Can I bring my own provider keys?

On OpenRouter, yes: bring-your-own-key is free up to $25,000 of list-price inference a month, then 5%. On Straitly, not yet: bring-your-own-key is coming soon. Today you use one Straitly key and one prepaid balance for every model.

Is it the same model?

Yes. You call models by their usual names, and each request runs on the model you asked for, not a smaller stand-in. If a provider has trouble, the request moves to another provider serving the same model.

Is there a subscription or a minimum?

No. Straitly is prepaid and billed per token, with no subscription and no minimum. Top-ups start at $5, and failed requests are not charged.

straitly

COMPARE · STRAITLY VS OPENROUTER

Straitly vs OpenRouter

Name: Straitly vs OpenRouter per-model token prices
Creator: Straitly

SHORT ANSWER

Straitly is cheaper than OpenRouter on 129 of the 141 models both sell, by a median 43.1% with OpenRouter's fee included. Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok are 40% below list on Straitly; OpenRouter charges list price plus a 5.5% fee on credits.

Last updated 9 November 2026. Every number links to its source.

Get started Compare model prices

CLAUDE, GPT, GEMINI, GROK

62 / 64

model IDs from these four labs cost less on Straitly than at the cheapest OpenRouter seller, fee included [2].

Straitly against the cheapest OpenRouter seller and the provider list price, by lab.
LAB	CHEAPER	MEDIAN VS OPENROUTER
ClaudeAnthropic	17 of 17	-43.1%
GPTOpenAI	24 of 25	-43.1%
GeminiGoogle	15 of 16	-43.1%
GrokxAI	6 of 6	-43.1%

The 2 exceptions are open-weight: Gemma 4 26B A4B and gpt-oss-20b.

Get started Compare model prices

SIDE BY SIDE

Is Straitly cheaper than OpenRouter?

Yes, on most models: Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok are 40% below list on Straitly with no fee to add credits [1]. OpenRouter lists more models [5], so if you need a long-tail model today it is the better fit.

129/141
Shared models cheaper on Straitly
straitly.ai/api/catalog, 9 November 2026 [2]
-43.1%
Median price vs the cheapest OpenRouter seller
straitly.ai/api/catalog, 9 November 2026 [2]
$0
Straitly fee to add credits
straitly.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [1]
+5.5%
OpenRouter fee on credits, Standard plan
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]

Straitly and OpenRouter compared on price, fees, models and billing.
Row	STRAITLY	OPENROUTER
Price vs list[2][5]
Price vs list[2][5]	40% below list on 98 of 102 models with a list price	The provider's list price
Fee to add credits[1][5]
Fee to add credits[1][5]	None. Top-ups start at $5	5.5% on Standard, 8% on Business
$100 of list-price usage
$100 of list-price usage	$60.00	$105.50 on Standard
Models[5]
Models[5]	66 models: Claude, GPT, Gemini, top open-weight	600+ models from 80+ providers
Free models[5]
Free models[5]	COMING SOONNot yet. Today, prepaid with no minimum	25+ free models, 50 requests a day on the free plan
Bring your own key[5]
Bring your own key[5]	COMING SOONNot yet. Today, one Straitly key and balance for every model	Free up to $25,000 of list-price inference a month, then 5%
API[3][5]
API[3][5]	OpenAI-compatible. The Anthropic SDK works too	OpenAI-compatible
Billing[1][5]
Billing[1][5]	Prepaid per token, no minimum. Failed requests are free	Prepaid credits, fee on each purchase

OpenRouter by the numbers: all 8 facts

Quoted from openrouter.ai/pricing and the OpenRouter FAQ on 9 November 2026. Some favor OpenRouter.

5.5%
Fee on credit purchases, Standard plan
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]
8%
Fee on credit purchases, Business plan
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]
$0.80
Minimum fee on a card purchase of credits
“5.5% ($0.80 minimum)”
openrouter.ai/docs/faq, 9 November 2026 [6]
600+
Models, from 80+ providers
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]
25+
Free models, capped at 50 requests a day (1,000 after $10 of credits) and 20 a minute
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]
$25k
Monthly bring-your-own-key allowance at list price, then a 5% fee
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]
0%
Markup on inference: tokens are billed at the provider's list price
“Inference is billed at the provider's list price on every plan.”
openrouter.ai/pricing, 9 November 2026 [5]
No
Refund of platform fees when unused credits are refunded
“the platform fees are non-refundable”
openrouter.ai/docs/faq, 9 November 2026 [6]

MODEL BY MODEL

Which models are cheaper on Straitly?

129 of the 141 models both sell, including every Claude and Grok model. The 12 exceptions are small Qwen, GLM, Gemma, DeepSeek, Kimi and gpt-oss models; more options are in OpenRouter alternatives compared.

SHARED MODELS, EACH TILE ONE MODEL

129 / 141

129 cheaper on Straitly than the cheapest OpenRouter seller, fee included
12 cheaper on OpenRouter, all open-weight models with low-cost sellers

straitly.ai/api/catalog, 9 November 2026 [2]

Price bars for popular models

A sample picked before looking at results, including the ones where OpenRouter wins.

BLENDED PRICE PER 1M TOKENS, 3 IN : 1 OUTCheapest OpenRouter seller + feeStraitlyStraitly costs more

GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI
OpenRouter: $8.44
Straitly: $3.40
-59.7%
Qwen3.8 MaxQwen
OpenRouter: $3.17
Straitly: $1.49
-53.1%
Claude Opus 5Anthropic
OpenRouter: $10.55
Straitly: $6.00
-43.1%
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic
OpenRouter: $4.22
Straitly: $2.40
-43.1%
Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic
OpenRouter: $2.11
Straitly: $1.20
-43.1%
GPT 5.5OpenAI
OpenRouter: $11.87
Straitly: $6.75
-43.1%
Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle
OpenRouter: $4.75
Straitly: $2.70
-43.1%
Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle
OpenRouter: $3.56
Straitly: $2.03
-43.1%
GLM-5.1Z.ai
OpenRouter: $1.48
Straitly: $0.866
-41.3%
Kimi K2.6Moonshot
OpenRouter: $0.783
Straitly: $0.728
-7.1%
Kimi K3Moonshot
OpenRouter: $2.75
Straitly: $3.06
+11.2%
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017DeepSeek
OpenRouter: $0.123
Straitly: $0.158
+28.1%
GLM-5.3Z.ai
OpenRouter: $0.425
Straitly: $0.659
+55.1%

13 popular models picked before looking at results, from Straitly's public catalog on 9 November 2026. Blended = (3 x input + output) / 4, in USD per 1M tokens. Exact input and output prices are in the per-model table.

Lab by lab

Fee included, for each lab with at least 6 model IDs in Straitly's public catalog on 9 November 2026 [2].

Median Straitly discount against the cheapest OpenRouter seller, by model maker.
MODEL MAKER	MODEL IDS	ON OPENROUTER TOO	CHEAPER ON STRAITLY	MEDIAN BELOW OPENROUTER
OpenAI	25	25	24 of 25	43.1%
Qwen	24	21	17 of 21	44.3%
Anthropic	17	17	17 of 17	43.1%
Google	16	16	15 of 16	43.1%
Z.ai	13	13	11 of 13	41.3%
DeepSeek	9	9	6 of 9	29.5%
Meta	9	9	9 of 9	43.1%
Mistral	8	3	3 of 3	43.1%
MiniMax	6	5	5 of 5	33.1%
Moonshot	6	6	5 of 6	39.3%
xAI	6	6	6 of 6	43.1%

Model by model: input and output prices

Input / output prices in USD per 1M tokens from Straitly's public catalog on 9 November 2026 [2]. The OpenRouter column is the cheapest OpenRouter seller for that model plus the 5.5% credit fee. The last column weights 3 input tokens per output token. The open-weight models where OpenRouter is cheaper are marked in red.

Input and output prices in USD per 1M tokens for Straitly and OpenRouter.
MODEL	LAB	OPENROUTER, CHEAPEST SELLER + 5.5% FEE	STRAITLY	STRAITLY VS OPENROUTER
Claude Opus 5claude-opus-5	Anthropic	$5.28 / $26.38	$3.00 / $15.00	43.1% lower
Claude Sonnet 5claude-sonnet-5	Anthropic	$2.11 / $10.55	$1.20 / $6.00	43.1% lower
Claude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4.5	Anthropic	$1.05 / $5.28	$0.60 / $3.00	43.1% lower
GPT 5.5gpt-5.5	OpenAI	$5.28 / $31.65	$3.00 / $18.00	43.1% lower
GPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol	OpenAI	$4.22 / $21.10	$1.70 / $8.50	59.7% lower
Gemini 3.1 Pro Previewgoogle/gemini-3.1-pro-preview	Google	$2.11 / $12.66	$1.20 / $7.20	43.1% lower
Gemini 3.5 Flashgoogle/gemini-3.5-flash	Google	$1.58 / $9.49	$0.90 / $5.40	43.1% lower
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017deepseek/deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017	DeepSeek	$0.0232 / $0.422	$0.09 / $0.36	28.1% higher
Kimi K2.6moonshotai/kimi-k2.6	Moonshot	$0.411 / $1.90	$0.36 / $1.83	7.1% lower
Kimi K3moonshotai/kimi-k3	Moonshot	$0.291 / $10.13	$1.53 / $7.65	11.2% higher
Qwen3.8 Maxqwen/qwen3.8-max	Qwen	$2.11 / $6.33	$0.99 / $2.97	53.1% lower
GLM-5.1z-ai/glm-5.1	Z.ai	$0.95 / $3.06	$0.495 / $1.98	41.3% lower
GLM-5.3z-ai/glm-5.3	Z.ai	$0.0737 / $1.48	$0.416 / $1.39	55.1% higher

A sample of the 164 model IDs in the catalog. Every model, live, is on straitly.ai/models.

Pixel art: a straight canal cuts across farmland between two seas and a line of boats takes it, while a river winds the long way round behind.

WORKED EXAMPLE

What does $100 of list-price usage cost?

$60.00 on Straitly and $105.50 on OpenRouter Standard, $45.50 less. The gap comes from how each prices the same request.

MONTHLY USAGE AT LIST PRICE$100.00

$100.00$20,000.00

List price$100.00
OpenRouter$105.50
Straitly$60.00

OpenRouter, per month: $105.50
Straitly, per month: $60.00
Difference, per month: $45.50

YEARLY SAVINGS

$546.00

OpenRouter is list price plus the 5.5% credit fee; Straitly is 40% below list with no fee.

Both bills start from the provider's list price for the same model, called by its usual name [7][8][9][10].
OpenRouter charges that list price and adds a 5.5% fee when you buy credits [5].
Straitly takes 40% off list on most models and adds no fee [1].

Small top-ups: does OpenRouter's $0.80 minimum fee matter?

On small purchases, yes. OpenRouter's FAQ puts the card fee at “5.5% ($0.80 minimum)” [6], so below $14.55 of credits the fee is a bigger share of what you buy.

Straitly top-ups start at $5 with no fee.

Fee on a card purchase of OpenRouter credits at six amounts, against Straitly.
CREDITS	OPENROUTER			STRAITLY
CREDITS	FEE	SHARE	TOTAL	TOTAL
$5.00	$0.80	16%	$5.80	$5.00
$10.00	$0.80	8%	$10.80	$10.00
$20.00	$1.10	5.5%	$21.10	$20.00
$50.00	$2.75	5.5%	$52.75	$50.00
$100.00	$5.50	5.5%	$105.50	$100.00
$500.00	$27.50	5.5%	$527.50	$500.00

Card purchases on the Standard plan, from the OpenRouter FAQ[6], checked 9 November 2026. Crypto purchases carry a 5% fee instead.

SWITCHING

How do I switch from OpenRouter to Straitly?

Change two lines: point your OpenAI client at Straitly and use your Straitly key. The Anthropic SDK works too, and model names stay the same [3].

Zero data retention is on by default for every account and key: prompts and completions are never written to disk or logs and never used for training [4].

Read the quickstart

PYTHON · BASE URL + KEY

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.straitly.ai/v1",
    api_key="YOUR_STRAITLY_API_KEY",
)

FAQ

What else do people ask about Straitly and OpenRouter?

What fee does OpenRouter charge?

OpenRouter charges inference at the provider's list price and adds a fee when you buy credits: 5.5% on the Standard plan and 8% on Business, according to openrouter.ai/pricing (checked 9 November 2026). Its FAQ adds a $0.80 minimum on card purchases, so a $10 top-up carries an 8% fee. Adding credits on Straitly has no fee.

How much cheaper is Straitly than OpenRouter?

On $100 of list-price usage, OpenRouter Standard costs $105.50 and Straitly costs $60.00. Across the 141 Straitly models that also have an OpenRouter seller, Straitly was a median 43.1% below the cheapest OpenRouter seller, fee included, in the 9 November 2026 catalog snapshot.

Is OpenRouter ever cheaper than Straitly?

Yes. In the same snapshot, OpenRouter's cheapest seller beat Straitly on 12 of 141 matched models, all open-weight models with low-cost sellers. Check the per-model table on this page or straitly.ai/models for the models you use.

Does OpenRouter have more models than Straitly?

Yes. OpenRouter lists 600+ models from 80+ providers, including free models. Straitly serves 66 models, focused on Claude, GPT, Gemini and popular open-weight families. If you need a long-tail model, OpenRouter is the better fit.

Sources

Prices change. If something here is out of date, tell us at straitly.ai/contact.

[1]
Straitly pricing (opens in a new tab)
straitly.ai/pricing · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[2]
Straitly public catalog (opens in a new tab)
straitly.ai/api/catalog · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[3]
Straitly quickstart (opens in a new tab)
straitly.ai/docs/quickstart · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[4]
Straitly data retention (opens in a new tab)
straitly.ai/docs/data-retention · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[5]
OpenRouter pricing (opens in a new tab)
openrouter.ai/pricing · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[6]
OpenRouter FAQ (opens in a new tab)
openrouter.ai/docs/faq · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[7]
Anthropic pricing (opens in a new tab)
platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[8]
OpenAI pricing (opens in a new tab)
developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[9]
Google pricing (opens in a new tab)
ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text
[10]
xAI pricing (opens in a new tab)
docs.x.ai/docs/models · checked 9 Nov 2026 Back to text

Run your own numbers.

Prepaid, no subscription, no minimum. 40% below list price on most models, no fee.

Get started See pricing