BiWu.AiOpenRouter Pricing: Fees, Free Models and BYOK
OpenRouter bills inference at each provider's list price and does not mark up tokens. It charges a fee when you buy credits instead: 5.5% on the Standard plan and 8% on Business.
For example, $100 of credits costs $105.50 on Standard by card. Paying with crypto costs 5%, and bring-your-own-key usage is free up to $25,000 of list-price inference a month.
Prices checked Oct 10, 2026
Token markup
None
Provider list price
Credit fee
5.5%
Standard; 8% on Business
Crypto fee
5%
Free BYOK
$25,000/month
Then 5%
OpenRouter fees
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Model tokens | Provider list price | No markup on any plan; failed and fallback attempts are not charged |
| Buying credits, Standard | 5.5% | Card payments have a $0.80 minimum fee according to the docs FAQ |
| Buying credits, Business | 8% | Adds EU/US in-region routing and more workspaces |
| Buying credits with crypto | 5% | Paid in USDC; crypto payments are not refundable |
| Bring your own key (BYOK) | Free up to $25,000/month, then 5% | Measured by list-price inference cost; the 5% is taken from OpenRouter credits |
| Enterprise | By contract | Fee discounts available; inference itself is not discounted |
Free models and limits
- The free plan includes more than 25 free models; their IDs end in :free.
- Free models allow 20 requests a minute and 50 requests a day. Accounts that have bought at least $10 of credits get 1,000 free-model requests a day.
- Failed attempts count toward the daily cap, and a negative balance blocks free models.
- Paid models have no plan-based rate limits; the provider's own limits apply.
Other terms
- Platform fees are not refundable. Unused credits can be refunded within 24 hours of purchase, and OpenRouter may expire unused credits one year after purchase.
- Prices exclude VAT or GST. Opting in to prompt logging gives a 1% discount.
- OpenRouter's FAQ says there are no volume discounts on inference.
FAQ
Does OpenRouter charge more than the provider?
Not on tokens: inference is billed at the provider's list price. You pay a fee when buying credits, 5.5% on Standard or 8% on Business.
How much does OpenRouter charge to buy credits?
5.5% on the Standard plan (with a $0.80 minimum for card payments), 8% on Business and 5% for crypto. $100 of credits costs $105.50 on Standard.
Is OpenRouter free?
There are more than 25 free models with limits of 20 requests a minute and 50 a day, or 1,000 a day after buying at least $10 of credits.
Does OpenRouter charge for BYOK?
Bring-your-own-key usage is free up to $25,000 of list-price inference a month on Standard and Business, then 5%.
Sources
- OpenRouter pricing (checked Oct 10, 2026)
- OpenRouter docs: FAQ (checked Oct 10, 2026)
- OpenRouter docs: limits (checked Oct 10, 2026)
- OpenRouter docs: BYOK (checked Oct 10, 2026)
Related pricing
BiWu.Ai is not affiliated with OpenRouter or the services listed here and does not sell API access. Fees and limits can change; check OpenRouter's pricing page before you buy credits.