> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.wolffi.sh/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# OpenRouter

> Set up OpenRouter — a model aggregator for accessing any provider through a single API key

# OpenRouter (Aggregator)

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

Uses SSE streaming with OpenAI-compatible tool-calling format. Routes requests to any model from any provider through a single API key.

**OpenRouter is a model aggregator** — a single API endpoint that proxies requests to Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Qwen, xAI, Meta, Mistral, Google, and dozens more. One key, one billing account, access to everything.

Best for: Experimenting with models you haven't set up directly, unified billing, accessing niche models not yet natively supported by Wolffish.

<Warning>
  **We recommend configuring providers directly whenever possible.** Direct integration gives you lower latency (no proxy hop), accurate cost tracking, provider-specific features (Anthropic's ephemeral caching, DeepSeek's FIM), and no middleman markup. OpenRouter adds a routing layer that can introduce latency and occasionally inconsistent behavior across providers.

  Use OpenRouter when you want to experiment with models you haven't set up directly, or as a convenient fallback for providers where you don't want to manage a separate API key.
</Warning>

## Getting an API Key

1. Go to [openrouter.ai](https://openrouter.ai)
2. Sign up or log in
3. Navigate to **Keys** and create a new key
4. Paste it into Wolffish → Settings → Models → OpenRouter

## Models

OpenRouter routes to hundreds of models across dozens of providers. The table below is a curated top-20 of the most popular models — the picker exposes many more once your key is connected:

| Model                             | Context | Modes     | Input / Output (per MTok) | Cached |
| --------------------------------- | ------- | --------- | ------------------------- | ------ |
| **anthropic/claude-opus-4.1**     | 200K    | Off, High | $15.00 / $75.00           | —      |
| anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5       | 1M      | Off, High | $3.00 / $15.00            | —      |
| openai/gpt-5                      | 400K    | Off, High | $1.25 / $10.00            | —      |
| openai/gpt-5-mini                 | 400K    | Off, High | $0.25 / $2.00             | —      |
| openai/o3                         | 200K    | Off, High | $2.00 / $8.00             | —      |
| openai/o4-mini                    | 200K    | Off, High | $1.10 / $4.40             | —      |
| openai/gpt-4o                     | 128K    | —         | $2.50 / $10.00            | —      |
| openai/gpt-4.1                    | 1M      | —         | $2.00 / $8.00             | —      |
| google/gemini-2.5-pro             | 1M      | Off, High | $1.25 / $10.00            | —      |
| google/gemini-2.5-flash           | 1M      | Off, High | $0.30 / $2.50             | —      |
| deepseek/deepseek-r1              | 164K    | Off, High | $0.70 / $2.50             | —      |
| deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3.1       | 164K    | Off, High | $0.21 / $0.79             | —      |
| x-ai/grok-4.3                     | 1M      | Off, High | $1.25 / $2.50             | —      |
| qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b              | 131K    | Off, High | $0.45 / $1.82             | —      |
| z-ai/glm-4.6                      | 203K    | Off, High | $0.43 / $1.74             | —      |
| meta-llama/llama-4-maverick       | 1M      | —         | $0.15 / $0.60             | —      |
| meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct | 131K    | —         | $0.10 / $0.32             | —      |
| mistralai/mistral-large           | 128K    | —         | $2.00 / $6.00             | —      |
| mistralai/mistral-medium-3        | 131K    | —         | $0.40 / $2.00             | —      |
| moonshotai/kimi-k2                | 131K    | —         | $0.57 / $2.30             | —      |

<Note>
  This is a curated shortlist, not the full catalogue. OpenRouter exposes hundreds of models through one key — the picker lists many more than the popular ones shown here. Wolffish doesn't track per-token cache discounts for routed models, so the Cached column is unavailable across the board.
</Note>

## Direct Integration vs. OpenRouter

|                  | Direct Provider                                       | OpenRouter                           |
| ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| **Latency**      | Lowest — direct API call                              | Higher — extra proxy hop             |
| **Cost**         | Provider pricing only                                 | Provider pricing + OpenRouter margin |
| **Features**     | Full provider-specific features                       | Normalized subset                    |
| **Billing**      | Separate per provider                                 | Single unified bill                  |
| **Model access** | Only configured providers                             | Hundreds of models, one key          |
| **Caching**      | Provider-native (Anthropic ephemeral, DeepSeek, etc.) | Varies by underlying provider        |

### When to Use OpenRouter

**Good fit:**

* Trying models from providers you haven't configured yet
* Quick A/B testing across different model families
* Unified billing when you only want one API bill
* Accessing niche or newer models not yet natively supported

**Use direct integration instead when:**

* The provider is already natively supported (DeepSeek, Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.)
* You need the lowest possible latency
* You want provider-specific features (caching, prompt prefixes, etc.)
* You're running high-volume production workloads where the proxy hop adds up

<Tip>
  If you're already using DeepSeek, Anthropic, or any other natively supported provider, keep that direct connection. Add OpenRouter only for models you can't access directly — then select an OpenRouter model as your Brain when you want to use it. There's no cascade; the model you select is the one that runs.
</Tip>

## Reasoning modes

The **brain icon** next to the message box controls how this model reasons. Click it to cycle through the modes the selected model supports. Two separate ideas combine here:

### Thinking — *whether* the model reasons

* **Off** — the model answers immediately. Fastest and cheapest; ideal for simple, direct tasks.
* **On** — the model first works through the problem in a dedicated reasoning pass before replying. Slower and uses more tokens, but markedly more accurate on multi-step, logical, or ambiguous tasks.

### Effort — *how hard* it thinks

Only effort-capable models expose this; it applies once thinking is on.

* **High** — standard reasoning depth. The right default for most agentic work.
* **Max** — the model reasons longer and deeper for the hardest problems. More tokens and latency in exchange for higher quality on complex work.

### Button states

| State | Colour | Meaning                         |
| ----- | ------ | ------------------------------- |
| Off   | gray   | Thinking off — direct answer    |
| On    | blue   | Thinking on — no effort control |
| High  | purple | Thinking on, standard effort    |
| Max   | orange | Thinking on, maximum effort     |

Each model shows only the states it genuinely supports. If a model always reasons (can't be turned off) or has no effort control, the button reflects that and locks where there's nothing to change. Wolffish remembers your choice per model.

**On OpenRouter:** Reasoning depends on the routed model. Reasoning-capable models show Off / High; non-reasoning models have no control. OpenRouter caps effort at High, and some endpoints (e.g. GPT-5, DeepSeek-R) reason mandatorily — there 'Off' falls back to minimal reasoning.

## Using OpenRouter as Your Model

There's no provider cascade and no priority order. To use an OpenRouter model, select it as your Brain in **Settings → Modes** (or as your Worker model in [orchestrator mode](/configuration/orchestrator-mode)). The model you select is the one that runs — OpenRouter is not an automatic fallback behind your other providers.