OpenRouter alternative
OpenRouter is one API and one bill for hundreds of models from many providers, routed by OpenRouter. The matrix below says what each product is and how it bills; the only numbers are TokenZero's own measurements and prices.
TokenZero is a BYOK alternative to OpenRouter: you keep your provider keys and list prices, add 1.52 ms p50 of measured overhead, and every call returns a signed receipt. On 100,000 reference calls on gpt-6.1-sol, cache formatting alone saves $285 a month, $242 net after the 15% fee; OpenRouter issues no receipts.
· Source: OpenRouter documentation at https://openrouter.ai/pricing read 2026-10-26; TokenZero overhead from /benchmarks; prices from table 2026-10-26
At a glance
- Compared with
- OpenRouter (model marketplace and router)
- TokenZero overhead
- 1.52 ms p50 / 3.42 ms p95 (measured, /benchmarks)
- BYOK
- TokenZero: always · OpenRouter: optional (fee above a monthly allowance)
- Receipts
- TokenZero: signed per call · OpenRouter: none
- Billing
- TokenZero: 15% of verified savings · OpenRouter: platform fee on credit purchases; BYOK usage fee above an allowance
- Reference saving (gpt-6.1-sol, 100k calls)
- $285/month from prefix caching (computed)
- Net after 15% fee
- $242/month (computed)
- Parity floor
- 99.8%
- Free tier
- $500/month routed
- Vendor page read
- 2026-10-26
TokenZero vs OpenRouter: what each one is (vendor page read 2026-10-26)
| Dimension | TokenZero | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Category | BYOK savings gateway | model marketplace and router |
| Hosting | hosted | hosted |
| Bring your own key | always; keys pass through and are never stored | optional (fee above a monthly allowance) |
| Open source | CLI, MCP server, audit core and GitHub Action Apache-2.0; gateway hosted | closed |
| How it bills | free up to $500/month routed; then 15% of verified savings, 3x-ROI-or-$0, capped plans | platform fee on credit purchases; BYOK usage fee above an allowance |
| Caching | prompt-cache formatting + exact and semantic response cache | provider caching passed through |
| Routing | cascade to the cheaper sibling inside one provider, 99.8% parity floor, advisory by default | between providers, chosen by OpenRouter |
| Savings receipts | Ed25519-signed per call, hash-chained, public key published | none |
| Gateway overhead | 1.52 ms p50 / 3.42 ms p95 (measured, /benchmarks) | not measured by TokenZero |
| Data retention | metadata only; ZDR mode available | see vendor docs |
| Net saving, 100k gpt-6.1-sol calls/month (prefix caching only) | $242 after fee | — |
What you keep when you move from OpenRouter
the OpenAI-compatible request shape (sk-or- keys still work through TokenZero).
- You keep paying the provider directly at list price; TokenZero adds no markup and holds no credits.
- Routing is advisory by default and stays inside one provider with a parity breaker; nothing is remapped silently.
- Every call returns an Ed25519-signed receipt with the list-price baseline.
The change
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://tokenzero.sh/v1
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://tokenzero.sh
# keep your provider keys exactly as they areThen npx -y @tokenzero/cli doctor to confirm the gateway, signer and pricing table, and see the switch guide.
Questions people ask
Is TokenZero a drop-in alternative to OpenRouter?
OpenRouter is one API and one bill for hundreds of models from many providers, routed by OpenRouter. TokenZero is a BYOK gateway: you keep the OpenAI-compatible request shape (sk-or- keys still work through TokenZero), and every call comes back with a signed receipt. You keep paying the provider directly at list price; TokenZero adds no markup and holds no credits.
What does switching from OpenRouter to TokenZero save?
It depends on your prompts; on the reference workload (100,000 calls of 2,000 input with a 1,500-token static prefix and 300 output on gpt-6.1-sol, table 2026-10-26) prefix caching alone cuts $700 to $415 a month, $285 saved and $242 net after the 15% fee; exact-cache hits and cascade routing add to that. The receipts show the real figure.
Can I keep OpenRouter and add TokenZero?
Usually yes: chain them by pointing OpenRouter's upstream at https://tokenzero.sh (or TokenZero's X-TokenZero-Upstream at OpenRouter); the receipt still prices the request at list and records what the gateway did.
How is the 15% fee computed?
On verified savings only: list-price baseline minus provider-reported actual cost, per signed receipt. A cycle whose savings are below 3x the fee is billed $0; Pro Cap and Scale Cap add monthly ceilings. The first $500 of routed spend each month is free.