Alternative to OpenRouter

A OpenRouter alternative

OpenRouter gives you one OpenAI-compatible key for many models. Zylo is an alternative built for transparent base pricing, retrieval and local payments.

Last updated June 5, 2026

Why consider Zylo

Transparent base pricing. Every model is billed at its base per-token rate with no markup on usage; the 25% platform fee applies only when you add credits.
Built-in web-extract for RAG and grounding, with no separate scraping stack.
Bare model ids like claude-opus-4.8 instead of vendor/model strings.
Local payments and a free Basic plan (Basic-tier models within a daily limit; paid plans add credits).

Switch in two lines

Keep the OpenAI SDK — point it at Zylo and pick any model id.

Python

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key="ZYLO_KEY", base_url="https://api.zyloai.net/v1")

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-opus-4.8",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello from Zylo!"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Frequently asked questions

Is Zylo a good OpenRouter alternative?

Zylo is a strong alternative if you want frontier and cost-efficient models with transparent base pricing, built-in web-extract and local payments. OpenRouter still leads on raw catalogue breadth.

How do I migrate from OpenRouter to Zylo?

Change the base URL to https://api.zyloai.net/v1, use your Zylo key, and drop the vendor/ prefix from model ids. It is a two-line change.

Go deeper

Full comparison Models & pricing

Try the OpenRouter alternative

Free API key, OpenAI-compatible, local payments.

Get free API key