Laravel

Introduction: The AI Api Aggregator

The AI landscape is fragmented. OpenAI has GPT-4. Anthropic has Claude 3. Google has Gemini. Meta has Llama 3. For developers and creators, managing separate API keys, billing accounts, and SDKs for each provider is a nightmare.

Enter OpenRouter. It is a unified interface (API) that gives you access to practically every major LLM (Large Language Model) through a single standard API (OpenAI-compatible) and a single crypto-friendly or credit-card payment method. This guide explains how to integrate it into your workflow.

Why OpenRouter?

No Waitlists: Access top-tier models often before they are widely available on public release.
Price Competition: They route to the cheapest available provider for open models (like Llama 3 70B), getting you the best token price.
Unified API: Write code once (using the standard OpenAI client), change one string (the `model` name), and switch from GPT-4o to Claude 3.5 Sonnet instantly.

Integration Guide for Developers

If you're building a Laravel app (like this blog!), integrating OpenRouter is trivial because it mimics OpenAI's signature.

Step 1: Configuration

In your `.env` file:


OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-xxxxxxxxxxxx
OPENROUTER_BASE_URI=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1

Step 2: The Code (Laravel PHP)

Using the standard `openai-php/client` package:


$client = \OpenAI::factory()
    ->withApiKey(env('OPENROUTER_API_KEY'))
    ->withBaseUri('https://openrouter.ai/api/v1')
    ->withHttpHeader('HTTP-Referer', 'https://farfosh.com') // Required by OpenRouter
    ->withHttpHeader('X-Title', 'Farfosh Blog') // Optional
    ->make();

$result = $client->chat()->create([
    'model' => 'anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet', // The magic happens here
    'messages' => [
        ['role' => 'user', 'content' => 'Write a haiku about Laravel.'],
    ],
]);

echo $result->choices[0]->message->content;

Strategies for Creators

You don't have to be a coder to benefit. Many third-party apps (Obsidian plugins, VS Code extensions like Cursor) verify "OpenAI Base URL". You can swap in `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1` and your OpenRouter key to use Claude 3 Opus inside tools that were built for GPT-4.

Recommended Models (2026 Edition)

For Coding: anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet or deepseek/deepseek-coder. These models have massive context windows and superior reasoning for logic.
For Creative Writing: openai/gpt-4o remains the most versatile for tone matching and adherence to rules.
For Cost Efficiency: meta-llama/llama-3-70b-instruct. Extremely cheap, fast, and 95% as good as the top dogs for summarization.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is my data private?

OpenRouter claims not to train on your data. However, the *underlying provider* (e.g., OpenAI or Anthropic) still receives the request. You should check the data retention policies of the specific model's creator.

2. How do I pay?

They accept credits. You 'top up' your account ($5 minimum). This is safer than a "pay as you go" credit card link that could surprise you with a $500 bill if your loop goes infinite.

3. What happens if a model goes down?

OpenRouter often has auto-fallback routing for popular open models. For proprietary ones (like Claude), if Anthropic is down, OpenRouter is down. Always implement try/catch blocks in your code.

Conclusion

OpenRouter is the Swiss Army Knife of AI integration. It future-proofs your applications. When GPT-5 drops, you won't need to rewrite your library; you'll just change a config string. Start building with it today.

OpenRouter AI Integration for Creators