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Rapid Router
Rapid Router vs OpenRouter

The same one-API idea, built for teams that bill in rupees.

Same API, same model ids. The difference is rupee billing, a GST invoice, media models and support in IST.
Create a free keyHow to switch
Side by side

Row by row. What each side offers.

API shape
Rapid Router

OpenAI-compatible /chat/completions, /messages (Anthropic format), /responses, /embeddings

OpenRouter

OpenAI-compatible /chat/completions

Billing currency
Rapid Router

Rupees (UPI or RuPay card) or dollars; GST invoice on every top-up

OpenRouter

US dollars

Platform fee
Rapid Router

5%, charged once when you buy credits, plus a 4% currency margin when you pay in rupees; the per-request price is the provider list price

OpenRouter

About 5.5% + $0.35 per top-up, at the time of writing

Free tier
Rapid Router

Models that cost us nothing upstream are free to you: 50 free requests a day per account (1,000/day once your paid usage reaches $10). Everything else is billed at the provider price; older :free ids that are no longer free still work, billed like the model without :free

OpenRouter

Free-suffix models with daily caps

PDF, audio and video input
Rapid Router

On every model: native where the provider reads it, converted server-side everywhere else

OpenRouter

PDF and audio on supporting models

Media generation
Rapid Router

Images, video, speech and translation behind the same key, priced per unit

OpenRouter

Chat-first catalog

Batch API
Rapid Router

OpenAI batch shape, standard per-token pricing

OpenRouter

Not offered, at the time of writing

BYOK
Rapid Router

Your own provider keys with a 5% fee, never silently mixed with ours

OpenRouter

Your own provider keys with a 5% fee

Response caching
Rapid Router

Optional same-request cache, replays are free

OpenRouter

Provider prompt caching passthrough

Support
Rapid Router

A human in your timezone (IST)

OpenRouter

Discord and email

The OpenRouter column reflects their public documentation and pricing pages at the time of writing; their product moves too, so check their site for the current state.

A worked month

A month of usage, priced both ways.

Take a model at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, and a month of 10 million input and 2 million output tokens. The provider list price is $60 on both gateways. What differs is how you pay for it from India.
Through OpenRouter
Roughly ₹7,308
all in, paid in dollars
  • $60 of model usage at list price
  • Top-up fee of about 5.5% plus $0.35, at the time of writing
  • International card forex markup, typically 2 to 4% (3% here)
  • 18% GST under reverse charge, self-assessed, no invoice to match
Through Rapid Router
Roughly ₹7,304
all in, on one GST invoice
  • ₹5,895 of model usage at list price, converted at our billing rate: the market rate plus a 4% currency margin
  • Platform fee of 5%, charged once when you buy credits
  • Paid with UPI or an Indian card, no forex charge from the card network
  • 18% GST on the invoice, claimable as input credit if you are registered

That is about the same as OpenRouter today. The price is close either way; what differs is paying in rupees with a GST invoice you can claim.

Illustrative. Both sides are converted at today's market rate of ₹94.47 per dollar; ours adds our currency margin, and the card markup is an assumption. Your bank's rate and the OpenRouter fee at the time you read this may differ.

Where OpenRouter is the better fit.

A comparison page that only lists wins is not worth reading. OpenRouter has been at this longer, carries a larger catalog of niche and community models, and offers provider-level routing controls we have not matched yet. If your team already pays in dollars, needs one of those long-tail models, or is deep into OpenRouter-specific features, stay. Our case is the Indian company: rupee billing, UPI, a GST invoice, media models behind the same key, and a human in your timezone.

Switching

Migrating takes one line.

Point your existing OpenAI or OpenRouter SDK at our base URL and swap the key. Model ids keep the vendor/model shape (most OpenRouter ids work as they are; the model page shows ours), :free works, and PDF parts in OpenRouter's file shape are accepted as-is - the gateway normalises content parts per provider, so the same request body runs on a Google model and a Claude model without edits.

# before
base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"

# after
base_url = "https://rapidrouter.ai/api/v1"

The change for every SDK, and what maps 1:1, on Switch from OpenRouter.

Create a free keyBrowse the catalog

Migration checklist

  1. 01Create a Rapid Router account and a key. Every new account starts with a free daily allowance, so the first requests cost nothing.
  2. 02Change the base URL to https://rapidrouter.ai/api/v1 and swap the API key.
  3. 03Run your test suite. The response shape is the OpenAI shape on both sides, so differences, if any, show up here and not in production.
  4. 04Look up every model id you use in the catalog. Most OpenRouter ids work as they are; a few name a version we do not carry, and the catalog shows the nearest one we do. A model we do not carry yet can be asked for through support.
  5. 05Top up in rupees with UPI. The GST invoice lands in your dashboard and your inbox after each recharge.
  6. 06Set a monthly cap per key and a spend alert, then switch production traffic.
Questions

Common questions.

Is Rapid Router an OpenRouter alternative?
Yes. Rapid Router is an AI model gateway: one OpenAI-compatible API in front of Claude, GPT, Gemini and 500+ other models, with pay-as-you-go pricing. If you use OpenRouter today, the request shape you already send works here.
How do I migrate from OpenRouter to Rapid Router?
Change the base URL to https://rapidrouter.ai/api/v1 and swap the API key. Model ids use the same vendor/model convention and most OpenRouter ids work as they are. A few name a version we do not carry; the catalog shows the ones we do, and each model page shows its id. OpenRouter conventions like the :free suffix and the file content part for PDFs are accepted as-is.
Can I pay in rupees?
Yes. Top up with UPI or a RuPay card, get a GST invoice on every recharge, and see prices in rupees across the catalog. Dollar payment works too.
What does Rapid Router charge on top of model prices?
The per-request price is the provider list price shown in the catalog. The platform fee is charged once, when you buy credits, not per request.
Does Rapid Router have a free tier?
Yes. A model whose provider charges us nothing for it is free to you too: 50 requests a day per account at no cost, raised to 1,000 a day once your paid usage reaches $10. We do not sponsor tokens, so every other model, including older ids that end in :free, is billed at the provider price shown in the catalog.
Is Rapid Router cheaper than OpenRouter?
Per request, both charge the provider list price, so the model price is the same. The difference is around the payment: OpenRouter adds 5.5% plus $0.35 per top-up in dollars and your card adds a forex markup, with GST to self-assess; Rapid Router charges its platform fee once when you buy credits, converts rupees at the market rate plus a stated currency margin, and puts GST on the invoice. On the worked month below that comes to about the same as OpenRouter at today's fee. Either way the reasons to choose us are rupee billing, a GST invoice you can claim, and media models behind the same key, more than the price.
When is OpenRouter the better choice?
If you pay in dollars anyway, want the widest possible catalog and provider routing options, or depend on a feature we have not built yet, OpenRouter is a fine choice and we say so. The comparison table lists what each side offers at the time of writing.
Does the same code work on both?
Yes. Both expose the OpenAI chat completions shape with vendor/model ids. Rapid Router also exposes /v1/messages in the Anthropic format and the Responses API, so an Anthropic SDK (base URL https://rapidrouter.ai/api, since it adds /v1/messages itself) or an OpenAI Responses client works without a wrapper.

Comparing more than two? Nine OpenRouter alternatives for India, side by side.

New to paying for AI from India? How to pay for AI APIs in rupees.