OpenRouter gives one key and one OpenAI-style endpoint for hundreds of models, and people leave it for reasons that sit in the billing and the jurisdiction: a fee added to every credit purchase, a US contracting company, free models with tight daily caps. The options below split into EU-hosted inference, other gateways and single-vendor APIs.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: Looking for a replacement for OpenRouter? Berget AI, GreenPT and DeepInfra come first in our LLM API providers ranking. The first three places are kept for challengers when the category has enough of them; the best-known brands come after that, in ranked order. Start with Berget AI if a Swedish counterparty and EU-only processing outweigh model breadth. Every one of the 11 products below comes from Best LLM API Providers in 2026, with a note on how it departs from OpenRouter.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Inference is billed at each provider's list price, with no markup. OpenRouter earns its money on credit purchases instead: 5.5% on Standard and 8% on Business, with discounts only by Enterprise contract. For a team spending heavily the percentage is a standing cost, and gateways that charge nothing on tokens look different on the invoice.
Purchases start at 5 dollars, and the terms say unused credits may expire 365 days after purchase. The free tier offers 25+ free models at 20 requests a minute and 50 requests a day, lifted to 1,000 a day once you have bought at least 10 dollars of credits. Occasional users should note both rules before topping up.
The terms name OpenRouter, Inc. of New York under New York law, and the quickstart describes the service as hosted only. EU in-region routing through eu.openrouter.ai is available on Business or Enterprise, limited to EU-eligible models. Buyers who need an EU company as counterparty look elsewhere.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing model | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berget AI | Sweden | No free tier | Published | a Swedish counterparty and EU-only processing outweigh model breadth | #1 |
| GreenPT | Netherlands | No free tier | Published | you want a Dutch company and French hosting for open-weight models | #2 |
| DeepInfra | United States | No free tier | Published | you run open models and want to trade latency for a lower rate | #5 |
| Fireworks AI | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | Published | you plan to fine-tune open models as well as call them | #7 |
| Hugging Face Inference Providers | United States | No free tier | Published | you want a router with no extra fee and a Paris-based EU entity | #11 |
| Vercel AI Gateway | United States | Yes | Published | you already deploy on Vercel and dislike a percentage on credits | #3 |
| Groq | United States | Yes | Published | fast open-model inference with a modest free allowance is the goal | #10 |
| SambaNova | United States | Yes | Published | you want a free starting plan and a path to an enterprise contract | #9 |
| Cerebras | United States | No free tier | See profile | you want to test one fast hardware vendor directly with a small credit | #8 |
| Baseten | United States | No free tier | Published | you deploy your own or fine-tuned model on dedicated GPUs | #6 |
| APIClaw | Not stated | No free tier | On request | a fixed monthly price for casual use matters and you accept an unnamed operator | #13 |
Sweden · Published
Berget AI AB is a Stockholm company whose terms fall under Swedish law, and its home page promises EU-only infrastructure with zero data retention on prompts and outputs. Serverless plans are prepaid monthly sums: Trial with 5 euros of starting credit and a card at signup, Starter 25, Team 50 and Enterprise 500 euros. The model list is the one Berget hosts.
Switch from OpenRouter if a Swedish counterparty and EU-only processing outweigh model breadth.
Netherlands · Published
GreenPT BV, in Utrecht, serves open-weight models from Paris on Scaleway infrastructure, including a Mistral Small 3.2 24B and GPT-OSS 120B. Plans run from 4.50 to 17.50 euros a month after a 14-day trial without a card, and API use needs Pro, Teams or an API-only subscription. Token prices are set out in its documentation, not on the plans page.
Switch from OpenRouter if you want a Dutch company and French hosting for open-weight models.
GreenPT comes 2 of 13 when LLM API providers products are ranked here →
United States · Published
Deep Infra Inc. of Palo Alto prices language models per input and output token and most other models by execution time. A scheduling choice sets the multiplier: Priority 1.5x, Standard 1x, Flex 0.8x for asynchronous jobs. There are no long-term contracts, but the privacy policy says data may be processed in the United States.
Switch from OpenRouter if you run open models and want to trade latency for a lower rate.
DeepInfra comes 5 of 13 when LLM API providers products are ranked here →
Not stated by the vendor · Published
Fireworks.ai, Inc. sells serverless tokens against prepaid credits, fine-tuning priced per million training tokens and on-demand GPUs billed per second. Its data-handling docs describe zero data retention by default for open models. The pricing page mentions no free credits, and neither it nor the privacy notice states a headquarters.
Switch from OpenRouter if you plan to fine-tune open models as well as call them.
United States · Published
Hugging Face routes requests to partner providers and says it passes through the provider's own rate, with 200+ models listed. Monthly credits are 0.10 dollars on free accounts and 2.00 on PRO, and a custom provider key means the provider bills you directly. The privacy page names Hugging Face SAS in Paris as its EU establishment.
Switch from OpenRouter if you want a router with no extra fee and a Paris-based EU entity.
United States · Published
Vercel's AI Gateway adds no markup and no platform fee on tokens, bring-your-own-key traffic included, and you reach it through a Vercel team account. A free tier covers a subset of models at lower limits. Team-wide zero data retention costs 0.10 dollars per 1,000 requests on Pro and Enterprise, and payment processing fees fall on you.
Switch from OpenRouter if you already deploy on Vercel and dislike a percentage on credits.
#3 out of 13 LLM API providers products: read the Vercel AI Gateway review →
United States · Published
Groq LLC runs its own hosted API with a Free plan and a Developer plan. The rate-limit docs give gpt-oss-120b a free base of 30 requests and 8K tokens per minute, and batch processing is advertised at 50% savings. The OpenAI-compatible endpoint leaves out logprobs and logit_bias, and customer data is governed by a services agreement we did not read.
Switch from OpenRouter if fast open-model inference with a modest free allowance is the goal.
United States · Published
SambaNova Systems, Inc. offers Free, Developer and Enterprise plans on SambaCloud, with the Developer plan metered per token and Enterprise on subscription. Its documentation also covers SambaStack, a separate product, so check what a quote refers to. Bring-your-own-compute and custom rate limits are enterprise add-ons. The plans page showed no model prices.
Switch from OpenRouter if you want a free starting plan and a path to an enterprise contract.
See the full SambaNova entry, ranked 9 of 13 among LLM API providers products →
United States · See profile
Cerebras Systems Inc. runs inference on its own hardware. The Developer tier grants a one-time 5 dollar promotional credit after a payment method is added; it expires after 30 days and access pauses until PayGo credits are bought. Its pricing page notes the models are also sold through OpenRouter, Hugging Face and Vercel.
Switch from OpenRouter if you want to test one fast hardware vendor directly with a small credit.
United States · Published
Baseten Labs, Inc. prices Model APIs per million tokens and dedicated deployments per minute of GPU time, from T4 to B200. The Basic plan has no base fee and every account gets starter credits. Self-hosted deployments and control over data residency are listed on Enterprise only. It fits custom models more than a quick endpoint swap.
Switch from OpenRouter if you deploy your own or fine-tuned model on dedicated GPUs.
Full verdict on Baseten, which sits at number 6 of 13 for LLM API providers →
Not stated · On request
APIClaw swaps the token meter for flat monthly plans from $19 to $129 with a daily request quota resetting at 00:00 UTC. One OpenAI-compatible key covers Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and others, and the trial gives 50 requests without a card. Its terms name no operating company or governing law, so verify who you are contracting with.
Switch from OpenRouter if a fixed monthly price for casual use matters and you accept an unnamed operator.
Read our review of APIClaw (position 13 of 13 on the LLM API providers list) →
Berget AI: Berget AI AB falls under Swedish law and states EU-only infrastructure with zero data retention on prompts and outputs.
GreenPT: GreenPT BV in Utrecht serves its models from Scaleway in Paris, after a 14-day trial without a card.
Vercel AI Gateway: It charges list price with no markup or platform fee on tokens, though you need a Vercel team account.
Baseten: Dedicated deployments are billed per minute of GPU time, and the Basic plan has no monthly base fee.
DeepInfra: Its Flex scheduling tier is priced at 0.8x the standard rate for asynchronous work.
OpenRouter is still the quickest way to try many models through one OpenAI-compatible base URL, with automatic fallbacks and cost-based routing described in its quickstart. Bring-your-own-key use carries no fee on the first 25,000 dollars of list-price inference a month, and Zero Data Retention routing is offered on every plan. For light or exploratory use, the percentage fee may cost less than a second account.
OpenRouter identifies models by its own slugs and can fall back between providers automatically. A direct vendor uses its own model names and no silent fallback. Map each slug you use, then decide what should happen when a model is unavailable.
Your remaining OpenRouter credits do not move, and limits differ by vendor, some per organisation and some per model. Run production-sized traffic against the new endpoint first, and check parameters such as logprobs, which some OpenAI-compatible layers omit.
Its pricing page says inference is billed at each provider's list price with no markup on any plan. The cost is a platform fee on credit purchases: 5.5% on Standard and 8% on Business, with Enterprise discounted by contract.
The page we read gives 25+ free models from 4 free providers, capped at 20 requests a minute and 50 a day. After at least 10 dollars of credits have been bought, the daily cap rises to 1,000.
The terms say credits are bought in a 5 dollar minimum and unused credits may expire 365 days after purchase. Check your balance before a long pause in use.
Yes, on Standard and Business: the first 25,000 dollars of list-price inference a month through your own keys carries no OpenRouter fee, and 5% applies above that. Vercel AI Gateway charges nothing on tokens even for your own keys.
OpenRouter offers EU in-region routing on Business or Enterprise through eu.openrouter.ai, for EU-eligible models only. Berget AI and GreenPT are the EU companies in this list, hosting in the EU and in Paris respectively.
Hugging Face lists 200+ models through partner providers and APIClaw advertises over 100, while OpenRouter describes hundreds. The single-vendor APIs such as Groq and Cerebras serve only what they host.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 7 November 2026. How we review.
