Comparison · reviewed 30 July 2026
minirouter vs OpenRouter
Both are OpenAI-compatible gateways that route one API key across many providers with automatic failover. OpenRouter facts are as published on their site on 30 July 2026.
What OpenRouter genuinely does better
- Catalog size
- A broader catalog than our curated launch set — more likely to carry an obscure model.
- Frontier models, first-party
- Claude, GPT and Gemini work with its key alone. Here restricted first-party inventory is unavailable until resale terms are approved.
- Track record
- Operating publicly since 2023 at substantial scale. minirouter is new.
Where we differ
- Deposits
- 0% on crypto here versus 5% there at review; cards 3.5% pass-through here versus about 5.5% there.
- Identity
- No account or KYC — setup returns an API key plus a permanent dashboard link. Lose both and there is no personal recovery.
- Measurements
- p95s, per-provider breakdowns and incident history from our own edge; a model without seven days of samples reads “unmeasured” and is excluded from search indexing.
- Credits
- 1,000 credits = $1, pegged. Provider price cuts pass through; the exchange risk is ours.
We make no uptime comparison: minirouter has not run long enough to earn one.
Side by side · as of 30 July 2026
| Dimension | minirouter | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog | Approved open-model inventory only | Several hundred models, frontier included |
| Frontier models | Not currently offered | First-party models included |
| Account | None required — the key is the identity | Required |
| KYC | Never; nothing exists to verify | No ID checks for typical use; account and payment details required |
| Deposit fee — crypto | 0% | 5% at the time of review |
| Deposit fee — card | 3.5% processor cost, passed through and shown before payment | about 5.5% at the time of review |
| Pricing unit | 1,000 credits = $1, pegged; provider price cuts pass through | USD credits |
| Per-provider measurements | p50/p95 TTFT, throughput, uptime and incident history per provider, from our own edge; unmeasured models carry no numbers at all | Provider throughput and latency stats shown on model pages |
| Failover | Automatic, and recorded on the request — the struck-through provider is part of the response, not a claim | Automatic provider fallbacks |
| Track record | New. This prototype's figures are synthetic and labelled as such | Operating publicly since 2023, at scale |
Which should you use?
Mostly frontier traffic, or the widest catalog: use OpenRouter. Open-weight models, crypto payment, no KYC, or measurements you can check: use minirouter. Browse the models and the providers before paying anyone.