API Reference

Limits

Rate Limits

Making additional accounts or API keys will not affect your rate limits, as we govern capacity globally. We do however have different rate limits for different models, so you can share the load that way if you do run into issues.

Rate Limits and Credits Remaining

To check the rate limit or credits left on an API key, make a GET request to https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/key.

1const response = await fetch('https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/key', {
2  method: 'GET',
3  headers: {
4    Authorization: 'Bearer {{API_KEY_REF}}',
5  },
6});

If you submit a valid API key, you should get a response of the form:

TypeScript
1type Key = {
2  data: {
3    label: string;
4    limit: number | null; // Credit limit for the key, or null if unlimited
5    limit_reset: string | null; // Type of limit reset for the key, or null if never resets
6    limit_remaining: number | null; // Remaining credits for the key, or null if unlimited
7    include_byok_in_limit: boolean;  // Whether to include external BYOK usage in the credit limit
8
9    usage: number; // Number of credits used (all time)
10    usage_daily: number; // Number of credits used (current UTC day)
11    usage_weekly: number; // ... (current UTC week, starting Monday)
12    usage_monthly: number; // ... (current UTC month)
13
14    byok_usage: number; // Same for external BYOK usage
15    byok_usage_daily: number;
16    byok_usage_weekly: number;
17    byok_usage_monthly: number;
18
19    is_free_tier: boolean; // Whether the user has paid for credits before
20    // rate_limit: { ... } // A deprecated object in the response, safe to ignore
21  };
22};

There are a few rate limits that apply to certain types of requests, regardless of account status:

  1. Free usage limits: If you’re using a free model variant (with an ID ending in :free), you can make up to 20 requests per minute. The following per-day limits apply:

  • If you have purchased less than 10 credits, you’re limited to 50 :free model requests per day.

  • If you purchase at least 10 credits, your daily limit is increased to 1000 :free model requests per day.

  1. DDoS protection: Cloudflare’s DDoS protection will block requests that dramatically exceed reasonable usage.

If your account has a negative credit balance, you may see 402 errors, including for free models. Adding credits to put your balance above zero allows you to use those models again.