What is OpenRouter.ai?
I built an AI-powered SaaS web application for my client. The client wanted an AI chat feature in the application for their users to ask queries on the private data stored in the application.
During our planning stage, the client told me they might use a different AI model in the future. Immediately, I know we need an interface or some sort that will allow us to switch to any model in the future without changing the code or breaking the application.
If you are a developer, you might have seen such an option in Visual Studio Code's AI chat panel.
I researched for such an interface and found OpenRouter.ai. We decided to use OpenRouter.ai in the project after reading through the documentation.
OpenRouter.ai is essentially a universal adapter for AI models. Instead of managing separate accounts, API keys, and billing for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta, OpenRouter gives you a single API key to access all of them (plus hundreds of open-source models).
Comparison
| Feature | Direct Providers (OpenAI/Google) | OpenRouter.ai |
| Pricing | Monthly Subscriptions ($20+) | Prepaid Credits (Min $5) |
| Models | Limited to their own models | 200+ Models (All major brands) |
| Setup | 1 Key per provider | 1 Key for everything |
| Uptime | Dependent on one company | Automatic fallbacks to other providers |
Potential drawback
- Latency - Since OpenRouter.ai acts as a middle layer, there should be some latency compared to using direct providers. During our test, we did not notice much difference.
Conclusion
By using an adapter like OpenRouter.ai, we can future-proof our application. At the same time, we can try different AI models without having to subscribe to all of them.
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