OpenAI vs OpenRouter
Same workloads, both price lists, refreshed daily. List prices tie on nearly all 29 shared line items today, so the choice comes down to platform differences (routing, limits, tooling), summarized below.
OpenAI
The GPT and o-series API. Deepest ecosystem and tooling; pricing at the premium end but with aggressive batch and cached-input discounts.
- Frontier models
- Batch API at 50% off
- Prompt caching discounts
OpenRouter
One API key for 340+ models across every major provider, with automatic failover and pass-through pricing. The fastest way to hedge provider risk or A/B models without new integrations.
- 340+ models, one integration
- Automatic provider failover
- Pass-through pricing, small platform fee
Shared models, priced by both
List prices refreshed 2026-08-23 ยท input $/1M tokens| Model | OpenAI in/out | OpenRouter in/out | Cheaper input |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-5 Nano | $0.050 / $0.400 | $0.050 / $0.400 | tie |
| GPT-4.1 Nano | $0.100 / $0.400 | $0.100 / $0.400 | tie |
| GPT-4o-Mini | $0.150 / $0.600 | $0.150 / $0.600 | tie |
| GPT-5.4 Nano | $0.200 / $1.25 | $0.200 / $1.25 | tie |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | $0.200 / $1.20 | $0.200 / $1.20 | tie |
| GPT-5 Mini | $0.250 / $2.00 | $0.250 / $2.00 | tie |
| GPT-4.1 Mini | $0.400 / $1.60 | $0.400 / $1.60 | tie |
| GPT-3.5 Turbo | $0.500 / $1.50 | $1.50 / $2.00 | OpenAI |
| GPT Audio Mini | $0.600 / $2.40 | $0.600 / $2.40 | tie |
| GPT-5.4 Mini | $0.750 / $4.50 | $0.750 / $4.50 | tie |
| o3 Mini | $1.10 / $4.40 | $1.10 / $4.40 | tie |
| o4 Mini | $1.10 / $4.40 | $1.10 / $4.40 | tie |
| GPT-5 | $1.25 / $10.00 | $1.25 / $10.00 | tie |
| GPT-5.1 | $1.25 / $10.00 | $1.25 / $10.00 | tie |
| GPT-5-Chat | $1.25 / $10.00 | $1.25 / $10.00 | tie |
| GPT-5.2 | $1.75 / $14.00 | $1.75 / $14.00 | tie |
| GPT-5.2 Chat | $1.75 / $14.00 | $1.75 / $14.00 | tie |
| GPT-4.1 | $2.00 / $8.00 | $2.00 / $8.00 | tie |
| O3 | $2.00 / $8.00 | $2.00 / $8.00 | tie |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | $2.00 / $12.00 | $2.00 / $12.00 | tie |
| GPT-4o | $2.50 / $10.00 | $2.50 / $10.00 | tie |
| GPT-5.4 | $2.50 / $15.00 | $2.50 / $15.00 | tie |
| GPT Audio | $2.50 / $10.00 | $2.50 / $10.00 | tie |
| GPT-3.5 Turbo 16k | $3.00 / $4.00 | $3.00 / $4.00 | tie |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | $4.00 / $20.00 | $2.00 / $10.00 | OpenRouter |
| GPT-5.5 | $5.00 / $30.00 | $5.00 / $30.00 | tie |
| GPT-4 Turbo | $10.00 / $30.00 | $10.00 / $30.00 | tie |
| O1 | $15.00 / $60.00 | $15.00 / $60.00 | tie |
| GPT-4 | $30.00 / $60.00 | $30.00 / $60.00 | tie |
Cheaper-on-count is a tally of listed prices, not a quality verdict: throughput, reliability and quantization differ between providers. Disclosure.