Redline vs OrcaRouter
OrcaRouter is a hosted router over about 200 mostly frontier models, with adaptive routing and a $0-markup pitch. On price and routing features it leads; Redline’s difference is the uncensored catalogue and the hard cap.
Facts checked September 2026 against OrcaRouter’s own site, docs and policies.
| Redline | OrcaRouter | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted gateway reselling the OpenRouter catalogue at upstream price plus 15%. | A hosted OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible router over ~200 models, with adaptive routing, failover, guardrails and an MIT-licensed self-hostable "Lite" edition. |
| Pricing | Pay as you go, upstream price + 15%, $10 minimum top-up, no subscription. | Provider list price with $0 routing fee on the free Hacker tier; a Team plan (price inconsistent on their page); BYOK carries a 5% default fee. |
| OpenAI-compatible | Yes | Yes |
| Anthropic-compatible | Yes, /v1/messages (verified with Claude Code) | Yes, /v1/messages |
| Uncensored / abliterated | 7 uncensored, 0 abliterated today (resold from OpenRouter) | None: ~200 mostly frontier/commercial models, nothing positioned as uncensored |
| Prompt retention | No prompt or completion stored; model, tokens and cost kept 90 days; signed prompt-hash receipt | No prompt/output content retained (default, not opt-in); usage metadata kept 13 months including source IP; not used for training |
| Per-key spend caps | Lifetime and monthly per-key caps, enforced by reserving the worst case and clamping max_tokens | Per-key total USD credit limit and a key expiry; no per-key rate limit or model allowlist; monthly/in-flight mechanics not verified |
Where OrcaRouter is the better choice
- Price: provider list price with $0 markup on the free tier versus Redline’s +15%, plus BYOK at a 5% default fee.
- Features: adaptive routing that grades each prompt and picks a model, failover, guardrails and an agent firewall, a prompt registry, and a self-hostable MIT "Lite" edition.
Where Redline is different
- Catalogue shape: Redline carries 440+ OpenRouter models including uncensored and roleplay finetunes; OrcaRouter is ~200 mostly frontier models with none positioned as uncensored.
- Retention and caps: Redline keeps metadata 90 days (OrcaRouter keeps usage metadata 13 months, including source IP) and has both lifetime and monthly per-key caps with worst-case reservation, versus a single total USD credit limit.