Rhumb and OpenRouter's Auto router
Call openrouter/auto and OpenRouter picks a model for each prompt inside its gateway, then forwards the call. Rhumb answers the same question before you call: which model, on which of your providers, under which id, and why. OpenRouter can be one of those providers, priced with its fee (see Cheapest offering).
| Aspect | OpenRouter's Auto router | Rhumb |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | In the request path: every call goes through OpenRouter. | Before the call. You call your provider directly, with its own SDK. |
| Providers | Models OpenRouter routes to, paid with its credits or with your own provider key plus its fee. | The providers you list, OpenRouter among them if you like, and local runtimes. |
| Your contract terms | Its own bring-your-own-key option; terms you have with other providers don't count. | provider_terms: bring-your-own-key, a negotiated discount, a free tier. |
| Who made the model | No filter by the maker's country; routing by region and data retention instead. | origin=eu,not:cn, and origin_strict for fine-tunes' base models. |
| Your prompt | Sent through OpenRouter to the chosen model. | /v1/resolve never sees one. /v1/plan sends it to OpenAI's decision model by default; an account can keep it on our server instead. |
| Speed | Latency and throughput are part of its provider routing. | Not yet: no latency or throughput data. |
| What it costs | The chosen model's price, plus OpenRouter's fee on credits (5.5% by card on its standard plan). | Plans by calls a month; a free plan and free test keys. |
When OpenRouter's Auto router is the better fit
- You already send every call through OpenRouter and want a choice per prompt with no extra request.
- Your app needs the fastest provider right now, which Rhumb can't rank on yet.
What this page says about OpenRouter's Auto router was checked on 2026-11-07 against its own pages. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us.