OrcaRouter · OrcaRouter is an AI gateway that intelligently routes prompts across 200+ models with adaptive routing, load balancing, built-in guardrails, agent firewall | 21st Tools
OrcaRouter is an AI gateway that intelligently routes prompts across 200+ models with adaptive routing, load balancing, built-in guardrails, agent firewall
What is OrcaRouter?
OrcaRouter is an OpenAI-compatible AI gateway built for production AI applications. It grades every prompt and routes it to the best-fit model automatically — delivering frontier-quality AI at up to 40% lower cost, with zero token markup.
Key Features
Adaptive Routing: Automatically routes each request to the optimal model based on real-time performance, cost, and task complexity.
Load Balancing: Distributes traffic across multiple providers to maximize uptime and reliability.
Zero Token Markup: You pay only the provider's rate — no hidden fees or surcharges.
Real-time Observability: Full request/response logs, usage metrics, and cost tracking for every call.
Governance & Compliance: Audit-ready for SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022.
AI Security — Zero Trust Agent Gateway
OrcaRouter includes a built-in zero-trust security layer designed specifically for AI agents — no code changes required.
Guardrails: Screen every input and output for prompt injection, PII leakage, and credential exposure — enforced at the gateway, independent of the model.
Agent Firewall: Default-deny policy on all tool calls and outbound network destinations. Explicit allow-lists prevent SSRF attacks and data exfiltration.
Scope & Key Binding: Attach guardrail and firewall policies to specific API keys. Every call made with that key is automatically protected.
Full Audit Trail: Every decision — allow or block — is logged for compliance review.
Use Cases
Multi-model Integration: Access GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, and 200+ models through one endpoint without changing your existing SDK.
Cost Optimization: Automatically route simple tasks to cheaper models and complex ones to frontier models.
Agent Security: Protect autonomous AI agents from prompt injection, jailbreaks, and unintended tool misuse.
Rapid Deployment: Go live in 60 seconds — just swap your base\_url to https://api.orcarouter.ai/v1.
Open-source LLM observability: log cost, latency, tokens, and agent traces for every OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or Ollama call with a one-line baseURL swap. Self-hostable, MIT.
