprise | — | Quote | Organizations needing enterprise terms |
Add-ons and overages
- Enterprise private endpoints are an add-on; price not published.
- Above the $25,000/month BYOK allowance on Standard and Business, a 5% fee applies to list-price inference.
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Model inference
Credit fees are separate from model usage: the pricing page says customers pay model list prices plus applicable credit-purchase fees.
Credit-purchase fee
Standard lists a 5.5% fee and Business an 8% fee when buying credits. These apply in addition to model costs.
BYOK over allowance
Standard and Business include $25,000/month of BYOK inference without fees; a 5% fee applies above that amount.
Private endpoints
Enterprise private endpoints are an add-on. The vendor does not publish the price.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Side project exploring models | Free | Use 25+ free models and four free providers, within the 50-requests-per-day limit. |
| Startup using paid models | Standard | Pay as you go with 600+ models, five workspaces and a 5.5% credit-purchase fee. |
| Team needing regional routing | Business | Adds EU and US in-region routing and 1,000 workspaces, with an 8% credit-purchase fee. |
04Is OpenRouter worth the money?
OpenRouter is worth paying for when one integration, a large model catalog and provider choice save more engineering time than the credit fee costs. Standard is the lower-fee paid option; Business adds regional routing and more workspaces. Compare the bill with direct provider APIs if your workload stays on one provider or depends heavily on caching. Free works for evaluation and light use, but its 50-request daily limit is a hard ceiling. Enterprise makes sense when you need negotiated terms or contractual controls.
OpenRouter pricing FAQ
Is OpenRouter free?
OpenRouter has a Free plan with 25+ free models and four free providers. It includes 50 requests per day, five workspaces, chat and API access, and community support. Paid model usage is billed at model list prices, with plan-specific credit-purchase fees on Standard and Business.
Is OpenRouter cheaper than using a model provider directly?
Not necessarily. OpenRouter charges model list prices plus applicable credit-purchase fees on paid plans. It may be worthwhile if a unified API, routing and failover reduce integration work, but compare the total cost with direct provider pricing for your workload and chosen routing settings.
How do OpenRouter’s BYOK fees work?
Standard and Business each include $25,000 per month of BYOK inference without fees. The pricing page lists a 5% fee above that allowance. Check how your provider-key usage is counted and account for the provider’s own inference charges when estimating total spend.
Does OpenRouter have a monthly subscription?
Standard and Business are pay-as-you-go; no monthly or annual subscription price is listed. They charge fees when you buy credits, in addition to model list prices. Enterprise is contract-priced based on volume, prepaid credits and annual commitments.