OpenRouter pricing and fees, explained: what 5.5% costs at $1,000 a month

OpenRouter passes model prices through at the provider's list price and makes its money on a fee when you buy credits. Here is where that fee applies and what it adds up to, from OpenRouter's pricing page, FAQ and terms as of November 4, 2026.

Where the fees apply

• Model usage: billed at the provider's list price on every plan. No markup per request.
• Buying credits: a platform fee of 5.5% on Standard and 8% on Business, charged when you buy credits rather than on each request.
• Bring your own key: free up to $25,000 of list-price usage a month on Standard and Business, then 5% of what the same request would cost on OpenRouter.
• Refunds: unused credit can be refunded within 24 hours of purchase; platform fees are non-refundable, and crypto payments are never refundable.
• Expiry: OpenRouter reserves the right to expire unused credits 365 days after purchase.
• Volume: "We do not discount inference"; Enterprise gets discounted fees.

What the fee comes to

At the Standard rate of 5.5%, on credit you spend in full:

On Business, at 8%, the same rows are $8, $80 and $800 a month.

The same spend with no fee

On Inferray, model usage is billed at list price and there is no gateway fee: a $1,000 top-up is $1,000 of credit, and it never expires. Steady monthly spend can also earn a volume discount, which goes on the model price itself.

Prices on this page come from the model catalog and were current on November 12, 2026.