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ScaledThought vs OpenRouter

Looking for an OpenRouter alternative for open-weight models? Here is how ScaledThought and OpenRouter differ on API compatibility, getting a key, billing and prompt storage. What we say about OpenRouter comes from its own public pages, linked and dated beside each fact. For ScaledThought's prices, see /pricing.

Topic

ScaledThought

OpenRouter

OpenAI-compatible API: ScaledThoughtAn OpenAI-compatible API for open-weight models. Base URL https://api.us.scaledthought.com/v1; any OpenAI SDK works.; OpenRouterIts quickstart says the OpenAI SDK can be pointed at OpenRouter as a drop-in replacement, with the base URL https://openrouter.ai/api/v1.Source: openrouter.ai/docs/quickstart ↗, read October 12, 2026
Getting an API key: ScaledThoughtAn agent signs up and gets a key itself: npx -y scaledthought@0.3 init. A person can also sign up on the US dashboard by email link.; OpenRouterIts authentication docs say to create a key on its keys page, giving it a name and an optional credit limit.Source: openrouter.ai/docs/api_reference/authentication ↗, read October 12, 2026
How usage is paid: ScaledThoughtPrepaid credits, no subscription: the agent asks its human to approve a top-up through an approval link. Every key can have its own daily budget, and sub-agent keys stay within their parent's budget.; OpenRouterIts pricing page says you buy credits, manually or with auto top-up, and each request deducts its cost from your balance. Its fee is charged when you buy credits: 5.5% on Standard and 8% on Business, not on individual requests.Source: openrouter.ai/pricing ↗, read October 12, 2026
Prompts and completions: ScaledThoughtPrompts and completions are not stored or logged. Every response carries x-st-data-retention: none.; OpenRouterIts data collection page says it does not store prompts or responses unless you opt in, and that it stores request metadata such as token counts and latency.Source: openrouter.ai/docs/guides/privacy/data-collection ↗, read October 12, 2026

Also about ScaledThought

Regions: The US region is live. Canada is coming soon: when it opens, a Canadian account's data is processed and stored in Canada.
Models: Open-weight models through one API. The current list and prices are on /pricing and each live model's page, or run npx -y scaledthought@0.3 models --live, which lists them.

Try it

Your agent sets it up.

Paste this into your coding agent. It creates the account and a key, and asks you to approve a top-up.

Open this prompt inClaude Code Claude Desktop Codex

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Pricing Docs

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ScaledThought is not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenRouter, Together AI, Fireworks AI, DeepInfra, Groq. Their names are trademarks of their owners. Facts about them come from their own public pages, linked and dated; check the source for the current terms.