> OrcaRouter
OrcaRouter is an LLM gateway offering zero token markup and adaptive routing across 200+ models. It is OpenAI-compatible and supports both pay-as-you-go and subscription plans with a handful of free-tier models.
// pros
- Verifiable operator: Continuum AI Corp (Chicago, USA), with LinkedIn, Crunchbase/PitchBook entries, disclosed funding (~$13.4M) and an arXiv paper — not an anonymous relay
- OpenAI-compatible /v1 API, with /v1/models publicly listable without auth; integration is a base_url swap
- Official MIT-licensed self-hosted build OrcaRouter-Lite (600+ GitHub stars, still receiving commits) plus an official MCP server, so the hosted layer can be bypassed
- A genuine $0-priced free model tier (DeepSeek V4 Flash Free and others), usable without a credit card
- Claims zero token markup with pass-through upstream pricing, funded by Team/Enterprise subscriptions rather than a spread
- Supports openai / anthropic / gemini endpoint shapes simultaneously, plus a browser Playground
// cons
- Fundamentally a commercial aggregation gateway: most models (GPT-5.x, Claude Opus, Gemini 3.x, etc.) are pay-per-token; the free tier only covers a few small/mid models
- Concrete free-tier rate limits (RPM/RPD, per-request size) are published nowhere — only "conservative caps" and "429 when over the limit"
- The site explicitly states that topping up your balance raises free-tier limits, making the free tier a funnel into paid usage rather than a stable entitlement
- Large free-token claims ("1 billion tokens") come mainly from the company's own press releases and social reposts, with no independent verification
- Almost all online visibility is self-issued PR syndicated via PRNewswire/Yahoo/Morningstar plus tool-directory listings; no independent user reviews were found on Linux.do, V2EX, NodeSeek, Reddit or HN
- Very short operating history (GitHub org created 2026-04; the site panel process only started 2026-08-25), so there is no multi-year reliability record
- Probing /api/status returns a one-api / new-api family open-source panel structure (quota_per_unit=500000, announcement_* fields), which sits awkwardly with the "in-house production gateway" marketing — billing and accounts run on an open-source panel
- BYOK requires handing your own upstream provider keys to a third party; custody and liability boundaries must be assessed by you
- Observability, prompt caching and prompt versioning imply request content is retained; privacy and compliance terms need independent review
Treat OrcaRouter as a commercial aggregation gateway with a small free tier, not as a free community relay. Reasonable use: prototype with the free orcarouter/free, deepseek-v4-flash-free or qwen3.8-27b-free models to validate an OpenAI-compatible integration, then pay per token for flagship models or go BYOK with your own upstream keys. Practical advice: confirm your account's actual rate limits and balance-deduction rules in the console before scaling up; do not build a long-term dependency on the free tier, since its limits can change at any time; if using BYOK, supply revocable sub-keys with spending caps rather than a primary key; keep sensitive data off the service given prompt retention and caching; and if you need full control, evaluate the MIT-licensed self-hosted OrcaRouter-Lite. This report is informational risk triage only and is not an endorsement.
community_reputation
Nearly all discoverable information comes from official channels and aggregator directories: PRNewswire/Yahoo/Morningstar syndications of company press releases, listings on AlternativeTo/Toolify/Microlaunch/Cursor Directory, provider docs at Promptfoo and Mastra, official HuggingFace and Apify accounts, and an arXiv paper (OrcaRouter: A Production-Oriented LLM Router with Hybrid Offline–Online Learning). Positive signals: a named, funded legal entity (Continuum AI Corp, Chicago) and an actively maintained open-source repo (603 stars, 76 forks, 22 open issues, commits as recent as August). Negative signal: essentially no independent user reputation — no first-hand reports about stability, billing or abandonment were found on Chinese tech forums (Linux.do, V2EX, NodeSeek) or Reddit/HN, so the advertised free-quota scale and long-term availability cannot be corroborated. Hence a mildly above-neutral score with reduced confidence.
imported analysis — independent third party, not Uprouter editorial · verify before relying on it
Free tier present — value not quantified
This provider offers a free tier, but its terms don’t convert cleanly into a USD figure (e.g. request-count limits or capacity-dependent pools). We refuse to print a misleading zero here. See the note below and the official pricing page for the exact limits.
note: Free-forever 'Hacker' plan: only $0-priced -free models and orcarouter/free endpoint are genuinely free, limited by request rate; probe showed $0 auto-grant. '1B free tokens'/voucher promos lack verifiable terms.
| Plan | Type | Monthly | Input /1M | Output /1M | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier (source-reported) | free | — | — | — | The free "Hacker" plan is advertised as free forever, no credit card, 3 API keys, 0% token markup — but ordinary models still bill against your balance at upstream rates. What is genuinely free are the $0-priced -free models and the orcarouter/free routing endpoint, which the site says are "limited by request rate, not by a fixed pot of calls," while also stating that "topping up your balance raises the free-tier limits." Official and social channels have also promoted "1 billion free tokens," student credits, hackathon grants and voucher drops, but no publicly verifiable eligibility or expiry terms were found; our probe shows a new account quota hint of $0 (no automatic credit grant). Exact RPM/RPD numbers are not published on the site or model pages. |
| Free Tier | free | — | — | — | Includes access to -free suffixed models like deepseek-v4-flash-free. |
Pricing normalized from public sources — always verify with the provider.
// model prices
| Model | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| orcarouter/free | — | — | — |
| deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-free | — | — | — |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b-free | — | — | — |
| tencent/hy3-free | — | — | — |
$ Does OrcaRouter have a free tier?
Yes — OrcaRouter offers a free tier. Always confirm current limits on OrcaRouter's official pricing page — free tiers change without notice.
$ How much does OrcaRouter cost per 1M tokens?
OrcaRouter does not publish simple per-1M-token pricing (it may bill per request, per output, or via a subscription plan). Check their official pricing page for exact figures.
$ Is OrcaRouter safe to use?
Uprouter rates OrcaRouter as medium risk. Rated medium risk. a commercial aggregator routing to many upstreams with only partial transparency: some model coverage or pricing is confirmed, while other figures rest on third-party reports or a login-gated console. Risk ratings are editorial, evidence-based, and never influenced by affiliate relationships.
Raw community sentiment, shown unblended. Votes never feed into objective data fields like price, risk, or status — and never into sort order.
No published reviews yet — be the first.
// more_informationprice history · live status · risk & confidence · code snippets
price_history
No recorded changes yet.
live_status
full history →best-effort probes · not a guarantee · last 1d ago
| Checked | Status | Latency |
|---|---|---|
| 1d ago | up | 221ms |
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| 27d ago | up | 454ms |
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| 29d ago | up | 372ms |
| 29d ago | up | 336ms |
Uprouter runs its own probes; best-effort, not a guarantee. Probe results depend on our network location and cadence — for production, always use the provider’s own status page.
risk_&_confidence
Rated medium risk. a commercial aggregator routing to many upstreams with only partial transparency: some model coverage or pricing is confirmed, while other figures rest on third-party reports or a login-gated console.
Confidence reflects how much verifiable evidence (official docs, probe history, community reports) backs this entry. Risk is our editorial assessment of operator reliability and terms — not financial advice.
code_snippets
# OrcaRouter's own API — get a key from their dashboard
curl https://YOUR-PROVIDER-ENDPOINT/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer THEIR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "orcarouter-free",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello" }]
}'Direct to the provider — Uprouter receives nothing; verify their current pricing before purchasing.
Ranked by neutral similarity signals only — live status, free-tier shape and free-credit proximity. Commercial relationships never influence this list.