# GroqCloud vs RouterPlus

> GroqCloud scores 75.6 (BB) to RouterPlus's 51.2 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-13

GroqCloud scores 75.6 (BB) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 51.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

- GroqCloud: grade BB, 75.6/100, rank #44 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq.json
- RouterPlus: grade D, 51.2/100, rank #777 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/routerplus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/routerplus.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 190 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### GroqCloud (BB)

Good for: Many small, latency-sensitive calls on open-weight models, routing, extraction and classification, and agents that need to start free.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 100 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 64 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 71
- Security & auth, 77 against 62
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 44
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 38

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Four model shutdown dates between 2026-07-17 and 2026-09-21, with no stated minimum notice

### RouterPlus (D)

Good for: Teams that call Claude and GPT models from one key and want the cost of every call in the response, with their own provider keys where they have them.

Watch for: No terms of service, privacy policy, status page, changelog or security.txt found for the gateway


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GroqCloud | RouterPlus | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 100 | 45 | GroqCloud +55 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 59 | GroqCloud +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 71 | GroqCloud +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 62 | GroqCloud +15 |
| 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 | 44 | GroqCloud +28 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 38 | GroqCloud +47 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **75.6 · BB** | **51.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GroqCloud | RouterPlus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model router |
| Vendor | Groq | RouterPlus |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | `https://api.routerplus.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | Closed service. No terms of service for the gateway were found on routerplus.com or app.routerplus.com on 13 October 2026. The only terms on the site govern the capacity request form and name EVO HQ Inc, a Delaware corporation (https://routerplus.com/capacity/terms/). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-21 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-22 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-12 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 619 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (8) | none |

## 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.

**RouterPlus.** The docs are written for agents, every model price is public, and each response carries its own cost. No terms of service, privacy policy, status page or changelog were found. Signup adds no free credit, and the chat catalogue is Claude and GPT only.

## 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

### RouterPlus

1. Send `max_tokens` on every request. Without it the balance hold assumes up to 32,768 output tokens and can return `insufficient_quota` on a small balance
2. Switch on `error_type`. Retry `rate_limit` after `retry-after`, and stop on `insufficient_quota`, which needs a person to add credit or raise a cap
3. Don't add a retry loop on top of the SDK's. There is no idempotency key, so a retry that reaches a provider is billed again
4. Copy model ids from `GET /v1/models` or /api/models.json. An unknown id is a 404 and the gateway never substitutes one
5. Use `/v1/messages` for Claude when you need `thinking` or server tools, and `/v1/chat/completions` with `response_format` only for GPT ids

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, GroqCloud or RouterPlus?

GroqCloud scores 75.6 (BB) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 51.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do GroqCloud and RouterPlus need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call GroqCloud and RouterPlus without installing anything?

Yes. GroqCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 and RouterPlus at https://api.routerplus.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "groq", "b": "routerplus"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare groq routerplus`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/routerplus.json

## Other comparisons with GroqCloud or RouterPlus

- [Claude API vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-groq.md)
- [Claude API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Antseed vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-groq.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-groq.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-groq.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-groq.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-groq.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepInfra vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-groq.md)
- [DeepInfra vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-groq.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-groq.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-meta-model-api.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Mistral AI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-mistral-api.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-novita-ai.md)
- [GroqCloud vs OpenAI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-openai-api.md)
- [GroqCloud vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-openrouter.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [GroqCloud vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-sambanova.md)
- [GroqCloud vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [GroqCloud vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Meta Model API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Novita AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [OpenAI API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [OpenRouter vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Prism Inference vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-routerplus.md)
- [RouterPlus vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-sambanova.md)
- [RouterPlus vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [RouterPlus vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Antseed vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-routerplus.md)