OpenRouter has the advantage that I can maintain a single balance across model providers so I use it for quick iteration across and then write it into my own router (required anyway since I have many on-prem models running). The portable balance is actually very useful and my credit card is in one place.

If I could pay per request without maintaining a balance or credit card out of a single wallet (using crypto or something maybe) I would happily simply write the integration myself because OR’s caching is often not as good without some hoop jumping.