OpenRouter LLM

Overview

OpenRouterLLMService provides access to OpenRouter’s language models through an OpenAI-compatible interface. It inherits from OpenAILLMService and supports streaming responses, function calling, and context management with access to multiple model providers through a single API.

OpenRouter LLM API Reference

Pipecat’s API methods for OpenRouter integration

Example Implementation

Complete example with function calling

OpenRouter Documentation

Official OpenRouter API documentation and features

OpenRouter Platform

Access multiple model providers and manage API keys

Installation

To use OpenRouter services, install the required dependencies:

uv add "pipecat-ai[openrouter]"

Prerequisites

OpenRouter Account Setup

Before using OpenRouter LLM services, you need:

OpenRouter Account: Sign up at OpenRouter
API Key: Generate an API key from your account dashboard
Model Selection: Choose from hundreds of available models from different providers
Credits: Add credits to your account for model usage

Required Environment Variables

OPENROUTER_API_KEY: Your OpenRouter API key for authentication

Configuration

str

required

OpenRouter API key for authentication. Raises ValueError when empty.

str

default:"None"

deprecated

Deprecated since 0.0.105, removed in 2.0.0. Use settings=OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(model=...) instead.

OpenRouterLLMService.Settings

default:"None"

Runtime-configurable settings. See Settings below.

str

default:"https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"

Base URL for OpenRouter API endpoint.

Settings

Runtime-configurable settings passed via the settings constructor argument using OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(...). These can be updated mid-conversation with LLMUpdateSettingsFrame. See Service Settings for details. This service extends OpenAILLMService.Settings with OpenRouter-specific parameters:

OpenRouterProviderPreferences | dict | None

default:"None"

Which upstream providers may serve the request. Controls OpenRouter’s provider routing preferences — which providers may serve a request, in what order, and under what latency, throughput, price, quantization, and data-retention constraints. Accepts an OpenRouterProviderPreferences instance or a plain dict (coerced to OpenRouterProviderPreferences). When unset or None, OpenRouter routes by its default order. See Provider Routing below for the full field reference.

For all other settings (model, temperature, max_completion_tokens, etc.), see OpenAI LLM Settings.

Usage

Basic Setup

import os
from pipecat.services.openrouter.llm import OpenRouterLLMService

llm = OpenRouterLLMService(
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
    settings=OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(
        model="openai/gpt-4.1",  # Default model
    ),
)

With a Different Provider Model

from pipecat.services.openrouter.llm import OpenRouterLLMService

llm = OpenRouterLLMService(
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
    settings=OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(
        model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4",
        temperature=0.7,
        max_completion_tokens=1024,
    ),
)

With Provider Routing Preferences

from pipecat.services.openrouter.llm import OpenRouterLLMService

# Optimize for latency
llm = OpenRouterLLMService(
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
    settings=OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(
        model="openai/gpt-4.1",
        provider={"sort": "latency"},
    ),
)

# Route to specific providers only
llm = OpenRouterLLMService(
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
    settings=OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(
        model="openai/gpt-4.1",
        provider={"only": ["azure"], "allow_fallbacks": False},
    ),
)

# Set throughput and latency constraints
llm = OpenRouterLLMService(
    api_key=os.getenv("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
    settings=OpenRouterLLMService.Settings(
        model="openai/gpt-4.1",
        provider={
            "preferred_min_throughput": {"p90": 50},
            "preferred_max_latency": {"p90": 1.5},
        },
    ),
)

Provider Routing

OpenRouter can route requests to multiple upstream providers for each model. The provider parameter in Settings controls these routing preferences.

OpenRouterProviderPreferences Fields

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`order`	`list[str]`	`None`	Provider slugs to try, in order, before any others. Turns off load balancing.
`allow_fallbacks`	`bool`	`None`	Whether to fall back to providers outside `order`, `only`, and `quantizations`. `None` leaves OpenRouter’s default, `True`.
`require_parameters`	`bool`	`None`	Route only to providers supporting every parameter in the request. `None` leaves OpenRouter’s default, `False`.
`data_collection`	`"allow" \| "deny"`	`None`	`"deny"` restricts to providers that do not collect user data. `None` leaves OpenRouter’s default, `"allow"`.
`zdr`	`bool`	`None`	Route only to zero-data-retention endpoints.
`enforce_distillable_text`	`bool`	`None`	Route only to models that allow text distillation.
`only`	`list[str]`	`None`	Provider slugs to route to, excluding all others.
`ignore`	`list[str]`	`None`	Provider slugs never to route to.
`quantizations`	`list[str]`	`None`	Quantization levels to accept, e.g. `["fp8", "bf16"]`.
`sort`	`"price" \| "throughput" \| "latency" \| dict`	`None`	Attribute to rank providers by, or an object `{"by": ..., "partition": "model" \| "none"}`. Turns off load balancing.
`preferred_min_throughput`	`float \| dict`	`None`	Throughput in tokens/sec below which a provider is deprioritized. Number or percentile thresholds (`"p50"`, `"p75"`, `"p90"`, `"p99"`).
`preferred_max_latency`	`float \| dict`	`None`	Latency in seconds above which a provider is deprioritized. Number or percentile thresholds (`"p50"`, `"p75"`, `"p90"`, `"p99"`).
`max_price`	`dict`	`None`	Cost ceilings in USD: `"prompt"` and `"completion"` per million tokens, `"request"` per request, `"image"` per image.

For provider slugs and full routing semantics, see OpenRouter’s provider selection guide.

Notes

OpenRouter model identifiers use the provider/model format (e.g., openai/gpt-4o, anthropic/claude-sonnet-4, google/gemini-2.5-pro).
The default model is openai/gpt-4.1.
Developer message conversion: OpenRouter requests convert developer messages to user messages by default. To use models that support the developer role, set llm.supports_developer_role = True after instantiation or subclass OpenRouterLLMService to override this behavior.
When using Gemini models through OpenRouter, the service automatically handles the constraint that only one system message is allowed by converting additional system messages to user messages.

Get Started

Pipecat Server

Client SDKs

Pipecat Flows

Pipecat Cloud

CLI

Pipecat Context Hub

Overview

OpenRouter LLM API Reference

Example Implementation

OpenRouter Documentation

OpenRouter Platform

Installation

Prerequisites

OpenRouter Account Setup

Required Environment Variables

Configuration

Settings

Usage

Basic Setup

With a Different Provider Model

With Provider Routing Preferences

Provider Routing

OpenRouterProviderPreferences Fields

Notes

​Overview

OpenRouter LLM API Reference

Example Implementation

OpenRouter Documentation

OpenRouter Platform

​Installation

​Prerequisites

​OpenRouter Account Setup

​Required Environment Variables

​Configuration

​Settings

​Usage

​Basic Setup

​With a Different Provider Model

​With Provider Routing Preferences

​Provider Routing

​OpenRouterProviderPreferences Fields

​Notes

Overview

Installation

Prerequisites

OpenRouter Account Setup

Required Environment Variables

Configuration

Settings

Usage

Basic Setup

With a Different Provider Model

With Provider Routing Preferences

Provider Routing

OpenRouterProviderPreferences Fields

Notes