25+ free models. Smart routing. 4% markup.
The indie LLM router that tries free models first. OpenAI-compatible API, waterfall routing from free to cheap to premium. Built by one person + Claude, not 20 engineers in SF.
How waterfall routing works
Your request cascades down from free to paid until it gets a great answer. Most of the time, free is all you need.
1. Send a request
Use our OpenAI-compatible API. Drop-in replacement -- change one line of code and you are done.
2. Smart routing
We try free models first (DeepSeek, Gemini, Llama), then cheap ones, then premium. Only escalate when needed.
3. Save money
Most queries resolve on free models. You only pay when you actually need a premium model. Simple as that.
Featured models
From free reasoning models to flagship paid ones. Pick what fits your budget and task.
Google's most capable model with 1M context. Free experimental access through Waterfall.
State-of-the-art reasoning model competitive with o1. Completely free through Waterfall.
Latest Llama with 1M context and excellent tool calling. Free on Waterfall.
Excellent all-around chat model. 128K context. Free on Waterfall.
Llama 4 Scout on Groq. Ultra-fast inference at $0.11/M input tokens.
Anthropic's latest balanced model. Excellent coding and reasoning.
Waterfall vs OpenRouter
They raised $40M to route to expensive models. We route to free ones first. Different philosophy.
| OpenRouter | Waterfall | |
|---|---|---|
| Funding | $40M raised, $500M valuation | Bootstrapped, profitable |
| Team | 20+ engineers in SF | Julie + Claude |
| Fees | 5.5% credit purchase fee | 4% transparent markup |
| Routing | Routes to paid models first | Routes to FREE models first |
| Free models | Some, as afterthought | 25+ free models, first-class |
| Philosophy | "Which expensive model is best?" | "Can a free model handle this?" |
Ready to save on AI?
Drop-in OpenAI-compatible API. Change one line of code. Start with free models, scale to premium when you need to.
$7/month VPS. Not $40M in funding. We pass the savings to you.