A step-by-step guide to using OpenRouter's unified API in Python to access multiple AI models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Google, and Meta through a single interface. Covers setting up authentication, making chat completion requests, intelligent provider routing by price/latency/throughput, and implementing model fallback chains for production reliability. Uses the requests library with no SDK required.
Table of contents
PrerequisitesStep 1: Connect to OpenRouter’s APIStep 2: Route Requests to Specific AI ProvidersStep 3: Implement Model Fallbacks for ReliabilityNext StepsFrequently Asked Questions214 Impressions