# RouterPlus vs Vercel AI Gateway

> Vercel AI Gateway scores 66.7 (B) to RouterPlus's 51.2 (D) for model routing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vercel-ai-gateway
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md (~3,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/routerplus-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Vercel AI Gateway scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 51.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. RouterPlus leads on payments & pricing. Both do model routing.

- RouterPlus: grade D, 51.2/100, rank #851 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/routerplus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/routerplus.json
- Vercel AI Gateway: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #302 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vercel-ai-gateway.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-ai-gateway.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### 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.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

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

### Vercel AI Gateway (B)

Good for: Teams that want one key, one bill, budgets and failover in front of many model providers, especially on Vercel with OIDC.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 74 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 74 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 71
- Security & auth, 79 against 62
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 44
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 38

Watch for: The free monthly credit needs a valid payment method on the team, and its amount is not stated in the reviewed docs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | RouterPlus | Vercel AI Gateway | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 74 | Vercel AI Gateway +29 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 74 | Vercel AI Gateway +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 83 | Vercel AI Gateway +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 79 | Vercel AI Gateway +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | RouterPlus +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 79 | Vercel AI Gateway +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 38 | 70 | Vercel AI Gateway +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **51.2 · D** | **66.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | RouterPlus | Vercel AI Gateway |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model router | Model router |
| Vendor | RouterPlus | Vercel Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.routerplus.com/v1` | `https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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/). | Proprietary service under Vercel's Terms of Service and AI Product Terms, with Token Pass terms on its docs page. Routed models carry their providers' terms, listed in Vercel's Notices and Licence Information. The `@ai-sdk/gateway` provider is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | none | 29.6M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Vercel AI Gateway.** Token prices pass through with no markup, prompts are not stored by the gateway, and budgets, provider failover and per-request logs are built in. The free monthly credit needs a card on file, rate limits are not published as numbers, no SLA covers the API, and the contractual promise not to train on content applies to Enterprise subscriptions only.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Vercel AI Gateway

1. Read `GET https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1/models` without a key to pick a model ID and check its price, context, ZDR and no-training flags before calling
2. Set `zeroDataRetention` or `disallowPromptTraining` to true in `providerOptions.gateway` on sensitive requests. Default routing ignores provider retention and training policies
3. Treat a 429 as retryable and honour `retry-after` when present. A 402 with `quota_for_entity_exceeded` is a spent budget, so do not retry it
4. On a Token Pass key, a 403 with `no_providers_available` means spent credit or a model outside the pass. Retry with a standard AI Gateway key, which bills credits
5. Set `inferenceRegion` when data residency matters. The default `global` may run inference outside the user's jurisdiction

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, RouterPlus or Vercel AI Gateway?

Vercel AI Gateway scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 51.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. RouterPlus leads on payments & pricing.

### Do RouterPlus and Vercel AI Gateway need an API key?

RouterPlus needs an API key. Vercel AI Gateway takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call RouterPlus and Vercel AI Gateway without installing anything?

Yes. RouterPlus has a hosted endpoint at https://api.routerplus.com/v1 and Vercel AI Gateway at https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with RouterPlus or Vercel AI Gateway

- [Claude API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Claude API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [DeepInfra vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Glimpse vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Glimpse vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [GroqCloud vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Jais 3 vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Meta Model API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Meta Model API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Muse Spark Open vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Novita AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Novita AI vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [OpenAI API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [OpenAI API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [OpenRouter vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-routerplus.md)
- [OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Prism Inference vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.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)
- [SambaCloud vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sambanova-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [SiliconFlow vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/siliconflow-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [StepFun API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stepfun-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Antseed vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Antseed vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Prism Inference vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp