# Uprouter Online

> An OpenAI- and Claude-compatible AI API gateway and directory that lets you bring your own keys from 388+ routers and route every request through a single endpoint with failover, daily caps, and per-request metering.

Uprouter Online is an independent, developer-facing directory of AI API providers combined with a self-hostable gateway called Uprouter Connect. It tracks 388 routers — including OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, and Alibaba Cloud — with normalized pricing, free-tier values, live uptime probes, and community-verified data. The self-hosted Connect gateway is open-source under the MIT license and available on GitHub.

## What It Is

Uprouter Online has two distinct components: a **directory** and a **gateway**. The directory catalogs AI API providers with normalized USD-per-1M-token pricing, free-tier credit values, risk ratings, editorial confidence scores, and live status probes. The gateway, Uprouter Connect, is an OpenAI- and Claude-compatible unified endpoint that accepts BYOK (bring your own keys) credentials from any of the tracked providers, routes requests with configurable strategies, and returns per-request audit logs covering tokens, latency, and cost.

## How the Gateway Works

Uprouter Connect exposes a single API endpoint (`/api/connect/v1/chat/completions`) that is compatible with both the OpenAI and Anthropic message formats, including SSE streaming. Key capabilities include:

- **19 routing strategies** — first, cheapest, most-accurate, most-reliable, failover, round-robin, latency-based, cost-aware, and more
- **BYOK credentials** stored with AES-256-GCM encryption at rest
- **Failover aliases** — ordered provider lists with per-alias daily spend caps and soft-limit headers
- **3-layer resilience** — per-provider circuit breaker, error cooldown, and model lockout
- **Per-request metering** — audit log of tokens in/out, latency, and cost for every call
- **MCP server** at `/api/mcp` (JSON-RPC 2.0) and an A2A agent protocol interface
- **RTK-style compression** — structured extraction and context-budget truncation

The self-hosted version ships with a pre-seeded snapshot of 104 providers and ~300 models, uses SQLite by default (zero-config), and supports optional Postgres (e.g., Neon). A built-in `sandbox-echo` provider lets the gateway work before any real keys are added.

## The Directory and Community Layer

The directory side of Uprouter tracks free-tier allowances across four access shapes: official free tiers, signup free credits, free-only routers, and no-auth endpoints. Every entry carries a verification timestamp, a normalized USD free-credit value (with an `est.` flag when assumptions were required), a risk tier (low/medium/high), and a source URL. The site states that rankings are never sponsored — sort keys are neutral data signals and affiliate or commercial participation is explicitly excluded as a sort input.

Community members can vote on providers, submit evidence-based reviews with verification tags, and propose corrections to descriptions, prices, and free-tier values. Accepted corrections earn compute (the platform's internal usage currency for pooled gateway requests).

## Deployment Model

Uprouter Connect is self-hostable via Node 20+ (or Bun) or Docker Compose. The managed cloud version at uprouter.online operates the same gateway with a compute-based usage model: new accounts receive a welcome compute grant, and additional compute is earned through daily check-ins, streak bonuses, validated referrals, and bounties. BYOK routing through the managed gateway carries no subscription fee — compute is only spent on pooled (Uprouter-hosted) capacity requests.

The public directory API (`/api/providers`, `/api/models`, `/api/dataset`, `/api/status`) is open with no authentication required, CORS-enabled, and licensed CC BY 4.0.

## Update: Repository Created September 2026

The Uprouter Connect GitHub repository (`uprouter-online/uprouter-connect`) was created on September 15, 2026, under the MIT license, written primarily in TypeScript. The managed site references a last entry update of September 16, 2026, and blog posts from September 2026 cover methodology, provider reliability checking, and third-party router risks. The project is in active early development with the self-hosted gateway and managed directory running concurrently.

## Features
- OpenAI- and Claude-compatible unified API endpoint
- BYOK provider credentials with AES-256-GCM encryption
- 19 routing strategies including cheapest-first, failover, and latency-based
- Failover aliases with per-alias daily spend caps
- Per-request audit log (tokens, latency, cost)
- 3-layer resilience: circuit breaker, error cooldown, model lockout
- MCP server (JSON-RPC 2.0)
- A2A agent protocol interface
- RTK-style request compression and context-budget truncation
- Self-hosted via Node/Bun or Docker Compose
- SQLite default with optional Postgres support
- Pre-seeded 104-provider snapshot with ~300 models
- Community voting, reviews, and verified corrections
- Live uptime probes with 7-day uptime history
- Normalized USD-per-1M-token pricing across all entries
- Free-tier credit value tracking with est. flags
- Public directory API with no authentication required (CC BY 4.0)
- RSS journal feed of price changes and status events
- PWA with offline shell and en/es locales
- In-dashboard playground for testing requests

## Integrations
OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, Alibaba Cloud, Groq, Google Vertex AI, Mistral AI, Deepgram, Nscale, OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Neon (Postgres), SQLite

## Platforms
WINDOWS, WEB, API, DEVELOPER_SDK, CLI

## Pricing
Open Source

## Version
main

## Links
- Website: https://uprouter.online
- Documentation: https://www.uprouter.online/developers
- Repository: https://github.com/uprouter-online/uprouter-connect
- EveryDev.ai: https://www.everydev.ai/tools/uprouter-online