# GroqCloud vs OpenRouter

> GroqCloud has a score of 75.7 (BB) against OpenRouter's 68.8 (B). Both do llm inference. The largest gap is reliability, 45 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

GroqCloud has a score of 75.7 (BB) against OpenRouter's 68.8 (B). Both do llm inference. The largest gap is reliability, 45 points.

- GroqCloud: grade BB, 75.7/100, rank #31 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq.json
- OpenRouter: grade B, 68.8/100, rank #119 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openrouter.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openrouter.json

## Which one, for what

Pick GroqCloud for reliability (+45), security & auth (+17), transparency & trust (+12).

Pick OpenRouter for schema & documentation (+26), agent ergonomics (+5), maintenance & community (+12).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GroqCloud | OpenRouter | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 100 | 55 | GroqCloud +45 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 90 | OpenRouter +26 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 85 | OpenRouter +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 60 | GroqCloud +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 84 | OpenRouter +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 74 | GroqCloud +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **75.7 · BB** | **68.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GroqCloud | OpenRouter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model router |
| Vendor | Groq | OpenRouter |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-21 | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | 619 stars | 226 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (8) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**GroqCloud.** Free plan with no card, at 30 requests a minute and 1,000 a day on gpt-oss. Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice.

**OpenRouter.** Public OpenAPI document, llms.txt with Markdown twins, and SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go, all tagged on 1 October 2026. No machine payment. USDC top-ups go to a prepaid balance.

## Before you call either

### GroqCloud

1. Call `/models` at start-up. Four model ids stopped working this quarter
2. Read `retry-after` on a 429 and the `x-ratelimit-remaining-tokens` header before the next call
3. Free plan allows 8,000 tokens a minute on gpt-oss, so keep prompts small or batch them
4. Don't build on Qwen 3.8 27B. It's a preview and previews can go at short notice
5. Treat a 498 as Flex capacity and retry later; 5xx responses aren't billed

### OpenRouter

1. Set `provider.data_collection: "deny"` or `provider.zdr: true` when the prompt holds anything private
2. Pass a `models` list so a failed provider falls through to the next one
3. Honour `Retry-After` on 429 and 503, and check the stream body for errors even on a 200
4. Set `max_price` so a routed request can't land on an expensive provider
5. Free models allow 50 requests a day until $10 of credit has been bought. Check `GET /api/v1/key` for what's left

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