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Version: 3.9.x

Access Hundreds of LLMs via OpenRouter

OpenRouter provides a unified OpenAI-compatible API that gives access to 200+ models from multiple providers. This guide shows how to route traffic to OpenRouter through API7 Gateway using the ai-proxy plugin.

Prerequisites​

  • Install Docker.

  • Install cURL to send requests to the services for validation.

  • Have a running API7 Gateway instance.

  • Create a token from the Dashboard and save it to an environment variable:

    export API_KEY=your-dashboard-token   # replace with your Dashboard token

  • Replace {gateway_group_id} with your gateway group ID. Use default if you are following the quickstart.

  • If you are following the Admin API examples, create or reuse a service in API7 Gateway. If you do not have one yet, follow Create or Reuse a Service, then save its ID to an environment variable:

    export SERVICE_ID=your-service-id         # replace with your service ID

Obtain an OpenRouter API Key​

Create an account at openrouter.ai and generate an API key. Save the key to an environment variable:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx   # replace with your OpenRouter API key

Configure the AI Proxy for OpenRouter​

Create a route with the ai-proxy plugin:

curl -k "https://localhost:7443/apisix/admin/routes?gateway_group_id={gateway_group_id}" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${API_KEY}" \
  --data-binary @- <<EOF
  {
    "id": "openrouter-route",
    "service_id": "$SERVICE_ID",
    "paths": ["/openrouter"],
    "plugins": {
      "ai-proxy": {
        "provider": "openrouter",
        "auth": {
          "header": {
            "Authorization": "Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY"
          }
        },
        "options": {
          "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
        }
      }
    }
  }
EOF

❶ Set the provider to openrouter.

❷ Attach the OpenRouter API key in the Authorization header.

❸ Set the model using the provider/model format. Browse available models at openrouter.ai/models.

Multi-Model Routing via OpenRouter​

Use ai-proxy-multi to load-balance across different models available through OpenRouter:

curl -k "https://localhost:7443/apisix/admin/routes?gateway_group_id={gateway_group_id}" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${API_KEY}" \
  --data-binary @- <<EOF
  {
    "id": "openrouter-multi-route",
    "service_id": "$SERVICE_ID",
    "paths": ["/openrouter"],
    "plugins": {
      "ai-proxy-multi": {
        "instances": [
          {
            "name": "budget-model",
            "provider": "openrouter",
            "auth": { "header": { "Authorization": "Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" } },
            "options": { "model": "google/gemini-2.0-flash" },
            "weight": 8
          },
          {
            "name": "premium-model",
            "provider": "openrouter",
            "auth": { "header": { "Authorization": "Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" } },
            "options": { "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514" },
            "weight": 2
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
EOF

❶ Route 80% of traffic to a budget-friendly model.

❷ Route 20% to a premium model for higher-quality responses.

For more routing strategies, see Multi-LLM Routing and Fallback.

Validate the Configuration​

Send a chat completion request:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9080/openrouter" -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "messages": [
      { "role": "user", "content": "What is an API gateway?" }
    ]
  }'

You should receive a response similar to the following:

{
  "id": "chatcmpl-abc123",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "An API gateway is a server that acts as a single entry point for a set of microservices or APIs, handling request routing, composition, and protocol translation."
      },
      "finish_reason": "stop"
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 10,
    "completion_tokens": 32,
    "total_tokens": 42
  }
}

To enable streaming responses, set "stream": true in the request body. Use the proxy-buffering plugin to disable NGINX proxy_buffering to avoid server-sent events (SSE) being buffered.

Next Steps​

You have learned how to route traffic to OpenRouter through API7 Gateway. See the OpenRouter documentation to learn more about available models and pricing.