OpenRouter
💲 Pay-per-token at provider prices plus a fee on credits✅ Pick if you want one API for many models.
⛔ Skip if you need direct enterprise contracts.
Model APIs & routers tier list
Preliminary editorial ranking, not yet benchmarked Last updated 2026-10-16
Why #1 beats #2: OpenRouter gives one key and one bill across hundreds of models, ideal for builders comparing models; Anthropic's API is the strongest direct API for coding but locks you to one vendor. Sources: openrouter.ai/models, www.anthropic.com/pricing
S
Anthropic API
💲 Pay-per-token✅ Pick if coding quality is your priority.
⛔ Skip if you need image generation.
A
OpenAI API
💲 Pay-per-token✅ Pick if you want the broadest feature set.
⛔ Skip if you want one vendor-neutral key.
Google Gemini API
💲 Free tier; pay-per-token✅ Pick if you want cheap long-context models.
⛔ Skip if you need strict data residency on free tier.
B
LiteLLM
💲 Open source; self-hosted proxy✅ Pick if you want a self-hosted router.
⛔ Skip if you don't want to run infrastructure.