At a glance — Oct 2026
Updated 2026-10-27 · forward this page: /jtbds/multi-model-router#briefScores as of 2026-09-14 (43 days old; Depot marks scores stale after 30 days). The pick is still Depot's current editorial pick; it has not been re-reviewed since. Prices below carry their own dates.
- Depot Pick
- OpenRouter · 8.00/10 for this job (curated estimate, high confidence)
dx + capability breadth; reliability discounted because upstream variance.
- Runner-up
- Amazon Bedrock · 7.75/10
Scores higher than the pick on: Latency / reliability, Privacy / data retention, Maturity / track record.
- When not to use the pick
- Need a single-vendor enterprise SLA — pin Anthropic/OpenAI or use Bedrock/Vertex as the governed router.
- Lock-in / migration
- The pick has lower stored lock-in risk than runner-up Amazon Bedrock (4 vs 7). Pick exit signals: OpenAI-compatible API (provider tag `openai-compat`). Self-host fallback listed for this job: LiteLLM.
- Sourced price (usd_per_million_input_tokens)
Pick's lowest sourced SKU: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 $2 (usd_per_million_input_tokens) — source, as of 2026-10-03, re-checked 2026-10-27
Cheapest matching SKU: Amazon Bedrock Gemma 3 4B $0.04 — source, as of 2026-10-03, re-checked 2026-10-27. Not the pick; not quality-adjusted.
Price history: first seen 2026-10-03 · last changed no change recorded · history JSON
- Free option
- Failure modes to watch
- Non-determinism: Run the task more than once and compare the end state, not a single transcript. Record the trial count next to any success rate you cite.
- Runaway spend: Set a budget and a tool-call cap per task. Alert when spend jumps. Stop the run at the cap instead of summarizing a partial trace as success.
Same-job, same-unit comparisons: OpenRouter vs Amazon Bedrock · OpenRouter vs Google Vertex AI · OpenRouter vs Together AI
Cite: Agent Provider Depot, Depot Pick for multi-model-router: openrouter, scores as of 2026-09-14. Agents: GET /api/decide?jtbd=multi-model-router
Free Multi-provider model routing options · All sourced prices, cheapest first
OpenRouter
dx + capability breadth; reliability discounted because upstream variance.
Pricing (directional): As of 2026-09-14: Multi-provider LLM router with OpenAI-compatible API; pass-through model pricing plus small platform fee. Best for prototyping multi-model and failover; production should pin critical paths to direct providers.
Lock-in risk: higher = more lock-in (worse). Overall already inverts this dimension.
Best multi-model router for agents that need failover and experimentation. Pin providers in production; don’t treat OpenRouter as your only SLA.
Quote for Multi-provider model routing
Depot Pick stays OpenRouter. Prices below are sourced SKU rows only (as of 2026-10-27). Input and output are not blended. GET /api/quote?jtbd=multi-model-router
Pick is not a price winner. openrouter sourced input $/1M is 2; cheapest among candidates is amazon-bedrock at 0.04.
- anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 usd_per_million_input_tokens $2 source as of 2026-10-03
- x-ai/grok-4.7 usd_per_million_input_tokens $2 source as of 2026-10-03
- anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 usd_per_million_output_tokens $10 source as of 2026-10-03
- x-ai/grok-4.7 usd_per_million_output_tokens $6 source as of 2026-10-03
1 of 6 candidates have no sourced price row. 2 are excluded from the Input $/1M comparison (chat_completion_input). min sourced input SKU among candidates; not quality-adjusted
Sourced Input $/1M for Multi-provider model routing
Candidates for this job that already have a matching sourced price (chat_completion_input), cheapest first. As of 2026-10-27. Each figure is one SKU in that unit, not a blend of input and output, not a cross-modal rate, and not a Depot score. min sourced input SKU among candidates; not quality-adjusted The Depot Pick is not a price winner.
| Provider | Input $/1M | SKU | Source | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Bedrock | $0.04 | Gemma 3 4B | pricing page | 2026-10-03 |
| Together AI | $0.15 | GLM-5.3-Flash | pricing page | 2026-10-03 |
| Google Vertex AI | $0.25 | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | pricing page | 2026-10-03 |
| OpenRouterDepot Pick | $2 | anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 | pricing page | 2026-10-03 |
Runners-up
Amazon Bedrock
Enterprise multi-model switchboard. Great when AWS is mandatory; mediocre when you just want the best Claude…
Google Vertex AI
Enterprise Gemini path. Use AI Studio for prototypes, Vertex when security review starts asking questions.
Together AI
Best catalog breadth for OSS models. Watch minimums and lifetime spend gates before you design around a gated…
Portkey
Depot pick for production AI gateway (fallbacks, virtual keys, budgets). OpenRouter when you want a model…
When NOT to use the top pick
Need a single-vendor enterprise SLA — pin Anthropic/OpenAI or use Bedrock/Vertex as the governed router.
Full ranking (score table)
Ranked with this JTBD's weights. Scores are curated estimates unless marked otherwise. Agents: prefer /api/decide then this table for tie-breaks.
| # | Provider | Overall | Fit | $/perf | Latency | DX | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portkey | 8.3 | 8.8 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 2026-09-14 |
| 2 | Vercel AI Gateway | 8.2 | 8.2 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 9.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 3 | Together AI | 8.2 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 2026-09-14 |
| 4 | OpenRouterDepot Pick | 8.0 | 8.8 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 9.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 5 | Google Vertex AI | 8.0 | 9.0 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 7.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 6 | Amazon Bedrock | 7.8 | 8.8 | 6.0 | 9.2 | 6.8 | 2026-09-14 |
Score methodology for this job
dx + capability breadth; reliability discounted because upstream variance.
capabilityFit: 25%pricePerformance: 18%latencyReliability: 15%developerDx: 15%privacyPosture: 10%lockInRisk: 7%maturity: 10%