An OpenRouter alternative with no platform fee
OpenRouter adds a 5.5% to 8% fee every time you top up, plus sales tax where it applies. Hopscotch charges no fee. You keep the same models and the same OpenAI-compatible API. Switching means changing one base URL.
Both gateways bill tokens at each provider's list price. Minimum Hopscotch top-up starts at $5.
0% fee and no tax on every top-up.
Credit from $5, and every token at the provider's list price.
A budget, fallbacks and guardrails on every key.
Refused and blocked requests cost $0.
A 99.9% availability target, with service credits.
On every account, not only an enterprise tier.
- Anthropic
- OpenAI
- DeepSeek
- Qwen
- Meta
- Mistral AI
- Moonshot AI
- MiniMax
- Z.ai
- Cohere
In short
Hopscotch is an LLM gateway: one API key for 500+ models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and DeepSeek, with spend limits, fallbacks and request logs built in. It is an OpenRouter alternative for teams that want the single key without a fee on every top-up.
What the fee costs you
Both gateways bill every token at the provider's list price. The only line that differs is what you pay to buy credit.
OpenRouter pricing calculator
Standard: 5.5%, with a $0.80 minimum. Business: 8%. Business is OpenRouter's plan for routing inside the EU or US. Token prices are the same on both. Canada is shown at 13% HST.
At $10,000 a month, that fee is $550 on Standard and $800 on Business.
Hopscotch vs OpenRouter: where the routes split
| Hopscotch | OpenRouter | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 0% on credit purchases | 5.5% Standard, 8% Business, custom Enterprise |
| Tax on credit purchases | None | GST or HST collected on Canadian purchases; VAT or GST where required |
| Token pricing | Provider list price, no markup | Provider list price, no markup |
| Fallbacks | Up to five models per routing profile, tried in the order you set, changed in the dashboard without a deploy | Provider fallback and model routing in the request |
| Spend controls | Budget per key (daily, weekly or monthly), per teammate, per workspace, and a per-minute cap. Refused requests cost $0 | Credit limits per key |
| Bring your own key | No fee at any volume | No fee on the first $25,000 of usage each month. 5% after that. |
| Uptime commitment | 99.9% monthly availability target with service credits, on every account | Support SLA with committed response times on Enterprise; no published uptime target |
Three questions that decide it
A team that tops up $2,000 a month pays OpenRouter $110 in fees on Standard. On Hopscotch, $2,000 buys $2,000 of credit. Token prices are the same on both.
See pricingEvery Hopscotch key carries its own budget, and a request over the limit is refused before it reaches the provider. The loop stops, and the refused requests cost nothing. Teammates and the whole workspace get ceilings too.
See spend controlsOpenRouter charges a 5% fee once usage on your own keys passes $25,000 in a month. Hopscotch charges no fee on your own keys. Your provider bills you directly. Each request still appears in Usage and Activity.
See bring your own keyHow to switch from OpenRouter in four steps
- 01
Sign up, add credit from $5, and copy the key from the dashboard.
- 02
In the OpenAI SDK you already use, set base_url to https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1 and api_key to your Hopscotch key. Nothing else in your client changes.
- 03
Model IDs take the form provider/model, such as anthropic/claude-sonnet-5. A bare ID is refused with a 400 so nothing silently routes to a provider you did not pick. Pull the list from GET /v1/models or the models catalog.
- 04
OpenRouter's provider settings and :free models don't carry over. Name the provider in the model id instead. Put backup models in a routing profile and call it as profile/your-name. If you used openrouter/auto, use hopscotch/auto. It calls your default routing profile in the order you set. Until you set a default, it picks from Hopscotch's balanced shortlist for your workspace.
Your coding agent moves the same way. Setup guides exist for OpenCode, Claude Code, Cline, Codex CLI, Cursor, Aider, Continue and Zed. The quickstart walks through your first request.
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1", # was: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
api_key="YOUR_HOPSCOTCH_KEY", # was: your OpenRouter key
)
# model ids gain a provider: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5
client.chat.completions.create(model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-5", messages=[...])How Hopscotch compares with other OpenRouter alternatives
Here is what each gateway costs you, in fees or in work.
| Gateway | What it is | What you take on |
|---|---|---|
| Hopscotch | Managed gateway: one key, provider list price, budgets and guardrails on every key | Nothing on top: 0% fee and no tax on credit |
| OpenRouter | Managed gateway with public usage rankings and a large app ecosystem | A 5.5% to 8% fee on every top-up |
| Vercel AI Gateway | Managed gateway from Vercel, usable from any app | Payment processing fees on top-ups. Team-wide zero data retention costs extra. |
| LiteLLM | Open-source proxy on your own provider keys | Hosting, scaling and patching the proxy yourself |
| Prisma AIRS AI Gateway (formerly Portkey) | Gateway built around enterprise governance and observability | A governance platform to set up before the first request |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | Proxy for caching, logging and rate limits | A 5% fee on Cloudflare credit, or a key and bill per provider |
| Direct provider APIs | Each provider's own API and key | No failover, and a key and bill per provider |
OpenRouter alternatives: questions people ask before switching
What are OpenRouter's fees?
OpenRouter charges nothing per token. It charges when you buy credit: 5.5% on Standard with a $0.80 minimum, 5% for crypto, 8% on Business and custom pricing on Enterprise. Token prices are the provider's list price. Hopscotch charges 0% when you buy credit and the same list price per token. Checked October 21, 2026.
Does OpenRouter mark up model prices?
No. Neither OpenRouter nor Hopscotch adds a per-token markup; both pass through each provider's list price. OpenRouter's fee is applied when you buy credit, so $100 of spend costs $105.50 on Standard. Hopscotch's fee at purchase is 0%, so $100 of spend costs $100.
How does OpenRouter make money?
OpenRouter earns a fee on every credit purchase, a 5% fee on bring-your-own-key usage above $25,000 a month, and Business and Enterprise plans. Hopscotch charges 0% on credit today and nothing on bring-your-own-key usage.
Is OpenRouter cheaper than calling the provider directly?
Per token, no. OpenRouter passes through the provider's price and adds a fee at purchase, so the direct API is cheaper by that fee. You pay OpenRouter for one key, failover and a single bill. Hopscotch gives you the one key, failover and one bill at the direct price.
Is OpenRouter worth it?
It is worth it when you use several models or want failover without building it, and less so when you run one model at volume, where the fee is pure cost. Hopscotch removes the fee, so the trade-off disappears: you keep the single key and the fallbacks and pay list price.
Do credits expire?
On OpenRouter, unused credits may expire one year after purchase under its terms. Refunds are available within 24 hours of a purchase; after that the credit stays on the account until it is spent or expires.
Do I pay GST or HST on credit as a Canadian company?
On OpenRouter, yes: it collects Canada's GST or HST on credit purchases by Canadian accounts, on top of its 5.5% or 8% fee. On Hopscotch, no: there is no fee and no tax on credit, so the amount you type is the amount your card is charged and the credit you receive.
Is there a fee for using my own provider keys?
On Hopscotch, no. Requests on your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key are billed by that provider and Hopscotch adds nothing. On OpenRouter, bring-your-own-key usage is free up to $25,000 a month of list-price usage on pay-as-you-go, then carries a 5% fee.
How do Vercel AI Gateway and LiteLLM compare with OpenRouter?
Vercel AI Gateway charges no markup or platform fee on tokens. Payment processing fees may apply when you top up. Team-wide zero data retention costs extra. LiteLLM is an open-source proxy that you host yourself on your own provider keys. Hopscotch is a managed gateway with one key and no fee on credit.
Can I move my coding agent from OpenRouter to Hopscotch?
Yes. Most tools take an OpenAI-compatible base URL. Set it to https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1 and paste your Hopscotch key. Model names use the provider/model form. Setup guides cover OpenCode, Claude Code, Cline, Codex CLI, Cursor, Aider, Continue and Zed.
Same models. No fee on top-ups.
Change the base URL in your SDK and add credit. There is no fee when you top up.