Yes, OpenRouter has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes access to 25+ free models, access to 4 free providers, and 50 requests per day. FreeTier.co estimates the free tier at about $25/mo.
About
OpenRouter is a unified API and chat interface for accessing large language models from multiple providers through a single OpenAI-compatible endpoint. It supports model browsing, routing, fallback selection, and API key management for developers integrating LLMs into applications.
The free plan includes access to 25+ free models from 4 free providers, with chat and API access, 50 requests per day, and free-model-only token pricing. It is aimed at developers who want to test or build against multiple model providers without a subscription, while accepting daily request limits and provider-side rate limiting on popular models.
- OpenAI-compatible API endpoint
- 25+ free models
- 4 free providers
- 50 requests per day
- Free models only token pricing
- Chat and API access
- Routing and fallback support
Free Tier Value
This free tier is capped but genuinely usable: it includes chat and API access, a small set of free models/providers, and 50 requests per day, so it has real monthly utility rather than just a demo. Compared with the paid offering, it lacks the broader model catalog, higher limits, and business features, so a reasonable buyer-equivalent value is about $25/month - roughly a quarter of the cheapest paid plan’s practical value, with no credit card mentioned on the page.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Access to 25+ free models.
- Access to 4 free providers.
- Chat and API access.
- 50 requests per day.
- Free models only for token pricing.
- Community support.
See OpenRouter pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Pay-as-you-go
- platform fee
- 5.5%
- models
- 500+
- providers
- 80+
- rate limits
- High global limits
- BYOK inference
- $25,000 of list price inference / month with no fees, 5% fee after
- 500+ models
- 80+ providers
- Chat and API access
- Activity logs & export
- Auto-routing and preferred vendor selections
- Budgets & spend controls
- Prompt caching
- Management API key
Enterprise
- models
- 500+
- providers
- 80+
- BYOK inference
- $200,000 of list price inference / month with no fees, 5% fee after
- rate limits
- Optional dedicated limits
- 500+ models
- 80+ providers
- Chat and API access
- Activity logs & export
- Auto-routing and preferred vendor selections
- Budgets & spend controls
- SSO/SAML
- Contractual SLAs
Pricing extracted from OpenRouter's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is OpenRouter free forever?
Yes. OpenRouter has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
What is OpenRouter's free tier worth?
OpenRouter's free tier is worth about $25 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 52/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
