Best LLM APIs AI tools and models

AI/ML API (AIMLAPI) is a prepaid API service, contracting through Boiler Labs FZ-LLC in the UAE and also listing AIMLAPI OÜ in Estonia, that sells text, image, video and audio models from many makers through one key. Its current prices for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models sit about 30% above the makers' list prices.

Best for:

Developers who want one prepaid key for text, image, video and audio models; Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode users who want to switch providers without editing config files

Biggest weakness:

Prices above the makers' list prices.

APIMODELS is a pay-as-you-go AI API relay that sells about 150 models through one key at its own prices, mostly below the makers' list prices, and spends the margin on backup channels: 98.62% of requests succeeded over 30 days, moderation rejections excluded. APIMODELS is our own product: it is made by the team behind GenGrades.

Best for:

Indie developers and small teams who want many models on one $10 top-up and one bill; Products that cannot afford a broken generation queue when one upstream has a bad hour

Biggest weakness:

Its headline discount is larger than its own comparisons show.

Chutes is a decentralized inference network on Bittensor subnet 64, run by Chutes Global Corp, where anonymous GPU operators serve open-weight models such as DeepSeek, Kimi and GLM through an OpenAI-compatible API. It ended its free tier on March 15, 2026, runs all 14 public models in trusted execution environments, and relies on TAO token subsidies.

Best for:

Roleplay users on Janitor AI or SillyTavern who want cheap open models; Hobby coders running OpenCode, Aider or Cline on open models

Biggest weakness:

No free tier, and prices have risen.

Cloudflare AI Gateway is Cloudflare's free proxy for AI requests, adding logging, caching, rate limits and fallbacks in front of 24 providers. Since August 2025 its Unified Billing lets you buy Cloudflare credits and call OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI and Groq models without your own keys, at list prices plus a 5% fee on every credit purchase.

Best for:

Teams already building on Cloudflare Workers or Workers AI; Developers who want logs, caching and spend limits in front of their own OpenAI or Anthropic keys

Biggest weakness:

A 5% fee on every credit purchase.

CometAPI is a prepaid API service that sells text, image, video and audio models through one key at, by its own rule, 80% of the makers' list prices. Its terms and privacy pages name no company and use Hong Kong law, and it says it reaches the low prices through bulk credit buying and routing.

Best for:

Price-driven developers who want Claude, GPT and Gemini below list price; Hobby projects mixing chat models with Midjourney, Sora 2 or Kling

Biggest weakness:

No named company.

Eden AI is a Lyon-based API gateway, run by Eden AI SAS, that puts about 500 language models and 250 'expert' models for OCR, speech, translation and image work behind one key and one prepaid balance. It passes provider prices through and, since January 2026, adds a 5.5% platform fee on self-serve credits.

Best for:

EU companies that need a DPA and EU-only processing for AI calls; Teams that need OCR, document parsing, speech or translation alongside LLMs

Biggest weakness:

A 5.5% fee on top of list prices.

Inworld Router is Inworld AI's model-routing API, which sends OpenAI- and Anthropic-style requests to third-party models at the providers' list prices with no markup and can route by user metadata. On October 14, 2026 Inworld folded it into Inworld Inference, which also serves open models on Inworld's own hardware; inworld.ai/router now redirects there.

Best for:

Consumer apps that want to test models per user segment, language or plan; Voice and character apps already using Inworld's text-to-speech or speech-to-text

Biggest weakness:

The product was renamed and refocused within days.

Kilo Gateway is the OpenAI-compatible model API behind the Kilo Code agent, run by Kilo Code, Inc., which Anaconda acquired in July 2026. It bills tokens at the upstream rate plus a 5% fee on credit purchases, and most of its 400 models match OpenRouter's IDs and prices.

Best for:

Kilo Code users in VS Code, JetBrains, the CLI or Kilo's cloud agents who want one balance; Developers with Z.ai, Kimi Code or OpenCode Go plans who want them next to pay-as-you-go models

Biggest weakness:

It is largely a layer on OpenRouter.

NanoGPT is a pay-per-prompt AI service run by NanoGPT LLC, a U.S. company, with a web chat and an OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible API for about 670 models at the makers' list prices. You can start with 0.10 USD in crypto and no account, or pay 12 USD a month for a plan built around open-weight models.

Best for:

Privacy-minded individuals who want pay-per-prompt access without a subscription or an account; SillyTavern, JanitorAI and other roleplay users on a budget

Biggest weakness:

Tool calling for agents.

Novita AI is an inference host for open-weight models such as DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi and Qwen, with image, video, GPU and sandbox services; it does not resell GPT, Claude or Gemini. Its per-token prices match or undercut the makers' own, its terms promise zero data retention by default, and it does not name the company behind it.

Best for:

Developers who want new DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi and Qwen releases without hosting them; Teams that need a zero-retention host for open-weight models

Biggest weakness:

No closed models.

OpenCode Zen, called OpenCode Console in the docs since October 2026, is the pay-as-you-go model gateway from Anomaly Innovations, the team behind the OpenCode coding agent. It sells about 80 coding models near the makers' list prices plus a 4.6% + 0.31 USD card fee; a Console breach that month may have exposed some users' saved provider keys.

Best for:

OpenCode users who want one prepaid balance for closed and open coding models; Claude Code, Codex, Pi or Hermes users who want a second source for the same models

Biggest weakness:

A Console breach in October 2026.

OpenRouter is a New York company's API relay that sells access to more than 680 models from over 100 hosting providers through one key, at each provider's list price plus a 5.5% fee on credit purchases. Stripe agreed to buy it on August 19, 2026; no closing had been announced by October 21, 2026.

Best for:

Developers who want to try or switch between many models from one key and one bill; Teams running open-weight models such as DeepSeek, Kimi or GLM who want to choose among competing hosts

Biggest weakness:

The same model can behave differently depending on the host.

Poe API is Quora's developer API for the bots in its Poe chat app, opened on July 31, 2025, with OpenAI-compatible endpoints and an Anthropic-compatible one for official Claude bots. Calls spend the same points as a Poe subscription, so there is no separate API bill; current Claude bots cost about 1% more than Anthropic's list price.

Best for:

Poe subscribers who want to spend their points in Claude Code, Cline, Roo Code or Cursor; SillyTavern and other chat front-end users who already pay for Poe

Biggest weakness:

Points are hard to predict, and they are the main complaint.

Requesty is a London-based LLM gateway, run by Requesty Ltd and seed-funded by 20VC in 2025, that sells OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible access to more than 600 models at list price plus a 5% top-up fee. It stands out for routing policies, spend controls and an EU endpoint in Frankfurt.

Best for:

European teams that want their gateway to process requests inside the EU; Engineering teams running Claude Code, Cline, Roo Code or Codex who want spend caps per developer

Biggest weakness:

Prompts and outputs are logged by default.

TypeSafe AI is a San Francisco AI lab whose first model, Jev, returns typed decisions with probabilities instead of text, for software to act on. Jev opened in early access on September 15, 2026 with a $40 million seed round, and Bloomberg reported on October 9 a raise of about $870 million at a $7.5 billion valuation.

Best for:

Developers who classify, score or route large volumes of text inside software; Teams running LLM-based screening or moderation where the per-call cost adds up

Biggest weakness:

Not a text model.

Vercel AI Gateway is Vercel's hosted API for about 480 text, image, video and speech models behind one key, billed from prepaid credits at the providers' list prices with no markup, including when you bring your own keys. It became generally available on August 21, 2025, and gives each Vercel team 5 USD of free credit a month.

Best for:

Developers already deploying on Vercel or building with the AI SDK; Teams running coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor who want one bill and spend tracking

Biggest weakness:

Billing bugs have blocked paying accounts.

ZenMux is an LLM gateway, operated under its terms by NexaMind Singapore Pte. Ltd., that sells Claude, GPT, Gemini and many Chinese models through OpenAI, Anthropic and Vertex-style endpoints at the makers' list token prices. It adds automatic credits for bad or slow answers, which it calls insurance, and 20 to 200 USD monthly coding plans.

Best for:

Developers using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Gemini CLI who want one key for Western and Chinese models; Teams that want provider pinning and fallbacks across Anthropic, Vertex AI and Bedrock

Biggest weakness:

Claude access has broken at the upstream.