# Models.dev vs OpenRouter

Models.dev records 200,451 monthly visits with -3.9% month-over-month growth and Free pricing. OpenRouter records 19,941,437 monthly visits with -6.2% growth and Paid pricing.

| Metric | [Models.dev](https://openaitools.app/tool/models-dev) | [OpenRouter](https://openaitools.app/tool/openrouter-ai) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://models.dev | https://openrouter.ai |
| Categories | AI Models, AI API, Open Source AI Models, AI Tools Directory | AI API, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Models |
| Pricing Model | Free | Paid |
| Monthly Visits | 200,451 | 19,941,437 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -3.9% | -6.2% |
| Primary Market | China | United States |
| Direct Visits | 136,316 | 11,964,259 |
| Review Score | 4.4 | 4.8 |
| Saved Count | 0 | 3 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## Models.dev

Models.dev exists to answer a very practical developer question: which model should I use, and what will it cost? The site organises every entry under a canonical identifier in the form provider/model, so the same model served by several providers can be compared directly rather than guessed at. Columns cover context window, maximum output, whether input and output are supported, reasoning, tool calling, structured output, temperature control, open versus closed weights, price per million tokens, and release and update dates.

Because model releases move fast, the catalogue is built to stay current, with sortable and searchable tables that let you scan by lab or provider and filter down to what matters. Entries include both closed flagship models and open-weight alternatives, making it useful for cost planning as well as capability research.

The project is open source and free to use, and it is intended to be consumed programmatically. Developers can pull the catalogue into their own tooling through a JSON API or a type-safe SDK, which makes it a practical backend for dashboards, routing logic, or internal cost calculators rather than just a reference page to browse.

**Pricing & Plans:** Models.dev is free and open source. It is a reference database, so the prices it lists are the per-million-token rates charged by the model providers themselves, not a fee for using the site.

- **Canonical model identifiers:** Every model uses a consistent provider/model format so the same model across providers can be compared directly.
- **Specification comparison:** Side-by-side context window, output limit, reasoning, tool calling, structured output, and temperature support.
- **Pricing transparency:** Input and output prices per million tokens listed alongside release and update dates.
- **Open and closed models:** Covers closed flagship APIs and open-weight models from many labs in one sortable catalogue.
- **Developer access:** Consume the catalogue through a JSON API or a type-safe SDK for your own tools and dashboards.

**Strengths:** Free and open source with no account required; Consistent canonical identifiers make cross-provider comparison reliable; Covers pricing, limits, and capabilities in one sortable table; Available as a JSON API and type-safe SDK for programmatic use

**Limitations:** It is a reference catalogue, not an inference or hosting service; Data quality depends on community and maintainer updates keeping pace with releases; Interface is aimed at developers and offers little guidance for non-technical users

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/models-dev.md)

## OpenRouter

OpenRouter solves a practical integration problem: the AI model landscape is fragmented across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, DeepSeek, and many smaller labs, each with its own API, pricing, and reliability characteristics. OpenRouter normalizes them behind one OpenAI-compatible interface, so switching from one model to another is a matter of changing a model string rather than rewriting your integration. The catalogue spans text, image, video, speech, transcription, embedding, and reranking models.

A core differentiator is intelligent routing and failover. The auto-router picks a model and provider per request based on live marketplace data, aiming to keep responses fast and available while controlling cost. Failover is on by default, so if a provider goes down or hits a rate limit, another can serve the request without you writing retry logic. You can also bring your own provider keys and keep negotiated rates while still tracking everything centrally.

For teams and enterprises, OpenRouter adds governance features: workspaces and budgets, audit logs, SSO and SCIM, provider allow-lists, zero-data-retention policies, and region-specific routing. The public models and rankings pages make it a useful reference for comparing capability and price across the ecosystem. Pricing is usage-based, pay-as-you-go with no subscription required, plus enterprise arrangements for larger organizations.

**Pricing & Plans:** Pay-as-you-go usage-based pricing with no subscription required; enterprise plans add governance, SLAs, and private endpoints. Check openrouter.ai for current rates.

- **Unified model access:** Six hundred plus models for text, image, video, audio, transcription, embeddings, and reranking behind one OpenAI-compatible API.
- **Automatic failover:** Requests are rerouted to another provider on outages or rate limits by default, so you don't write custom retry logic.
- **Intelligent routing:** The auto-router selects a model and provider per request using live marketplace performance and pricing data.
- **Unified billing and dashboards:** Track spend, tokens, and usage per model, provider, and team member in one place, including bring-your-own-key usage.
- **Enterprise governance:** Workspaces, budgets, SSO and SCIM, audit logs, provider allow-lists, zero-data-retention, and regional routing.

**Strengths:** Single integration point across hundreds of models from many providers; Built-in failover reduces the engineering cost of staying available; Transparent, usage-based pricing with per-model cost visibility; Strong enterprise controls including SSO, audit logs, and data retention policy

**Limitations:** Adds a routing layer and third-party dependency between you and model vendors; You rely on OpenRouter's uptime and policies for every request; Advanced governance features are oriented toward business and enterprise tiers

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/openrouter-ai.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do Models.dev and OpenRouter compare in monthly traffic?

Models.dev has 200,451 monthly visits, while OpenRouter has 19,941,437. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Models.dev has a month-over-month growth rate of -3.9%; OpenRouter has -6.2%.

### How does pricing compare?

Models.dev: Free. Models.dev is free and open source. It is a reference database, so the prices it lists are the per-million-token rates charged by the model providers themselves, not a fee for using the site. OpenRouter: Paid. Pay-as-you-go usage-based pricing with no subscription required; enterprise plans add governance, SLAs, and private endpoints. Check openrouter.ai for current rates.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Together AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/together-ai) | 1,645,930 | +64.9% | Freemium, Paid | Offers robust serverless inference and GPU clusters for open models, but features a narrower selection of proprietary models. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/together-ai.md) |
| 2 | [OrcaRouter](https://openaitools.app/tool/orcarouter) | 975,300 | -5.2% | Freemium | Features adaptive LLM routing and automatic failover, but lacks OpenRouter's massive ecosystem of community-rated model endpoints. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/orcarouter.md) |
| 3 | [Fireworks](https://openaitools.app/tool/fireworks-ai) | 659,687 | +6% | Contact for Pricing | Delivers exceptional inference speed and high-throughput performance for open models, but focuses primarily on hosted weights rather than multi-provider aggregation. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/fireworks-ai.md) |
| 4 | [LiteLLM](https://openaitools.app/tool/litellm) | 576,967 | +7.9% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Provides self-hosted and Python SDK control over 100+ LLMs, but requires setting up your own infrastructure. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/litellm.md) |
| 5 | [DeepInfra](https://openaitools.app/tool/deep-infra) | 457,810 | -8.9% | Paid | Low-cost serverless inference APIs for 200+ open models | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/deep-infra.md) |
| 6 | [ZenMux](https://openaitools.app/tool/zenmux) | 444,394 | +16.7% | Freemium, Paid | One unified API for 100+ AI models, with insurance when output disappoints | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/zenmux.md) |
| 7 | [SiliconFlow](https://openaitools.app/tool/siliconflow) | 276,303 | -10.5% | Pay-as-you-go | One API for fast, cost-predictable inference on LLMs and multimodal models | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/siliconflow.md) |
| 8 | [AI/ML API](https://openaitools.app/tool/ai-ml-api) | 232,946 | -20.1% | Pay-as-you-go credits (free to start); enterprise custom pricing on request | Aggregates hundreds of foundation models and agentic tools under one endpoint, but lacks OpenRouter's community popularity and extensive prompt tuning. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/ai-ml-api.md) |
| 9 | [Stork](https://openaitools.app/tool/stork) | 201,544 | +2.3% | Free | Includes model pricing trackers and developer news alongside tools directories, but less focused on raw API specs. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/stork.md) |
| 10 | [Portkey](https://openaitools.app/tool/portkey-ai) | 195,650 | -9.4% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Delivers advanced enterprise observability, guardrails, and caching, but focuses more on governance than simple model aggregation. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/portkey-ai.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/models-dev-vs-openrouter-ai

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)