Does OpenRouter mark up model prices?

No. OpenRouter passes through the providers' prices without markup and charges a fee when you buy credits: 5.5% by card with a $0.80 minimum, 5% in crypto.

Why does the smaaart discount change with the amount?

Its credits come from a book of discounted slices sold cheapest first. A small purchase fills from the deepest discount; a large one runs through the book, and anything beyond its depth is sold at face value plus the 5% fee.

Are the models the same?

smaaart calls the model you request on OpenRouter, through zero-data-retention endpoints only. Models whose only hosts keep data are not reachable through it.

smaaart vs OpenRouter: which is cheaper for AI credits?

Usage bought →	$20	$100	$500	$1,000	$2,000
smaaart · Card	$19.00^*	$95.00^*	$505.00^*	$1,030.00^*	$2,080.00^*
OpenRouter · Card	$21.10	$105.50	$527.50	$1,055.00	$2,110.00
OpenRouter · Crypto	$21.00	$105.00	$525.00	$1,050.00	$2,100.00

Usage bought →

$20

$100

$500

$1,000

$2,000

smaaart · Card

$19.00^*

$95.00^*

$505.00^*

$1,030.00^*

$2,080.00^*

OpenRouter · Card

$21.10

$105.50

$527.50

$1,055.00

$2,110.00

OpenRouter · Crypto

$21.00

$105.00

$525.00

$1,050.00

$2,100.00

Side by side

	smaaart · Card	OpenRouter · Card	OpenRouter · Crypto
Payment	Card	Card	Crypto
Models	Every model on OpenRouter	Every model on OpenRouter	Every model on OpenRouter
API keys	One OpenAI/OpenRouter-compatible key	One key, many routing options	One key, many routing options
Data retention	Zero-data-retention endpoints only	Configurable per request (ZDR available)	Configurable per request (ZDR available)
Fees	Credits from a discount book, plus a 5% platform fee on face value. Card processing and taxes shown at checkout.	5.5% on card purchases, $0.80 minimum. No markup on model prices.	5% on crypto purchases. No markup on model prices.
Our price source	live quote	published fee	published fee

Where the price difference comes from

OpenRouter charges no markup on tokens. When you top up, it adds 5.5% on card payments ($0.80 minimum) or 5% on crypto. $100 of usage costs $105.50 by card.

smaaart routes through OpenRouter too, but sells its credits below face value from a book of discounted slices, cheapest first, then adds a 5% platform fee on face value. Card processing and taxes are added by its checkout (Whop), so the real total is a little above the quote. The book has limited depth: past it, you pay face value plus the 5% fee plus card processing, which is no cheaper than OpenRouter. The table shows where that line is today.

What else differs

OpenRouter lets you pick providers, fallbacks and data policies per request, and has the widest set of features (presets, BYOK, free model variants). smaaart relays the requested model as is, with no fallback, and only to zero-data-retention endpoints.

Switching is two lines either way: the base URL and the key. Code written for the OpenAI SDK or for OpenRouter works on both.

Want the whole field? See the live comparison or estimate your bill with the cost calculator.

Questions

Disclosure: this site is run by the team behind smaaart, one of the options compared. Tables are ranked by price only, from live quotes and published fees, including when smaaart isn't first. How we compare