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OpenRouter setup

Short answer: Click Sign in with OpenRouter in Build Perch’s Integrations window (or paste an API key from openrouter.ai), and you get the live catalog: hundreds of models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more. OpenRouter bills your account directly per message; Build Perch never sees or marks up that cost.

What is OpenRouter?

OpenRouter is a gateway: one API key gives Build Perch access to the full range of chat, image, speech, and video models OpenRouter lists, across every major lab, without a separate account or key per provider. You pay OpenRouter, OpenRouter pays the upstream provider, and Build Perch never sits between you and that billing relationship.

The catalog is fetched live from OpenRouter’s API (cached for 10 minutes), so a model that launches today is selectable in Build Perch today, no app update required.

How do I set up OpenRouter?

  1. Open the app’s Integrations window (from the model picker’s “Manage Integrations” link, or the toolbar) and select OpenRouter under LLM Providers.
  2. Click Sign in with OpenRouter. Your browser opens openrouter.ai; sign in or sign up, then approve. OpenRouter creates a key for Build Perch and sends it back to the app, so there is nothing to copy or paste. The pane then shows “Signed in”.
  3. To use a key you already have, expand Paste a key instead, click Get API key if you need to create one at openrouter.ai/keys, paste it, and click Save. Build Perch tests the connection and confirms once it’s valid; the key itself is never shown again, only a “Key saved” status.
  4. Open the model picker (Connect AI Model, or Switch Model on an existing chat) and pick a model from the OpenRouter list. Each row shows its context window, its rate ($/1M tokens in and out), and whether it supports tool calls.

A new OpenRouter account starts with no credits. Free models work with a daily cap, though Zero Data Retention (on by default; see the note below) hides most of them; to use paid models, add credits on openrouter.ai.

How do I sign out of OpenRouter?

When you signed in with OpenRouter, the pane shows Sign out in place of Delete. Sign out removes the key from this computer only. The key stays in your OpenRouter account until you delete it on openrouter.ai (Settings → Keys); do that to revoke it.

Good to know

  • You pay OpenRouter per message; there is no subscription. OpenRouter bills your account directly at the rate shown next to each model; Build Perch takes no cut and shows no aggregate spend total, only that per-model rate with a link out to the model’s OpenRouter page.
  • Zero Data Retention is on by default. Every OpenRouter request Build Perch makes (chat, media generation, background summarization) carries a zero-data-retention flag, so OpenRouter routes only to endpoints that attest they keep nothing you send (an endpoint that keeps nothing has nothing to train on). This is enforced by OpenRouter’s routing based on the provider’s stated policy, not a guarantee Build Perch makes on their behalf. Turning it off (Integrations → OpenRouter) makes free-tier models available that don’t offer a zero-retention option, at the cost of that protection.
  • Two more OpenRouter-only toggles live next to the key, both on by default: keeping a chat pinned to one upstream server so repeated context gets cached (cheaper on long chats), and holding that cache for up to an hour instead of the usual ~5 minutes.
  • Free models carry extra caveats. Picking a model priced at $0 shows a warning that free models have strict rate limits and that their providers may keep or train on your prompts; most have no endpoint that keeps nothing you send, so they are unavailable while Zero Data Retention is on.
  • A model without tool support is flagged. The picker marks chat models that don’t support function calling with a “No Tools” badge, useful to know before you pick one for a mode that relies on file or web tools.
  • Without a key, only local Ollama models are available. OpenRouter is one of three providers; you don’t need it if you’re running local models or an Ollama Cloud subscription instead.