OpenRouter Alternative: Skill Issues
An inference marketplace where every model rate is published with its source, every request returns a cryptographic receipt, and capacity can be bought or sold.
Why teams look for an OpenRouter alternative
- Cost visibility. OpenRouter bills against pre-purchased credits and reports usage in aggregate. Skill Issues settles each request individually and returns a signed receipt with the token counts and the published list price used, so a charge can be audited request by request.
- One interface, two protocols. The gateway speaks the OpenAI-compatible chat surface and the Anthropic-compatible messages surface on the same key, so a workload written for either SDK switches without a rewrite.
- Two-sided market. OpenRouter is buy-side only. Skill Issues is also where compute publishers list reserve GPU capacity, which is why the directory carries measured latency and throughput alongside price.
- No markup guesswork. Rates in the model directory are the prices published for each model, with the source URL recorded. A model with no published price is shown as unavailable rather than estimated.
Side by side
| Capability | Skill Issues | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| API shape | OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible on one key | OpenAI-compatible endpoint |
| Billing evidence | Signed receipt per request, settled token counts | Credit balance with usage reporting |
| Pricing | Published per model with source; unavailable shown as unavailable | Provider rate plus a fee on top |
| Sell capacity | Yes — list offers as a publisher | No |
| Routing | Multi-provider failover with cost ceilings and budget protection | Automatic provider routing |
| Payments | QRIS and Solana USDC | Card and crypto top-up |
Competitor capabilities above are summarised from OpenRouter's own published documentation; verify current terms on their site before deciding.
Getting started
Create an account, fund a wallet, and call any model in the model directory through the same endpoint. The buyer guide walks through the first request and how to read its receipt.