Choosing an LLM API gateway — a checkable comparison
Whether you're picking your first LLM gateway or weighing an alternative to the one you use today, the same seven checks apply. Each one is verifiable in minutes — and each row says exactly where KoRouter stands, with the page that proves it.
The seven checks
| What to check | Why it matters | Where KoRouter stands |
|---|---|---|
| The official price is shown next to the gateway price | A discount you can't compare against the provider's list price is a badge, not a number. | Every model row on the marketplace shows both, live. marketplace → |
| The discount covers cache reads and writes | Agentic coding sessions are 80–90% cache traffic; a headline discount that skips the cache lines can quietly halve in practice. | One multiplier per model applies to all four price lines — cache reads and writes included. worked example → |
| No monthly fee or minimum spend | A subscription turns a price comparison into a usage bet. | Free to sign up, pay as you go with credits — no monthly fee, no minimum. |
| Native protocol coverage | Translation layers break tool calling and streaming in subtle ways. | OpenAI and Anthropic protocols are served natively on one endpoint, with per-tool setup guides. per-tool guides → |
| Failover you don't have to build | Provider incidents shouldn't be your pager. | Automatic routing and failover, with availability history public. live status → |
| Usage you can audit | Every charge should trace back to a single request. | Per-request token and cost breakdown is preserved in the console usage history. |
| A catalog that keeps growing without re-integration | Model churn is weekly; wiring up each new model is the hidden cost. | New models land in the same API as bare model IDs — no code change. current catalog → |
Why there's no named head-to-head table here
Gateway catalogs and prices move weekly, and a stale comparison table is its own kind of discount badge. The honest version is the three-minute check: collect all four unit prices for the model you actually use, multiply by your real token mix, and compare totals — on any provider, including us. Every number KoRouter publishes sits next to the provider's official price so you can run that check without leaving the page.
Free to sign up, no monthly fee — pay as you go with credits.