今天,我们非常激动地宣布,我们将与 Stripe 携手合作,共同推动全球下一波 GDP 增长。
OpenRouter 是首个也是最大的模型市场和网关。我们是发现和使用任何 AI 模型的最佳途径,提供统一接口、广泛的提供商选择、与模型无关的可观测性、成本管理,以及能够改善价格、性能和正常运行时间的路由。我们目前每天为超过 1000 万开发者和公司组成的社区处理来自 400 多个 AI 模型的 10+ 万亿 tokens。自成立以来,我们的推理量每年至少增长 10 倍。
我们想解释一下为什么我们决定与 Stripe 携手合作,以及这对数百万在我们平台上构建的开发者和公司意味着什么。
这对我们的用户意味着什么
OpenRouter 将继续照常运营:同样的使命、同样的名称、同样的产品、同样的路线图。如果你今天在 OpenRouter 上构建,你的集成不会有任何变化。
OpenRouter 的存在是为了让用户平等地使用每一个模型,提供关于它们在市场中如何被使用的公开信号,帮助开发者将它们协同编排,并使它们在大规模下可观测、可管理。这一承诺是我们运营的核心,它不会屈从于任何模型、任何提供商或任何母公司。它还延伸至一个不断增长的推理相关服务生态,包括 AI 原生网络搜索、上下文管理,以及更多即将推出的服务。
路由决策仍将只由一个因素驱动:什么对用户最好。
我们的使命
我们在 2023 年初创立 OpenRouter,基于一个简单的信念:智能将是多模型的。没有任何单一模型能赢得每一项任务,而前沿将快速演进。这种自由是行业的关键基础设施。AI 太重要了,其未来不应由最先被嵌入的某个单一模型来决定。AI 已成为美国经济增长的最大单一驱动力,而推理正迅速成为每家公司最大的支出项。
我们设想一个健康的 AI 生态:众多模型繁荣共生,AI 神经多样性成为一种优势,取得突破的实验室或推理服务商能够触达数百万开发者,没有任何单一模型因惯性而成为默认选择。
我们的使命就是实现这一未来,它比任何事情都更重要。与 Stripe 的这次机会让我们能够携手加速这一进程。
为什么是 Stripe?
地球上我们愿意考虑出售给它的公司寥寥无几;我们的使命、我们的中立性以及我们在市场中的领先地位,让保持独立的故事极具说服力。只有当我们认为能够携手做得更多、更快,且不牺牲上述任何一点时,我们才会加入一家公司。
Stripe 就是这样一家公司。他们是全球最优秀的金融基础设施平台。他们的 API 树立了标准,此后包括我们在内的所有开发者产品都以这一标准被衡量。这是两个平台的结合,开发者基于实力选择它们,双方的文化都聚焦于质量、规模以及对开发者的承诺,而这一切在后 AGI 经济中仍将至关重要。
多年来,OpenRouter 一直被称为“LLM 领域的 Stripe”。两家公司有着共同的 DNA:我们将复杂的基础设施和市场动态抽象为令人愉悦的 API,并对 API 另一端的开发者和用户极度关注。企业信任 Stripe 来优化其收入栈的每一个环节,涵盖支付方式、授权、欺诈防范等。开发者、客户、模型实验室和提供商信任 OpenRouter,在一个快速演变的生态系统中运行一个中立、可靠的层。
Stripe 带来了庞大的客户网络、关于互联网企业如何增长的数据,以及多年运营可信全球基础设施的经验。在管理欺诈和滥用方面,也没有人比他们更出色,而我们相信,这只会成为 AI 公司越来越难以应对的挑战。我们现在能够以单凭自身无法达到的速度服务开发者。
接下来会怎样
致我们的客户: 谢谢你们。我们很荣幸能成为你们旅程的一部分,而我们才刚刚开始。OpenRouter 的产品、使命和当前承诺保持不变。加入 Stripe 能帮助我们更快地追求这些目标,而我们支持你们的能力只会变得更强。
致我们的员工: 我们坚信,未来几年将是我们一生中最重要的时光,也是我们使命最关键的时刻。我们无比感恩,能有幸在这场世界变革之中身处其中,也让我能与你们并肩同行。你们是世上最聪慧、最具创造力、最好奇、最坚定的一群人,我们很期待壮大团队,去创造更大的全球影响力。
致所有相信我们使命的人: 来加入我们吧。契合某个岗位,不如拥有我们的价值观:好奇、严谨、主动、透明。AI 将改变公司的组织方式,OpenRouter 将在这方面大力创新。随着我们成长,我们会不懈地努力,保持我们今天这家 90 人初创公司所拥有的速度、敏捷、效率和人才密度。
—— Alex、Chris、Louis 以及 OpenRouter 团队
该交易须满足惯例成交条件。我们预计将在未来几周内完成。
Today, we are excited to announce that we are joining forces with Stripe, to power the next wave of GDP growth globally.
OpenRouter is the first and largest model marketplace and gateway. We are the best way to discover and use any AI model, with one interface, broad provider choice, model-agnostic observability, cost management, and routing that improves price, performance, and uptime. We now process 10+ trillion tokens per day from 400+ AI models for a community of over 10 million developers and companies. Since our founding, we have seen at least 10x growth in inference volume every year.
We want to explain why we made the decision to join forces with Stripe and what it means for the millions of developers and companies that build on us.
What this means for our users
OpenRouter will continue to operate as it is: same mission, same name, same product, same roadmap. If you build on OpenRouter today, nothing about your integration changes.
OpenRouter exists to give users every model on equal footing, provide open signals about how they’re used in the market, help developers orchestrate them together, and make them observable and manageable at scale. That commitment is core to how we operate, and it doesn’t bend to any model, any provider, or any parent company. It also extends to a growing ecosystem of inference-adjacent services, including AI-native web search, context management, and more to come.
Routing decisions will remain driven by one thing: what’s best for you, the user.
Our mission
We started OpenRouter in early 2023 on a simple belief: intelligence will be multi-model. No single model will win every task, and the frontier will move rapidly. That freedom is critical infrastructure for the industry. AI is too important for its future to be decided by whichever single model gets embedded first. AI has become the single largest driver of economic growth in the US, and inference is quickly becoming the largest line item for every company.
We envision a healthy AI ecosystem where many models thrive, where AI neurodiversity is a strength, where a lab or an inference provider with a breakthrough can reach millions of developers, and where no single model becomes the default by inertia.
Our mission is to realize this future, and it’s more important than anything else. The opportunity with Stripe allows us to accelerate it together.
Why Stripe?
There are few companies on earth we would have considered selling to; our mission, our neutrality, and our lead in the market make the story for independence strong. We would only join a company if we thought we could do more together, faster, without compromising any of them.
Stripe is that company. They are the best financial infrastructure platform in the world. Their API set the standard that developer products, including ours, have been measured against ever since. This is a combination of two platforms that developers choose on merit, with cultures focused on quality, scale, and commitment to builders, and that will remain essential in a post-AGI economy.
For years, OpenRouter has been called “Stripe for LLMs.” Both companies share common DNA: we abstract complex infrastructure and market dynamics into delightful APIs, and we obsess over the developer and user on the other side of it. Businesses trust Stripe to optimize every part of their revenue stack, across payment methods, authorization, fraud, and more. Builders, customers, model labs, and providers trust OpenRouter to run a neutral, reliable layer across a fast-moving ecosystem.
Stripe brings a large customer network, data on how internet businesses grow, and years of experience running trusted global infrastructure. There is also no one better at managing fraud and abuse, something we believe will only become more challenging for AI companies to address. We can now serve developers at a pace we couldn’t reach alone.
What’s next
To our customers: Thank you. We’re honored to be part of your journey, and we’re just getting started. OpenRouter’s product, mission, and current commitments remain unchanged. Joining Stripe helps us pursue them faster, and our ability to support you will only improve.
To our employees: We firmly believe that the next few years will be the most important time of our lives, and the most important for our mission. We are so grateful to have the privilege of being alive during this transformation for the world, and that I get to do it with you. You are some of the most brilliant, creative, curious, and determined people there are, and we’re excited to grow our team for an even greater global impact.
To everyone else who believes in our mission: come join us. Fitting into a role isn’t as important as having our values: curiosity, rigor, agency, and transparency. AI will transform the way companies are organized, and OpenRouter will innovate significantly here. And as we grow, we will relentlessly aim to preserve the velocity, agility, efficiency, and talent density of the 90-person startup that we are today.
— Alex, Chris, Louis, and the OpenRouter team
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. We expect to close in the coming weeks.