Definition
Plain language
A service that forwards your request to one of many AI models from different companies.
As stated in the literature
Unified API gateway and model-routing service; its auto-router selects models partly from recent popularity signals among similar requests rather than per-query correctness prediction.
Why it matters: It makes switching models trivial, but its automatic choice can lean on what is popular rather than what is actually best for your specific question.
For example, a developer writes one piece of code and OpenRouter sends each request to whichever company's model it picks, without the developer changing anything.
Heard on the show
“They include OpenRouter and Microsoft's Azure router.”Episode 286 — Six LLM Routers Tested, And None Beat a Weighted Coin Flip