Hard facts side by side: free tiers, prices, limits, SDKs and privacy. Every value links to the official page it came from and is re-checked every week.
| For chat |  Anthropic (Claude API) |  OpenRouter |  Vercel AI SDK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Trial credits New users receive a small amount of free credits to test the API. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | Yes 25+ free models, 20 requests/min and 50/day (1,000/day after $10 in credits). Source, Sep 29, 2026 | Free & open source Free open-source TypeScript library; Vercel AI Gateway adds a monthly free credit on select models. Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
| Starting price |
| $2 per 1M input tokens Claude Sonnet 5.5; $10 per 1M output tokens (Haiku 4.5 from $1 input). Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
| 5.5% fee on credits Standard pay-as-you-go plan; model usage billed at provider rates. Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
| Free, open source Optional AI Gateway is pay-as-you-go at provider list price with no markup or platform fee. Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
| Rate limit | 1,000 requests/min Start tier, Claude Sonnet 5.5 (2M input tokens/min); new orgs may start lower. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | 20 requests/min Free (:free) models; 50/day under $10 purchased. No plan limit on paid models. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | Lower per-model limits (free) AI Gateway free tier; buying credits moves to paid tier with no gateway rate limits. Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
|---|
| Size limit | 1M token context Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 (Haiku 4.5: 200K). Source, Sep 29, 2026 | Not listed | Not listed |
|---|
| Official SDKs | PythonJavaScript / TypeScript.NETGoJavaPHPRubySource, Sep 29, 2026 | PythonJavaScript / TypeScript | JavaScript / TypeScriptSource, Sep 29, 2026 |
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| Open source | Not listed | Not listed | Yes Apache 2.0 licence Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
|---|
| Trains on your data | No Inputs and outputs from the Anthropic API are not used for training by default. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | No OpenRouter doesn't train on inputs/outputs; some providers may, filterable in settings. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | No Runs in your own code Source, Sep 29, 2026 |
|---|
| EU hosting | No Inference geo is only us or global; workspace (storage) geo is only us. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | Yes EU in-region routing via eu.openrouter.ai on Business and Enterprise plans. Source, Sep 29, 2026 | Not listed |
|---|
| Compliance | SOC 2ISO 27001HIPAASource, Sep 29, 2026 | SOC 2GDPRSource, Sep 29, 2026 | SOC 2ISO 27001GDPRHIPAASource, Sep 29, 2026 |
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