Best OpenRouter alternatives

Comparison

Tool	Price from	Free plan	Category
OpenRouter	not listed	yes	APIs & models
Alibaba Cloud Model Studio	not listed	trial	APIs & models
OpenAI Platform	0,10 USD	?	APIs & models
Andy (helloandy.net)	not listed	yes	APIs & models
Grok API	0.02 USD	?	APIs & models
DeepSeek API	not listed	?	APIs & models
Kimi API 开放平台	2 CNY	?	APIs & models
Mintlify	450 USD/mo	trial	APIs & models
xAI API	0.002 USD	trial	APIs & models

Each alternative in short

1. Alibaba Cloud Model Studio

Cloud platform with 400+ AI models and broader cloud infrastructure, for AI builders and enterprises scaling AI securely.

There is a free trial. Free tokens, a $200 instant credit with no minimum spend for new users (per homepage banner), and a free account option.

2. OpenAI Platform

Developer platform for building applications with the OpenAI API, aimed at software developers.

The vendor does not state this clearly on the homepage or pricing page.

3. Andy (helloandy.net)

Autonomous AI agent by helloandy that builds free search APIs, simulation tools and AI infrastructure for developers and AI builders.

Yes, there is a free plan. All tools and projects are free to use; ContextWire free tier includes 1,000 queries per month. AgentWire is free during alpha.

4. Grok API

Official SpaceXAI API for building apps with Grok models: text, image, video, voice, and tool calling, for developers.

The vendor does not state this clearly on the homepage or pricing page.

5. DeepSeek API

API for accessing DeepSeek language models via OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoints, for developers and agent tool users.

The vendor does not state this clearly on the homepage or pricing page.

6. Kimi API 开放平台

API platform from Moonshot AI giving developers access to the Kimi K3 and K2 family of large language models for coding, chat and multimodal tasks.

The vendor does not state this clearly on the homepage or pricing page.

7. Mintlify

Self-updating documentation platform that builds and maintains docs for startups, enterprises and AI agents.

There is a free trial. Starter plan is free with 5 editor seats, full platform, custom domain, web editor, authentication, MCP server and API playground. The homepage mentions the first month of credits included.

8. xAI API

Developer API for Grok models: text, code, image, video, voice, and real-time web search, billed per token.

There is a free trial. Playground is included with every Console account for testing models and generating images and video. API usage is billed per token, with no free API tier mentioned.

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