---
name: openrouter-model-routing
description: 'Implement intelligent model routing to optimize cost, quality, and latency
  on OpenRouter. Use when building multi-model systems or optimizing spend across
  task types. Triggers: ''openrouter routing'', ''model routing'', ''route to model'',
  ''model selection openrouter''.

  '
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Bash(python3:*)
version: 1.20.0
license: MIT
author: Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io>
tags:
- saas
- openrouter
- routing
- cost-optimization
- model-selection
compatibility: Designed for Claude Code, also compatible with Codex and OpenClaw
---
# OpenRouter Model Routing

## Overview

OpenRouter gives you access to 100+ models through one API. The key to cost efficiency is routing each request to the right model based on task complexity, required capabilities, cost budget, and latency requirements. This skill covers task-based routing, complexity classification, cost-aware selection, and OpenRouter's native routing features.

## Prerequisites

- An OpenRouter API key exported as `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` — see the `openrouter-install-auth` skill for setup
- Python 3.8+ with the OpenAI SDK and `requests` (`pip install openai requests`)
- A rough inventory of your task mix (classification, summarization, code generation, deep reasoning, ...) to seed the `TASK_ROUTING` table
- Credits sized for the tiers you route to — the premium tier (`openai/o1`) runs $15/$60 per 1M tokens, 250x the budget tier

## Instructions

1. Define your tiers per Task-Based Router: the `MODELS` dict (free → budget → mid → standard → premium) and the `TASK_ROUTING` map, then send requests through `route_request()`, which returns `content`, the serving `model`, `tier`, and token count.
2. When callers can't label tasks, switch to the Complexity-Based Auto-Router — `classify_complexity()` scores word count, code, reasoning, and math markers to pick a tier inside `auto_route()`.
3. Add resilience per OpenRouter Native Routing: `extra_body={"models": [...], "route": "fallback"}` tries models in order, `provider.order` controls which provider serves, and the `:floor` variant picks the cheapest provider automatically.
4. Keep pricing current per Cost-Aware Router — `get_model_pricing()` pulls live per-1M rates from `GET /api/v1/models`, and `cheapest_model_for_task()` selects under context/tooling constraints.
5. Log every routing decision (task type, tier, model, cost) and tune per Error Handling and Enterprise Considerations — escalate the tier on quality regressions and cap per-request cost with `max_tokens`.

## Task-Based Router

```python
import os, re
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"],
    default_headers={"HTTP-Referer": "https://my-app.com", "X-Title": "my-app"},
)

# Model tiers by cost and capability
MODELS = {
    "free":    "google/gemma-2-9b-it:free",          # $0/0 — testing only
    "budget":  "meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct",   # $0.06/$0.06 per 1M
    "mid":     "openai/gpt-4o-mini",                  # $0.15/$0.60 per 1M
    "standard":"anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet",         # $3/$15 per 1M
    "premium": "openai/o1",                           # $15/$60 per 1M
}

TASK_ROUTING = {
    "classification":  "budget",   # Simple label assignment
    "translation":     "mid",      # Moderate quality needed
    "summarization":   "mid",      # Good quality, cost-effective
    "code_generation": "standard", # Needs high accuracy
    "code_review":     "standard", # Needs reasoning
    "analysis":        "standard", # Complex reasoning
    "creative_writing":"standard", # Quality matters
    "deep_reasoning":  "premium",  # Multi-step logic
    "simple_qa":       "budget",   # Basic questions
    "chat":            "mid",      # General conversation
}

def route_request(task_type: str, messages: list[dict], **kwargs) -> dict:
    """Route to appropriate model based on task type."""
    tier = TASK_ROUTING.get(task_type, "mid")
    model = MODELS[tier]

    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model=model, messages=messages, **kwargs
    )
    return {
        "content": response.choices[0].message.content,
        "model": response.model,
        "tier": tier,
        "tokens": response.usage.prompt_tokens + response.usage.completion_tokens,
    }
```

## Complexity-Based Auto-Router

```python
def classify_complexity(prompt: str) -> str:
    """Classify prompt complexity to select model tier.

    Simple heuristics -- replace with a trained classifier for production.
    """
    word_count = len(prompt.split())
    has_code = bool(re.search(r'```|def |function |class |import ', prompt))
    has_reasoning = bool(re.search(r'explain|analyze|compare|why|how does|trade.?off', prompt, re.I))
    has_math = bool(re.search(r'calculate|equation|formula|derive|proof', prompt, re.I))

    if has_math or (has_reasoning and has_code):
        return "premium"
    if has_code or has_reasoning or word_count > 500:
        return "standard"
    if word_count > 100:
        return "mid"
    return "budget"

def auto_route(messages: list[dict], **kwargs):
    """Automatically select model based on prompt complexity."""
    user_msg = next((m["content"] for m in reversed(messages) if m["role"] == "user"), "")
    tier = classify_complexity(user_msg)
    model = MODELS[tier]

    response = client.chat.completions.create(model=model, messages=messages, **kwargs)
    return response
```

## OpenRouter Native Routing

```python
# Route: "fallback" — try models in order until one succeeds
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
    max_tokens=200,
    extra_body={
        "models": [
            "anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet",
            "openai/gpt-4o",
            "openai/gpt-4o-mini",
        ],
        "route": "fallback",
    },
)

# Provider routing — control which provider serves a model
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
    max_tokens=200,
    extra_body={
        "provider": {
            "order": ["Anthropic", "AWS Bedrock"],
            "allow_fallbacks": True,
        },
    },
)

# Model variant: ":floor" picks cheapest provider
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet:floor",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
    max_tokens=200,
)
```

## Cost-Aware Router

```python
import requests

def get_model_pricing() -> dict:
    """Fetch current pricing for cost-aware routing."""
    models = requests.get("https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models").json()["data"]
    return {
        m["id"]: {
            "prompt": float(m["pricing"]["prompt"]) * 1_000_000,
            "completion": float(m["pricing"]["completion"]) * 1_000_000,
            "context": m["context_length"],
        }
        for m in models
    }

def cheapest_model_for_task(pricing: dict, min_context: int = 4096,
                             needs_tools: bool = False) -> str:
    """Find the cheapest model that meets requirements."""
    candidates = [
        (mid, p) for mid, p in pricing.items()
        if p["context"] >= min_context and p["prompt"] > 0  # Exclude free (unreliable)
    ]
    candidates.sort(key=lambda x: x[1]["prompt"] + x[1]["completion"])
    return candidates[0][0] if candidates else "openai/gpt-4o-mini"
```

## Output

- Routed completion dicts from `route_request()`: the reply `content`, the actual `model` that served, the `tier` chosen, and total `tokens` consumed
- Router decision traces per request, e.g. `[Router] Task=code -> Model=anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet`, giving you an audit trail to tune the routing table against
- A live pricing map from `get_model_pricing()` keyed by model ID: per-1M `prompt`/`completion` cost plus `context` length for cost-aware selection

## Examples

The same router sends trivial and demanding prompts to opposite ends of the cost spectrum:

```python
print(routed_completion("What is 2+2?"))
# [Router] Task=simple -> Model=google/gemma-2-9b-it:free

print(routed_completion("Write a Python function to merge two sorted lists."))
# [Router] Task=code -> Model=anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet
```

The 4-word arithmetic prompt lands on the free tier while the code request escalates to Claude 3.5 Sonnet — the spread between those two decisions is where the cost savings live. More worked examples: `references/examples.md`.

## Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Fix |
|-------|-------|-----|
| Wrong model selected | Classification too coarse | Add more task categories; test with diverse prompts |
| Model unavailable | Selected model temporarily down | Add fallback chain per tier |
| Cost overrun | Complex tasks routed to premium models | Set `max_tokens` and daily budget caps |
| Quality regression | Budget model can't handle task | Monitor output quality; escalate tier on poor results |

## Enterprise Considerations

- Start with manual task-type routing (explicit labels), then graduate to auto-classification
- Log every routing decision (task type, tier, model, cost) to tune the router over time
- Use OpenRouter's `:floor` variant to automatically get the cheapest provider for any model
- Set `max_tokens` on every request to cap per-request cost regardless of model tier
- A/B test routing rules: send 10% of traffic to a different tier and compare quality metrics
- Combine with fallback chains so each tier has backup models

## References

- Examples | Errors
- [Model Routing](https://openrouter.ai/docs/features/model-routing) | [Provider Routing](https://openrouter.ai/docs/features/provider-routing)