[{"i":5,"story":{"id":"provider-index","title":"Same model, different price: 265 provider endpoints compared","description":"Reported by OpenRouter’s public API on 2026-10-06: open-weight prices vary up to 12.6x across providers; closed models have one standard price, and the gateway adds a 5.5% credit fee.","studySlug":"inference-provider-index","chartIds":["provider-index-spread","provider-prices-llama-3-3-70b-instruct","gateway-vs-direct-claude-sonnet-5-5"],"durationSeconds":42,"transcript":["Provider index · third-party-reported · 2026-10-06. Same model, different price. 265 endpoints, 52 providers, 27 models. Prices as OpenRouter’s public API reports them.","265 endpoints, 52 providers, 27 models. The keyless API returned latency for 0 of them, so speed is not compared. Provider endpoints in the snapshot: 265 endpoints (52 providers, 27 models). Largest price spread (DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423): 12.6x (15 providers · blended price). Endpoints with a latency figure: 0 of 265. Caveat: Every price is third-party-reported by OpenRouter’s API at 2026-10-06. Prices change often; refetch before relying on them.","Open-weight models vary most: DeepSeek V4 Flash 12.6×, DeepSeek V4 Pro 11.2×. All 15 closed models with 2+ providers: one standard price (1×). Chart: Priciest ÷ cheapest standard provider · blended price (n = 2–32 each). Caveat: The cheapest endpoint may run lower precision (fp4 or fp8) or a shorter context. Price alone does not make two endpoints equal.","One model, 10 providers: Llama 3.3 70B input costs $0.10 per million tokens at DeepInfra (fp8) and $1.04 at Together. Chart: Llama 3.3 70B · USD per million tokens · one row per provider. Caveat: The cheapest endpoint may run lower precision (fp4 or fp8) or a shorter context. Price alone does not make two endpoints equal.","Gateway markup: for 10 of 10 models OpenRouter charges the vendor’s per-token price. The cost is a 5.5% fee when you buy credits. Models at the first-party per-token price: 10 of 10. Credit-purchase fee, Standard plan by card: 5.5% ($0.80 minimum by card). Effective markup per token after the fee: +5.5% (calculation). Caveat: First-party prices in the product table were verified on an earlier date than the snapshot; a vendor price change in between would show as a markup.","Example: Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 in and $10.00 out per million tokens on both. A price is not a measurement: no winner. Chart: Claude Sonnet 5.5 · OpenRouter vs Anthropic list price · USD per million. Caveat: Comparison rows between providers name no winner: a price has no interval, so the rule for winners does not apply. The gap is stated.","Prices change often: every endpoint, tier and source date online."]}}]