OpenRouter vs Direct API Keys: Why I Stopped Managing Separate OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Keys

February 23, 2026

Two days ago I published a balanced comparison of Vercel AI Gateway and OpenRouter. I recommended choosing based on which providers you needed ZDR for and how much you spent. After spending the weekend going deeper with both gateways (and reflecting on months of building Cumbersome against every major provider's raw API), I have changed my mind. I now think most people managing their own API keys should route everything through OpenRouter instead of juggling direct provider keys.

The 5.5% platform fee is worth what you get.

Why Use a Multi-Provider Gateway at All

If you are reading this, you probably already manage your own API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google AI Studio. You know the advantages over subscriptions: pay-per-use pricing, model control, no subscription trap.

But here is what I have noticed after months of daily use. The AI model landscape is a rotating cast. Last month Claude Sonnet 4.6 was my default for most tasks. This month GPT-5.2 handles certain work better. Kimi K2.5 showed up recently and it handles high-volume workloads at a fraction of the cost. The model comparison I wrote a few weeks ago is already partially outdated because new models keep shipping.

Models are becoming commodities. SOTA changes week to week. If you are like me, you are constantly swapping between providers as new models drop and benchmarks shift. That means managing separate API keys for each provider, separate credit balances, separate usage dashboards, and separate billing cycles.

A multi-provider gateway gives you one API key that covers all of them. You get a single balance, a single dashboard, and a single place to manage spending. Cumbersome already makes it easy to switch between providers mid-conversation, but using a gateway underneath means you configure one key and access everything.

Why OpenRouter Specifically

I have used both OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway. Both are legitimate gateways. But OpenRouter wins on the features that matter in daily use.

Zero Data Retention That Actually Covers OpenAI

This is the big one.

OpenRouter offers Zero Data Retention across a broad set of endpoints, including OpenAI. Vercel AI Gateway's ZDR list does not include OpenAI. If you use GPT-5.2 and want ZDR, OpenRouter is the only gateway option.

Let me explain why ZDR matters more than most people realize.

Most providers say they will not train on your API data and will not store it beyond some retention period (often 30 days, sometimes longer). That sounds reasonable until you think about what "stored for 30 days" actually means in practice.

In December 2025, a federal judge ordered OpenAI to hand over 20 million ChatGPT chat logs to the New York Times in a copyright lawsuit. OpenAI fought to keep them secret and lost. The logs existed because OpenAI stores them. "We delete after 30 days" does not protect you when a court orders preservation before those 30 days are up. Stored data is discoverable data, regardless of what the privacy policy promises.

Zero Data Retention is fundamentally different. ZDR means no storage beyond the brief in-memory caching needed to process your request. There is nothing to subpoena because nothing was ever saved. It is not "we will delete it soon." It is "we never stored it."

You could get ZDR from providers directly, but that usually requires an enterprise agreement with legal review and enough API volume to justify the special treatment. OpenRouter negotiated these agreements on your behalf. You enable ZDR once at the account level and every request routes only to compliant endpoints. In Cumbersome, you set your OpenRouter key, enable ZDR in your OpenRouter account, and it just works.

OpenRouter's ZDR toggle. Enable it once at the account level and every request from Cumbersome routes to zero data retention endpoints only. No enterprise agreement required.

Per-Key Spending Limits with Daily Reset

If you have ever worried about an API key leaking (or a client app going haywire and burning through credits), OpenRouter has a practical answer. When you create an API key, you can set a credit limit that resets on a schedule: daily, weekly, or monthly.

Set a $5 daily limit. If the key gets compromised or a bug sends a runaway loop of requests, the damage caps at $5 before the key stops working. Next day, it resets and you are back to normal.

Per-key spending limits with daily reset. If a key leaks, the damage is capped.

Guardrails go further. You can restrict specific keys to specific models, set budget caps, and control which providers a key can access. This matters when you are working with expensive models. Some reasoning models cost over $100 per million output tokens. An accidental loop against one of those gets expensive fast. Guardrails put a ceiling on it.

Guardrails restrict which models a key can access, set budget caps, and control routing. A firewall for your AI spending.

Web Search That Works Across Providers

This is a developer concern that translates into a user benefit. AI providers all implement web search differently. OpenAI has their own tool calling format. Anthropic has theirs. Google has Grounding. Each requires different code paths, different parameter handling, and different response parsing.

OpenRouter standardized this with their web search plugin. It works consistently across model families. I added support for it in Cumbersome and it worked on the first try. When I tried implementing Perplexity web search through Vercel AI Gateway, I had to revert it because of compatibility issues with different provider APIs.

The practical result: web search works in Cumbersome through OpenRouter across multiple providers. You get current information from the web regardless of which model you are using.

Thinking and Reasoning Across Providers

Same story with extended thinking (sometimes called "reasoning"). OpenAI's o3, Anthropic's Claude with extended thinking, and other reasoning models each have different APIs for how they stream thinking content.

OpenRouter standardized this too. I added reasoning support for OpenRouter in Cumbersome and it works across OpenAI and Anthropic reasoning models through a single code path. Supporting each provider's native thinking API separately is significantly more complex, and it means users wait longer for new reasoning models to be supported.

With OpenRouter handling the API differences, Cumbersome users get thinking and reasoning support across more models, faster.

One Dashboard for All Spending

Instead of checking OpenAI's usage page, then Anthropic's, then Google's, you see everything in one place: spend by model, request counts, and token usage over time.

All spending, requests, and token usage across every provider in one view. This month: $3.59 across Kimi K2.5, GPT-5.2, and Claude Sonnet.

The Cost: 5.5% Platform Fee

OpenRouter charges a 5.5% service fee on top of provider token prices. That is transparent and visible when you purchase credits.

$100 in credits costs $105.50. The 5.5% is the price of ZDR, spending limits, guardrails, and a unified API.

For context: if you spend $10/month on AI (typical for many API key users), the OpenRouter fee is 55 cents. Less than a dollar for ZDR, spending limits, and a consolidated dashboard. At $100/month, it is $5.50.

Vercel AI Gateway is cheaper at roughly 3% in payment processing fees, but it does not cover OpenAI for ZDR, lacks spending limits and guardrails, and the API standardization is not as mature for features like web search and reasoning.

Is 5.5% nothing? No. For someone spending $500/month, that is $27.50. But consider what you get: ZDR that would otherwise require an enterprise contract, automatic spending caps that protect you from runaway costs, and an API layer that handles the growing complexity of multi-provider integration. For most individual users and small teams, the math works.

Why You Can Trust Me on This

I built Cumbersome, an iOS and Mac app that connects directly to AI provider APIs. Every day I am in the trenches integrating with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI Studio, OpenRouter, and Vercel AI Gateway. I debug streaming responses, implement new model features, and test across providers. It is my full-time job to understand how these APIs actually work in practice.

I have no relationship with OpenRouter. They do not pay me. I do not get a referral fee. Two days ago I published a post that recommended choosing between Vercel and OpenRouter based on your needs. After more hands-on time, I am updating that recommendation because the evidence convinced me.

OpenRouter is the better default gateway for most people. The broader ZDR coverage, spending limits, guardrails, and API standardization are worth the 5.5%.

How to Set It Up in Cumbersome

1. Create an OpenRouter account at openrouter.ai.
2. Purchase credits or start with their free tier.
3. Create an API key with a spending limit. I recommend a daily cap as a safety net.
4. Enable ZDR in your privacy settings if you want zero data retention.
5. Add the key in Cumbersome under Settings. It sits alongside your direct provider keys.

That is it. One key, hundreds of models, ZDR, and spending limits. You can still keep your direct OpenAI and Anthropic keys configured for comparison or for the rare case where you want the absolute cheapest token cost. But the OpenRouter key covers everything.

The Bottom Line

The case for using your own API keys instead of AI subscriptions has not changed. Pay per use, pick your model, keep your data private.

What has changed is my recommendation for how to manage those keys. Instead of juggling separate keys for every provider, route everything through OpenRouter. The 5.5% fee buys you zero data retention (including on OpenAI models), per-key spending limits that reset daily, guardrails that cap your exposure to expensive models, and a unified API that handles the messy differences between providers.

For the handful of cases where you need the absolute cheapest token cost and nothing else matters, keep a direct key. For everything else, OpenRouter is the better default.

Try It

Cumbersome is free for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Add your OpenRouter key and you have access to hundreds of models with one key. Enable ZDR for privacy. Set spending limits for peace of mind. You pay the providers (plus 5.5%), not us.