Both are LLM gateways with one OpenAI-compatible API in front of many providers, and neither marks up the price of a token. They differ in whose capacity your requests run on, what using your own provider keys costs at volume, and what happens when one of those keys fails. This page compares them feature by feature. OpenRouter’s side is taken from its own public pages, each linked, as they read on 2026-11-01.
Feature by feature
| Autonomous Relay | OpenRouter | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay for tokens | Always on your own provider key; the provider bills you directly. | With credits on OpenRouter’s capacity, or on your own keys (BYOK). source |
| Markup on inference | 0%. | 0%: “billed at the provider’s list price on every plan”. source |
| Fee for using your own keys | $0, at any volume. | None up to $25,000 a month of list-price inference, then 5% of the list price. source |
| Fee on credits | There are no credits to buy. | 5.5% on Standard, 8% on Business, charged when you buy credits. source |
| When your key fails | The next candidate on your own keys. A request never moves onto shared capacity. | By default, falls back to shared OpenRouter capacity, which spends credits; a per-key setting turns that off. source |
| Subscription | Solo is free; Pro is $29, Team $99 and Business $399 a month per organisation; Enterprise is by contract. | None; the fees above. source |
| Fallback chains | A models array: the first three models, up to three attempts; account-wide defaults. | A models array; no maximum is documented. source |
| Spend limits | Per-key ceilings and agent and workspace budgets on every plan; guardrail budgets on Team. | Budgets and spend controls on Standard, Business and Enterprise: per-key and per-person budgets, and pooled workspace budgets. sourcesource |
| PII redaction and provider allowlists | Built-in PII redaction and prompt-injection detection on every plan; provider allowlists, custom patterns and block mode on Team. | Yes, in Guardrails, including prompt-injection detection. source |
| Restricting requests to a data region | Yes, on Team; a request that cannot be served in the region is refused. | Yes, on Business and Enterprise. source |
| Catalogue | 290+ models from 16+ providers. | 500+ models from 80+ providers. source |
| Free models without a provider key | Not offered today. | 25+ free models; 50 requests a day on the Free plan. source |
| Single sign-on (SAML) | Enterprise. | Enterprise. source |
OpenRouter's BYOK fee, explained
On OpenRouter's Standard and Business plans, your first $25,000 a month of list-price inference on your own provider keys carries no OpenRouter fee. Past that, OpenRouter charges 5% of what the same requests would cost at list price, taken from your OpenRouter credits. source At $40,000 a month on your own keys that is $750 a month; at $100,000, $3,750. Autonomous Relay charges nothing on your own keys, at any volume.
Credits are a separate fee: 5.5% on Standard and 8% on Business, charged when you buy them, with no markup on the tokens themselves. source
What the same requests cost at the providers’ list prices in a month.
| OpenRouter, on your own keys (BYOK) | $750 a month |
|---|---|
| OpenRouter, on credits (Standard) | $2,200 a month |
| OpenRouter, on credits (Business) | $3,200 a month |
| Autonomous Relay, on your own keys | $0 a month |
Fees only: the tokens cost the providers’ list price either way. Autonomous Relay’s plans are flat: Solo is free, Pro $29, Team $99 and Business $399 a month per organisation.
Looking for an OpenRouter alternative?
Three things decide which gateway fits: who bills the tokens, what using your own keys costs at your volume, and what happens when one of those keys fails. Autonomous Relay is BYOK-only: your provider bills you, there is no fee on your keys and no markup on tokens, and a request whose keys fail moves to your next key rather than onto shared capacity. Weighing Portkey or LiteLLM as well? See Autonomous Relay, Portkey and LiteLLM.
When OpenRouter is the better fit
- You would rather not hold accounts with each provider, and want one bill paid with credits.
- You need the widest catalogue: OpenRouter lists more models from more providers.
- You want free models with no provider key at all.
When Autonomous Relay is the better fit
- You already have provider contracts and keys, and want every request billed by them, on them.
- You spend more than $25,000 a month at list price: past that, OpenRouter charges 5% on requests made with your own keys, and Autonomous Relay charges nothing.
- A request must never move onto someone else’s capacity: here, if your keys cannot serve it, it fails rather than falling back to shared endpoints.
- You want team controls (guardrails with custom redaction and budgets, client workspaces, usage alerts) at a flat $99 a month.
Switching
Both speak the OpenAI Chat Completions format and both take a models fallback array, so moving is a base URL and a key: point the OpenAI SDK at https://autonomousrelay.com/v1, add your provider keys, and keep your code. Model ids are author/slug in both. See the quickstart, how fallbacks and failover work here, and pricing.
Questions
- Does OpenRouter charge a fee for BYOK?
- Not on the first $25,000 a month of list-price inference on your own keys, on its Standard and Business plans. Past that, OpenRouter charges 5% of what the same requests would cost at list price, taken from your OpenRouter credits. Autonomous Relay charges nothing on your own keys, at any volume.
- What fee does OpenRouter charge on credits?
- 5.5% on its Standard plan and 8% on Business, charged when you buy credits rather than on each request. Enterprise fees are negotiated. Autonomous Relay has no credits: every request is billed by your provider, on your key.
- What is an OpenRouter alternative with no BYOK fee?
- Autonomous Relay is an OpenAI-compatible gateway that only runs on your own provider keys, with no fee on them and no markup on tokens. A request whose keys fail moves to your next key, never onto shared capacity. Switching is a base URL and a key; model ids are author/slug in both.