Choose an inference provider
Set provider preferences for a model instead of accepting every available route.
Hosted gateway
OpenRouter
Access models through one API and control which inference providers serve a request. Provider preferences and fallbacks help manage availability.
Sources reviewed . Documentation review; not a performance benchmark or runtime test.
What can you do with OpenRouter?
Plan for unavailable providers
Configure fallback behavior and review the data policy of each eligible provider.
Check request compatibility
Validate that the chosen route supports the parameters your application needs.
Before you integrate
Check provider-level data policies and model parameter support when setting routing preferences.
Test against your own workload
Compare successful responses, latency and the total bill, including retries and fallbacks. Verify streaming, tool calls and structured output on the routes you plan to use. These are evaluation steps, not claims that every feature is supported.
Check model-provider incidents →Pricing and model access
Model rates, platform fees, credits and eligibility can change. Check the publisher’s current terms before choosing a route. Our calculator estimates model token costs; it does not quote a negotiated OpenRouter bill.
Check OpenRouter documentation ↗Sources and corrections
Suggest an update →Compare related routing products
Selected by product type and shared routing capabilities.
Vercel AI Gateway →
Route requests across providers and fallback models with visibility into routing attempts, latency, token usage and cost.
Cloudflare AI Gateway →
Manage model requests with logging, caching and rate limits, plus fallback providers for errors or configured timeouts.
Merge Gateway →
Use one inference API with model routing, budgets and data controls. Choose ordered failover, intelligent selection or a custom benchmark-weighted routing policy.