If I want to use them for free in RooCode and get as close to Claude 3.7 as possible?

i dont have much idea about this sub but when i was using perplexity to find out which platforms allow us to use opensource models for free i got a suggestion from this sub of openrouter. I have been using open router its an amazing platform but i want to know if its free or i am using it through some glitch. I have been using alot of the models and i can see in the activity amount of token and their cost but i havent fed any card details or whatever to the openrouter yet i am able to use the models. Is it really free like this?

So DeepSeek-R1 has just landed on OpenRouter and you can now run the API key for free. Check how to get the API key and codes : https://youtu.be/jOSn-1HO5kY?si=i6n22dBWeAino0-5

Free limit gives 200 requests per day, and i need around 400, so i have to create new account and get another api key. My question is they check IP or something so i can freely add another key and wrap in a try catch if first one fails aka gets limit? I'm using on a dummy non profitable app.

openrouter.ai does literally what chutes did, for freeah~ . anyways enough gatekeeping.

1. Make an openrouter.ai account

2. Top right, hover over the burger button and click Settings > API key

3. Create API Key, name it literally anything it doesnt matter.

4. COPY API KEY. NOW, SAVE IT. (AND DONT SHARE IT OMFG??)

5. GO BACK into Janitor.ai, create/go back into a chat or whatever

6. Top right > API settings > Proxy

(FOLLOW THIS PART VERY CAREFULLY NOW!)

7) PUT THESE IN THE FOLLOWING BOXES:

Model: Custom

deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324:free

Other API/proxy URL:

https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions

API Key:

(the api key that you created)

8) NOW: scroll down, press save. now refresh the website and click "Check API Key/Model"

YOU SHOULD GET: Valid API Key. Click Save Settings, and you can start chatting to your bots now!

"I didnt get it!! it said network error.." PRESS SAVE SETTINGS AT THE BOTTOM, THEN REFRESH THE WEBSITE, THEN CLICK CHECK API KEY AND MODEL!

Hope this tutorial helps :3

https://openrouter.ai/

How does it work? Is it spammy/legit? I only ask because with all my recent comments about my workflow and tools I use, I have been getting unsolicited DMs, inviting me to "join, we have room". Just seems spammy to me.

My bill this month for ChatGPT Pro + API, Claude Sonnet + API, and Cursor will probably be over $60 easy. I'm okay with that.

BUT if this OpenRouter service is cheaper? why not, right?

I just don't get it.

ELI5?

Hi, I'm pretty new to the AI chat... I am paying like 60-70 usd per month to chat website such as SC, Y***ayo because I had no idea about how API key works and wanted a convenient solution.

However, I want to now try using Open Router and try different models they dont offer from their website and also because of larger context memory. But when I firstly logged in to Open Router, I am a bit overwhelmed how the pricing is and how much it will cost.

I understand what token and context memory is and it seems like they are charging per request which seems to be basically one message?... I would like to estimate the cost but as a just ai bot RP user (not coding or smth), i have no idea how much it will cost per message.

so the questions are (i.e. I want to use sonnet):

• Are there any subscription for Open Router?

• How much does it cost per message

• If you directly go to the provider and pay their sub, will this rather be cheaper in case I dont mind using one model

Thank you so much in advance!...

I got API keys for the deepseek free models to try and use OpenRouter but I keep getting error messages. Am I doing something wrong or do I need to pay even for free models like Gemini and Deepseek?

No idea what this means, as it was working fine until it suddenly stopped generating. I still have 4 of the $5 to spend that I put into this so I'm a little miffed :/ Any ideas what causes this error or how to fix it?

The ST console says "403" which implies my RP was flagged, but it was... SFW.

I wanted to know if i use models which have $0/M output and input, if i use there API, will it charge me anything.
Or will it have limits or some kind of things.. i don't understand it clearly

edit:

The below image shows the full details on limit

Hi Guys,

let's grow this thread.

Here we should accumulate all good and recommend options and the thread should serve as a reliable source for getting surprising good FREE API Options shown.

I'll start!:

I recommend using the Openrouter API Key with the unlimited and not rate limited Deepseek/Deepseek R1 0528 - free model.

It's intelligent, strong reasoning and it's good at coding but sometimes it sucks a bit.
I Roocode there is a High Reasoning mode maybe it makes things better.

In Windsurf you can use SWE-1 for free which is a good and reliable option for tool use and coding but it misses something apart from the big guns.

In TRAE you can get nearly unlimited access to Claude 4 Sonnet and other Highend Models for just 3$ a month! Thats my option right now.

And... there is a tool which can import your OpenAI-Session Cookie and can work as a local reverse proxy to make the requests from your Plus Subscription work as API request in your Coding IDE ..thats sick right?

Does openrouter have a limit for free models? If so, is there a way that I can get around it besides making a new account or using the other models?

Anyone know if it's possible to use my openrouter api key for Gemini CLI? or is there a viable alternative? CLI keeps reverting to Flash, and an API key can make it favor PRO. I've seen too many obscene billing charges using Google's Gemini api keys unless you go through an hour of trying to figure out how to effectively set up $ limits.

BTW, it's amusing that we can't just submit to google ai, 'give me an api key, bill to my account, and email me every time $1 is spent.' Maybe they can use gemini cli to help set up this functionality.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't notice your replies to this. I appreciate them! The solution I found that works for me, if anyone's interested, is to use Aider (https://aider.chat) which lets me use any openrouter model. There's a learning curve with it compared to the Gemini CLI agent and it's not as pretty but it is soooo convenient to just look at my openrouter account anytime and see how much my chats are costing.

The goal is to leverage free models on openrouter to reduce the usage costs of paid models.

OpenRouter has been my go‑to LLM API router because it lets you plug in your Anthropic or OpenAI API keys once and then use a single OpenRouter key across all downstream apps (Cursor, Cline, etc.). It also gives you neat dashboards showing which models and apps are eating the most tokens – a fun way to see where the AI hype is headed.

Until recently, OpenRouter charged a ~5.5 % markup when you bought credits and a 5 % markup if you brought your own key. In May, Vercel launched its AI Gateway product with zero markup and similar usage stats.

OpenRouter’s response? Starting October 1 every customer gets the first 1,000,000 “bring‑your‑own‑key” requests every month for free. If you exceed that, you’ll still pay the usual 5 % on the extra calls. The change is automatic for existing BYOK users.

It's a classic case of “commoditize your complement”: competition between infrastructure providers is driving fees down. As someone who tinkers with AI models, I’m happy to have another million reasons to experiment.