An OrcaRouter alternative with a budget on every key
OrcaRouter lists routing as free and bills tokens at provider rates. Hopscotch charges 0% when you buy credit and puts a budget, fallbacks and guardrails on every key.
OrcaRouter's Hacker tier is free. Team seats start on its Team plan at $499 a month. Neither adds a fee at purchase (pricing page, Nov 6, 2026).
0% fee on every top-up.
Credit from $5, and every token at the provider's list price. Or pick a Pass: each seat gets twice its price in model use every month.
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
Hopscotch vs OrcaRouter
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 OrcaRouter alternative for teams that want a managed single key, a flat 0% fee and per-key budgets.
A budget on every key
Every key, teammate and workspace gets its own cap. A request over it is refused before it reaches the provider, so it costs $0.
Passes: 2x what you pay in model use
Each seat gets twice its price in model use, on every model, frontier included, at provider rates with no markup. OrcaRouter bills tokens at provider rates, so $50 there buys $50 of model use.
Monthly, per seat.
Hopscotch vs OrcaRouter: where the routes split
| Feature | Hopscotch | OrcaRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 0% on credit purchases | $0.00 on top-ups on Hacker and Team; your own keys may carry a platform fee |
| Token pricing | Provider list price, no markup | Provider rates per vendor site |
| Your own provider keys | No fee at any volume | Free during an introductory period, per its docs |
| Fallbacks | Up to five models per routing profile, tried in the order you set, changed in the dashboard without a deploy | Automatic failover per vendor site |
| Spend controls | Budget on every key, refused requests cost $0 | Credit limit per key, a cap on total spend |
| Uptime commitment | 99.9% monthly availability target with service credits, on every account | 99.99% uptime SLA on Enterprise |
Three questions that decide it
A team topping up $2,000 a month on Hopscotch pays $2,000, and every token is billed at the provider's list price. If you are weighing an OrcaRouter alternative, it lists no top-up fee either, and its team features start at $499 a month.
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 controlsOn Hopscotch, requests on your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key are billed by that provider, with no Hopscotch fee at any volume.
See bring your own keyHow to switch from OrcaRouter 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
Put backups in a routing profile and call it as profile/your-name. Set a routing profile as your default and it calls that profile in the order you set; until you do, it answers from Hopscotch's balanced shortlist for your workspace.
Your coding agent moves the same way. Setup guides exist for OpenCode, 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: your OrcaRouter base URL
api_key="YOUR_HOPSCOTCH_KEY", # was: your OrcaRouter 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 OrcaRouter alternatives
Here is what each gateway costs you, in fees or in work.
More comparisons: OpenRouter alternative, Portkey alternative, LiteLLM alternative, Vercel AI Gateway alternative and Cheaper Inference alternative.
| 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 on credit |
| OrcaRouter | Managed gateway with adaptive routing and governance | $499 a month for team seats and compliance features |
| 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 that works from any server, with no markup or platform fee on tokens | A Vercel team account, and card processing fees where they apply |
| 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 |
| Direct provider APIs | Each provider's own API and key | No failover, and a key and bill per provider |
OrcaRouter alternatives: questions people ask before switching
What is OrcaRouter pricing?
Hopscotch charges 0% when you buy credit and the same list price per token. OrcaRouter's vendor site describes routing as free with tokens at provider rates, and paid team features.
Does Hopscotch have monthly plans?
Yes, and they are optional. Hopscotch Passes are per-seat monthly plans where each seat gets twice its price in model use, on every model, frontier included, at provider rates with no markup: Starter is $20 a month for $40 of model use, Growth $50 for $100 and Pro $200 for $400. Limited time offer. Credit from $5 still works with no pass.
OrcaRouter vs Hopscotch: which costs less?
Per token, both pass through provider prices. Hopscotch adds 0% when you buy credit, and its Passes give each seat twice its price in model use, so a $50 Growth pass buys $100 of model use. Passes are a limited time offer.
Does OrcaRouter have a free tier?
Hopscotch has no free tier today; credit starts at $5. OrcaRouter's pricing page lists a free Hacker tier (Nov 6, 2026).
How does OrcaRouter's uptime commitment compare?
Hopscotch publishes a 99.9% monthly availability target with service credits on every account. OrcaRouter lists a 99.99% uptime SLA on Enterprise (Nov 6, 2026).
OrcaRouter vs OpenRouter: where does Hopscotch fit?
Hopscotch is a managed gateway with a 0% fee on credit. OpenRouter charges 5.5% to 8% on top-ups, read Nov 6, 2026. OrcaRouter lists no fee on top-ups on Hacker and Team.
Can I move from OrcaRouter to Hopscotch?
Yes. Set the base URL to https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1, paste your key, and use provider/model names.
Same models, one base URL change, a budget on every key
Connect your SDK to Hopscotch, add credit and send a request.