OpenRouter vs Velokey

OpenRouter

OpenRouter is the practical default for developers who want to try or mix many models without opening an account with every lab, and who value automatic fallback when a provider goes down. High-volume teams already on direct contracts with one or two labs will mostly be paying the platform fee for convenience they do not need.

Pros

• +500+ models behind one OpenAI-compatible API
• +Automatic fallback across providers and routing by price or latency
• +Data-policy routing to keep prompts away from providers you do not trust
• +Free tier with 25+ free models for experimenting

Cons

• −Platform fee of 5.5 to 8% on top of model prices
• −Free tier is limited to 50 requests per day
• −Adds another party between your app and the model provider

Velokey

Velokey covers more ground than most AI gateways by including image and video models alongside text, priced and metered per unit rather than bundled into a subscription. It reads as a small, possibly one-person operation rather than an established infrastructure company, which matters for anyone routing production traffic through it and depending on uptime.

Pros

• +Covers text, image, and video models in one gateway, not just text
• +OpenAI-compatible API for low-friction integration
• +Transparent per-unit pricing shown directly on the homepage, e.g. per-token, per-image, and per-second rates

Cons

• −No company name, team, or location disclosed beyond a single first name
• −No data-retention policy detail beyond a one-line claim of not storing prompts
• −Near-identical positioning to several other small AI-gateway products makes durability hard to judge

Does OpenRouter or Velokey have a free tier?

OpenRouter has a free tier; Velokey has paid plans only.

Which has a public API, OpenRouter or Velokey?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.