Groq vs OpenRouter
LLM API Providers pricing comparison · 2026
Groq pricing ranges from $0.05–$3/per million tokens, while OpenRouter ranges from $0–$75/per million tokens. Groq is typically 85% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
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Groq and OpenRouter are two leading LLM API providers. This page compares their per-token pricing, available models, and tier structure so you can pick the right backend for your workload — whether you're optimizing for cost per 1M tokens, latency, or model quality.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | Groq | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free /month | Free /month |
| Developer | Custom | Custom |
| Enterprise | Custom | — |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
Groq
3 scenarios$16.00
Audio Transcription: 400 Hours via Whisper
total ($0.04 × 400 hours)
$0.90/month ($0.50 input + $0.40 output)
Light Developer Usage: Llama 3.1 8B
$45.30/month ($29.50 input + $15.80 output)
Production App: Moderate Usage with Llama 3.3 70B
OpenRouter
3 scenarios$0.30
Weekend Developer Experimentation
for a full weekend of testing
$5
Daily AI Coding Assistant Use
7/day
$30
Heavy Creative Writing with Premium Models
50/day via OpenRouter with Claude API
Contract Terms
| Term | Groq | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-renewal | No | No |
| Cancellation | — | Not applicable — pay-as-you-go credits, no subscription |
| Minimum commitment | — | None |
| Price escalation | No published price escalation schedule; token prices have generally trended downward as model catalog expands | No published schedule; per-token rates are set by underlying providers and may change without notice |
| Can downgrade | Yes | Yes |