Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

RouterPlus vs xAI API (Grok)

xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. RouterPlus leads on payments & pricing. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 830 models comparisons

Which one, for what

RouterPlus D

Best for Teams that call Claude, GPT and open-weight 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

xAI API (Grok) BB

Best for Agents that want a capable model at a low per-token price with built-in web and X search, remote MCP and voice, and teams that need self-serve ZDR or US-only processing.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 42
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 59
  • Agent ergonomics, 90 against 71
  • Security & auth, 97 against 59
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 44
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 41

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

API models outage of about 3 hours 40 minutes on 3 September 2026, and high error rates on grok-4.6 and grok-4.5 on 17 August

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Security & auth xAI API (Grok) +38

RouterPlus 59

Router, read on the model lines. tm_vk_ keys are stored as SHA-256 hashes and revocable, each bound to a workspace and principal, with per-key RPM and monthly spend caps. Since 17 October 2026 the console also keeps an encrypted copy so an owner or admin can copy a key again, and an organisation can ask for copying to be turned off. Inference keys have no management rights. There are no permission scopes on a key and no SSO or SCIM (24 of 30). RouterPlus says it does not train on request logs and does not share them, and deletes them after 30 days. Most Claude and GPT routes are marked prompt_logging: retained with no ZDR, so retention and training upstream rest on each provider's API terms, while DeepInfra's open models, Perplexity, Cloudflare Workers AI, Fastino and RouterPlus's own models declare none (12 of 20, held). The data policy re-read on 4 November 2026 says requests and responses to non-dedicated endpoints are now logged by default for up to 30 days for debugging, with recognised keys removed. On 13 October it said content was kept only for hackathon accounts. Opting out takes a request to support, dedicated endpoints are excluded, and the zdr and data_collection: deny filters still remove every marketplace route, so they work only on the caller's own provider keys. Cloudflare AI Gateway, with default logging and a per-request header to switch it off, has 11 here (7 of 15, 10 before). GET /v1/generation lists every attempt behind a request with provider, tokens and cost, and the console has usage and logs (14 of 15). No security.txt (404 on both hosts on 4 November 2026), disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found. The footer's Security link is an email to founders@evo-hq.com (2 of 20). 24 + 12 + 7 + 14 + 2 = 59.

xAI API (Grok) 97

Model reading. Team API keys with ACLs per endpoint and per model, QPM and TPM caps, expiry, and create, rotate, disable and delete through the Management API, plus documented mTLS. GitHub secret scanning disables leaked keys and emails the owner (30). The security FAQ says SpaceXSI never trains on API inputs or outputs without explicit permission (20). Requests and responses are kept 30 days for abuse auditing, then deleted, and team admins can switch on zero data retention themselves, confirmed by an x-zero-data-retention header on every response (15). Console audit log and a Management API audit-events endpoint, plus optional per-key request logging (15). security.txt valid to 2027-06-29 with a HackerOne bug bounty and a separate safety contact for prompt-injection issues. SOC 2 Type 2 is claimed in the security FAQ with the reports behind an NDA in the trust centre, so 17 of 20. Remote MCP doesn't support require_approval, which the model checklist doesn't score but reviewers should see. New in October, a guidelines array lets the caller make the model decline nsfw, violence or profanity content, which the checklist doesn't score.

Maintenance & community xAI API (Grok) +33

RouterPlus 44

Router, read on the model lines. No changelog or release notes found. The blog, re-read on 4 November 2026, dates the launch of ScaleDown's extract-1 and summarize-1 on chat completions and classify-1 on the decisions API to 13 October 2026, and the catalogue now lists 105 chat models against 19 on 13 October, so the API changed within the last 30 days (30). The docs also date a console change on 17 October 2026 (keys can be copied again), which isn't counted, since it changes the console and not the API. Models carry a deprecation_date that delists them automatically, with no notice period stated (3 of 12). POST /v1/signup and the magic-link route were removed and Optimize is paused, none with a date we could find (3 of 8). No public changelog. Support is reached through the console and an email address, and wasn't tested (3 of 15). No public issue tracker for the gateway (0 of 10). No official SDK. The docs rely on the OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs and give client setups (5 of 15). No package or public repository to check (0 of 10).

xAI API (Grok) 77

Model reading. grok-imagine-image-quality and grok-imagine-image-pro retired on 2 November 2026 as announced in September, Grok Voice 3.0 and custom moderation controls in October, Grok 4.7 on 21 September (30). No minimum notice period found. Retirements come as dated migration guides, retired slugs redirect to a replacement rather than failing, billed at the replacement's price, and grok-voice-2.0 was deprecated in October with no end date (4 of 12). Shutdowns in the last 90 days with dates given in advance, grok-voice-transcribe-1.0 on 2 October and grok-imagine-image-quality on 2 November (8 of 8). Release notes several times a month but dated only by month, support by email and a Discord #help channel, not tested. On xai-sdk-python a collaborator commented on 2 of the 16 most recent threads with replies, and most outside pull requests since 23 October are open without a maintainer reply (10 of 15, down from 12). The repository has CI, release and version-bump workflows (5 of 10). One current first-party SDK, xai-sdk 1.21.0 tagged on 23 October, Python only (10 of 15). Supported runtimes stated, Python 3.10 or later (10).

Schema & documentation xAI API (Grok) +29

RouterPlus 59

Router, scored on the API lines. No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract for the gateway was found. It follows the OpenAI and Anthropic wire formats, which this checklist doesn't credit to a reseller, the same reading as Antseed (0 of 25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Each route page says what it is for, what isn't available, and which route to use for which model, and the agent integration guide lists what not to build on (18 of 20). Request fields follow the upstream formats, and the wire compatibility page tables which fields pass, translate, drop or fail with a typed 400 (12 of 15). Curl, Python and TypeScript examples on every page, and an error reference with a class, status and remedy for each error (15). Routes are versioned under /v1 and the wire compatibility page says changing it needs a recorded decision, but no changelog or dated release notes were found, re-read on 4 November 2026 (4 of 15).

xAI API (Grok) 88

OpenAPI 3.1 document at docs.x.ai/openapi.json, 39 paths and 205 schemas on 6 November, covering Responses, Chat Completions, files, images, videos and models. The batch endpoints documented in the REST reference still aren't in it (20 of 25, applied as for gemini-api's missing Interactions API). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every page, plus a docs MCP server (10). The models page says which model to use for code, chat, images, video and voice, and reference pages list each parameter. Reference not read in full (18 of 20). Structured outputs are guaranteed to match the schema for supported keywords, and tool arguments always conform with strict implicitly true (15). Examples in Python, JavaScript and curl on every guide. The debugging page lists status codes with fixes, but the cause cells for 400, 403, 404 and 415 are still empty (13 of 15). Release notes are grouped by month without day dates, and model slugs come as aliases and dated versions (12 of 15).

Transparency & trust xAI API (Grok) +22

RouterPlus 41

Closed service with no terms of service found. The only terms on the site govern the capacity request form, under EVO HQ Inc (0 of 30). The data policy page is detailed, lists what is stored and why, and gives a 30-day period for request logs and each provider's retention flag. Its 4 November 2026 text, which logs request content by default, no longer agrees with the homepage FAQ; that contradiction is charged once as a misleading claim under negative events, not on this line. There is no privacy policy, no DPA and no retention period for account data such as email addresses (14 of 30, held). Model retirement by deprecation_date is documented with no notice period, and no dated deprecation notices were found (4 of 20). The docs name Clerk, Resend and an AWS bucket, and say RouterPlus's own GPUs run in the United States. The form's terms name Supabase, Cloudflare and Resend. No complete subprocessor list or gateway hosting location was found (8 of 20).

xAI API (Grok) 63

Closed service under xAI's enterprise terms, with the Python SDK under Apache-2.0 (15). The docs agree with each other on no training, 30-day abuse retention, 30-day storage of stateful responses and the ZDR route, but the privacy policy, enterprise terms and DPA at x.ai/legal answered a Cloudflare block page on 6 October and again on 6 November, so they couldn't be compared (15 of 30). Dated migration guides and redirect tables for each retirement, but no written deprecation policy, and Chat Completions, Anthropic compatibility and grok-voice-2.0 are labelled deprecated with no date (12 of 20). The US regional endpoint states what stays in the US, the global endpoint guarantees no region, and no subprocessor list was readable (10 of 20).

Payments & pricing RouterPlus +20

RouterPlus 40

No machine payment protocol found in llms-full.txt. Calls draw on a prepaid balance (0). Per-token prices for every model are public in the docs catalogue and on the model pages with no login, re-read on 4 November 2026 (20). Signup adds no free credit, but inference through the caller's own provider keys carries no RouterPlus charge and needs no credit, the reading Cloudflare AI Gateway's dossier took for the same arrangement. We did not sign up to confirm that no card is asked for (20). A person signs up in the browser through Clerk with email verification, and the programmatic signup route was removed (0).

xAI API (Grok) 20

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-token and per-call prices published without a login on docs.x.ai/developers/pricing (20). No free tier found for the text API, and the quickstart says to load the account with credits (0). Sign-up is in the browser at console.x.ai. The Management API can create keys and top up prepaid credit, but only with a management key made by a person in the console, so no line credit (0).

Agent ergonomics xAI API (Grok) +19

RouterPlus 71

Router, read on the model lines (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Tools pass through on both surfaces, and Anthropic server tools such as web search work for Claude models on /v1/messages. Behaviour depends on the model (15 of 20). response_format works for GPT ids and the open models (re-read on 4 November 2026), and the docs tell callers to get JSON from Claude through a single tool, so structured output still rests on the provider (8 of 15, held). Cached-input and cache-write prices per model, a session id that keeps provider caches warm, and cache_control on the Anthropic surface (13 of 15). The catalogue's largest contexts are 1,050,000 tokens on GPT-6.1 Sol and 1,000,000 on Claude Sonnet 5.5, a judgement call since a router has no default model (15). No batch route (0 of 10). No SDK of its own. The OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs work with a changed base URL, and the docs give setups for ten coding tools (5 of 10). A stable error_type in every body and header, an origin header, the limit that refused a request, and x-tm-dropped-params naming every dropped field (15).

xAI API (Grok) 90

Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with parallel calls on by default and tool_choice of auto, required, none or a named function (20). Guaranteed structured outputs (15). Automatic prompt caching, cached input at 0.25x on grok-4.7 ($0.50 per million) and 0.16x on grok-4.3 (15). 500,000-token context on grok-4.7 and 1,000,000 on grok-4.3, 13 of 15 for the default model's 500K. The Batch API is now 20% off on grok-4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 as well as the older models, with batch requests outside the rate limits (10 of 10, up from 5 on 6 October). One first-party SDK, xai-sdk for Python, with the OpenAI SDKs and Vercel's AI SDK documented as alternatives (5 of 10). Status codes documented with fixes, no Retry-After header found (12 of 15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runRouterPlusxAI API (Grok)Edge
Reliability16%204255xAI API (Grok) +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25988xAI API (Grok) +29
Agent ergonomics13%16.27190xAI API (Grok) +19
Security & auth14%17.55997xAI API (Grok) +38
Payments & pricing10%12.54020RouterPlus +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84477xAI API (Grok) +33
Transparency & trust7%8.84163xAI API (Grok) +22
Negative events≤15-20
TotalD 50.3/100BB 71.7/100

Facts side by side

FactRouterPlusxAI API (Grok)
KindModel routerModel API
VendorRouterPlusSpaceXSI (xAI)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.routerplus.com/v1https://api.x.ai/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicenceClosed 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 xAI's enterprise terms of service. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last releasenone2026-11-02
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-10-27
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-10-27
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetyes
Popularitynone597 stars, 912k PyPI/wk

How the scores have moved

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. Request content is now logged for 30 days by default while the homepage says prompts aren't stored, and signup adds no free credit.

xAI API (Grok)

Grok 4.7 at $2/$6 per million tokens, now 20% off in batch, with a public OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, API keys limited by endpoint and model, and self-serve zero data retention. The API endpoints had a 3 hour 40 minute models outage on 3 September 2026, no SLA was found, and there's no free tier or first-party SDK beyond Python.

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. Keep secrets out of prompts. Request content is logged for up to 30 days unless the organisation has opted out through support
  5. Use /v1/messages for Claude when you need thinking or server tools. response_format works for GPT ids and open models, not Claude

xAI API (Grok)

  1. Build on the Responses API at https://api.x.ai/v1. Chat Completions is labelled deprecated and the Anthropic-compatible endpoint fully deprecated
  2. Pin a dated model slug. A retired slug keeps answering from a replacement model, billed at the replacement's price
  3. Back off exponentially on 429. The per-second cap is the per-minute budget divided by 48, with a minimum of 2
  4. Set allowed_tools on remote MCP servers. There's no approval step, and every exposed tool enters the context
  5. Use https://us.api.x.ai/v1 when processing must stay in the US. It costs 1.1x and serves only grok-4.7 and grok-4.6

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, RouterPlus or xAI API (Grok)?

xAI API (Grok) scores 71.7 (BB) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. RouterPlus leads on payments & pricing.

Do RouterPlus and xAI API (Grok) need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call RouterPlus and xAI API (Grok) without installing anything?

Yes. RouterPlus has a hosted endpoint at https://api.routerplus.com/v1 and xAI API (Grok) at https://api.x.ai/v1.

Other comparisons with RouterPlus or xAI API (Grok)

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