Comparison
Proxide vs OpenRouter
OpenRouter is a model marketplace with an enormous catalogue. But it charges a 5.5% fee on every credit top-up and adds its own margin on provider costs. Proxide is a flat $49/month with your own API keys — no markups, no hidden fees, and a full suite of production controls OpenRouter doesn't have.
The hidden cost of OpenRouter
OpenRouter pricing
- •5.5% fee on every credit purchase
- •Provider cost + OpenRouter margin per token
- •$1,000/month spend = ~$55 in fees alone
- •No budget limits — costs can spiral
Proxide pricing
- •$49/month flat — Pro plan
- •Your own API keys — zero markup per token
- •$1,000/month spend = $0 in gateway fees
- •Semantic caching saves 20–40% on top of that
At $500+/month LLM spend, Proxide's flat fee is cheaper than OpenRouter's 5.5% markup alone — and you get budget controls, PII redaction, and caching included.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Proxide | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $49/month flat (Pro) — no per-request fees | Credits system with 5.5% top-up fee + provider margin |
| API key model | BYOK — use your own provider keys | OpenRouter-managed keys (you pay their markup) |
| Per-agent budget limits | Yes — hard limits, 402 on exceed | No |
| PII redaction | Yes — strips PII before the model sees it | No |
| Automatic failover | Yes — configurable fallback chain | Partial — model fallback, not provider-level |
| Semantic caching | Yes — 20–40% cost savings | No |
| Hallucination detection | Yes | No |
| Loop detection | Yes | No |
| Audit logging | Yes — full per-request trail | Basic request history |
| Multi-tenant support | Yes — per-client-ID tracking | No |
| Provider count | 20+ providers via BYOK | 300+ models via OpenRouter credits |
| Free tier | Yes — 1 agent, 1M tokens/month | Yes — some free models available |
Production controls OpenRouter doesn't have
Per-agent budget limits
Set daily and monthly spend limits per client ID. When a limit is exceeded, requests return 402 — your app stays in control, not your credit card.
PII redaction
Emails, card numbers, SSNs, NI numbers, and phone numbers are stripped from prompts before they reach any model. OpenRouter routes your raw prompts unchanged.
Semantic caching
Vector-similarity matching on prompts means rephrased versions of the same question all hit the cache. Saves 20–40% on repetitive workloads — the savings often cover Proxide's monthly fee.
BYOK — your keys, your costs
Proxide uses your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, and other provider keys directly. You pay providers at their list price with no middleman markup. OpenRouter is the middleman.
When to use each
Choose Proxide when:
- You have existing OpenAI/Anthropic/etc. API keys
- You need per-agent budget enforcement
- You handle PII in prompts (GDPR, HIPAA)
- You want predictable, flat-fee pricing
- You need production controls beyond routing
- Your monthly LLM spend exceeds ~$900
OpenRouter makes sense when:
- You want access to many models without signing up individually
- You're experimenting with obscure or new models
- Your LLM spend is low (below ~$500/month)
- You don't need budget limits, PII redaction, or caching
Switch to Proxide — free to start
Keep your existing API keys. Change one line of code. Get budget enforcement, PII redaction, failover, and caching from the first request — with no per-token markup.