OpenRouter Alternatives: Vercel AI Gateway, LiteLLM
Short answer: OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway and LiteLLM each put many LLM providers behind one OpenAI-compatible API. OpenRouter and Vercel are hosted; LiteLLM is an MIT-licensed gateway you run yourself. Fees differ: OpenRouter adds 5.5% when you buy credits, Vercel says it adds no markup on tokens, and self-hosted LiteLLM has no license fee.
At a glance
OpenRouter
Vercel AI Gateway
LiteLLMOpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway vs LiteLLM features
| Feature | OpenRouter | Vercel AI Gateway | LiteLLM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Hosted | Hosted | Self-hosted, plus Enterprise support |
| License | Proprietary service | Proprietary service | MIT; enterprise/ folder separate |
| OpenAI-compatible API | Yes | Yes, plus Anthropic Messages | Yes, via proxy |
| Models or providers | 600+ models, 80+ providers (per OpenRouter) | Large catalog; browse in dashboard | 100+ providers |
| Fallbacks | Automatic routing and fallbacks | Ordered provider and model fallbacks | Router with retry and fallback |
| Budgets | Credit balance | Per team, project, key or member | Per key, team and user |
| BYOK | Yes; first $25,000 a month free | Yes, no fee; needs credits | Yes; your keys by design |
| GitHub stars | Closed source | Closed source | 62.4k |
From OpenRouter docs, Vercel AI Gateway docs, LiteLLM docs and GitHub.
OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway vs LiteLLM pricing
Token prices follow each provider's list price on all three. What differs is the fee on top: a percentage on credit purchases, a markup, or your own infrastructure.
| Plan | OpenRouter | Vercel AI Gateway | LiteLLM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free, $0. 25+ free models, 5 workspaces | Free credits on a subset of models | Open source, $0. Self-hosted |
| Platform fee | 5.5% Standard, 8% Business, on credit purchases | No markup on tokens, per Vercel | No license fee; you pay your servers |
| Bring your own key | No fee up to $25,000 a month, then 5% | No fee; needs purchased credits | No fee; keys stay yours |
| Add-ons | Business: 1,000 workspaces, EU in-region routing | $0.075 per 1,000 reporting writes; $0.10 per 1,000 requests for ZDR | Enterprise: SSO, SCIM, audit logs |
| Enterprise | Custom discounts via sales | Invoicing and volume discounts | Annual plan sized to request capacity |
Prices from openrouter.ai/pricing, Vercel AI Gateway pricing and litellm.ai/pricing.
OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway vs LiteLLM: what they're like to use
All three get a first request working in minutes. The real choice is who runs the gateway: a marketplace (OpenRouter), a managed control plane (Vercel) or you (LiteLLM).
OpenRouter
The fastest way to try many models: one key, one credit balance, and an OpenAI-compatible endpoint you can point your existing SDK at.
What I liked
- One balance and one key for 600+ models from 80+ providers, per OpenRouter.
- Failed attempts are not charged for model tokens.
- Bring your own key: first $25,000 a month of list-price inference has no fee.
What I didn't
- The platform fee applies to every credit purchase: 5.5% Standard, 8% Business.
- Free models are capped at 20 requests a minute and 50 a day.
- No self-hosted option, so prompts pass through a third party.
Best for: developers and small teams who want the widest model catalog behind one key.
Vercel AI Gateway
Reads like an operations tool more than a model marketplace. It works from any server, not only Vercel, and logs each request with its provider attempts, latency and cost.
What I liked
- No markup on tokens, including with your own key, per Vercel.
- Budgets per team, project, API key or team member.
- Ordered provider and model fallbacks, plus request logs.
What I didn't
- BYOK needs purchased credits first.
- Add-ons cost extra, such as $0.10 per 1,000 requests for team-wide zero data retention.
- Budgets do not cover BYOK spend.
Best for: teams already on Vercel or the AI SDK who want logs and budgets without running a proxy.
LiteLLM
A library and gateway you operate. The Python SDK gives one completion() call across 100+ providers, and the proxy server is an OpenAI-compatible gateway your existing clients can point at.
What I liked
- MIT core with virtual keys, budgets and rate limits included.
- Router with retry, fallback and load balancing.
- Runs in your own environment, so prompts stay with you.
What I didn't
- You run, secure and upgrade it yourself.
- SSO, SCIM and audit logs are Enterprise features.
- Enterprise has no list price; it is sized by annual request capacity.
Best for: platform teams that need control over keys, data and spend inside their own infrastructure.
Which to choose
- Choose OpenRouter for the broadest catalog and a single prepaid balance.
- Choose Vercel AI Gateway for budgets, logs and failover with no token markup and no servers to run.
- Choose LiteLLM if keys, prompts and spend data must stay inside your own infrastructure.
A gateway adds a hop and a dependency, so test latency and failure behaviour with your own traffic before committing.
Where viaSocket fits
A model gateway decides which LLM answers; viaSocket decides what the agent can do. They solve different problems and work side by side.
What viaSocket offers
- 2,300+ app integrations as agent tools, with managed authentication (features).
- Browser actions: your agent can browse, click, fill in forms and read pages on sites with no API (browser actions).
- AI agents and MCP support for compatible AI clients.
- Triggers, webhooks and schedules, with retries, execution replay and monitoring.
- Free plan: 100K tasks and 1,000 AI credits a month (pricing).
What you can build with it
- An agent on any gateway that answers a support email and updates the CRM.
- A daily digest that reads several apps and posts a summary in Slack.
- An agent that checks a vendor portal with no API, then records the result in a sheet.
FAQ
What is the difference between OpenRouter and LiteLLM?
OpenRouter is a hosted service with one balance for many models. LiteLLM is an open-source SDK and proxy that you run yourself with your own provider keys.
Does Vercel AI Gateway charge a markup?
Per Vercel, no. It charges no markup and no platform fee on tokens, including with your own key. Optional add-ons such as reporting and zero data retention are billed separately.
How much does OpenRouter charge?
Inference is billed at provider list price. OpenRouter adds a 5.5% fee on credit purchases on Standard and 8% on Business.
Can I self-host a model gateway?
Yes, with LiteLLM. Its open-source plan is free and self-hosted. OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway are hosted services.
Do I need a gateway at all?
Not for one provider. A gateway helps when you use several models, want one set of logs and budgets, or need failover between providers.
Sources
- OpenRouter: pricing, quickstart, models API
- Vercel AI Gateway: docs, pricing
- LiteLLM: docs, pricing, GitHub, license
- viaSocket: homepage, features, browser actions, pricing
