Route a chat request across many model providers with OpenRouter (base_url https://openrouter.ai/api/v1)
domain: openrouter.ai · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Create an API key at https://openrouter.ai/keys (optionally set a credit limit).
OpenAI SDK: `OpenAI(base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key="<KEY>")`, or POST to https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions with `Authorization: Bearer <KEY>`.
Set the model in `vendor/model` form, e.g. `openai/gpt-5.2` or `anthropic/claude-opus-4-6`.
Optionally add `HTTP-Referer` and `X-OpenRouter-Title` headers for app attribution/rankings.
Control routing via the `provider` object: `provider:{"order":["OpenAI","Together"]}` or `provider:{"allow_fallbacks":false}`.
Known gotchas
Use `openrouter/auto` or `provider:{"sort":"price"}`/`{"sort":"latency"}` to auto-select.
When tools/tool_choice are present, OpenRouter only routes to providers with native tool support.
BYOK: keys you supply in settings are used for those providers.
OpenRouter bills your credit balance regardless of which provider served (paid gateway).
Docs: https://openrouter.ai/docs/api/reference/authentication and https://openrouter.ai/docs/api/reference/overview
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