Simple pricing. No surprises.
4% markup on what models cost. That's it. No credit purchase fees, no hidden charges, no VC investors to pay back.
- 25+ free models (DeepSeek, Llama 4, Gemini Flash)
- No credit card needed
- Community rate limits
- OpenAI-compatible API
- Waterfall smart routing
Good for: Experimentation, hobby projects, learning
Start Free- All 300+ models (GPT-5, Claude, Gemini Pro, etc.)
- Higher rate limits
- Priority waterfall routing
- Usage dashboard & analytics
- Free models still free
Good for: Production apps, indie developers, agents
Get Started- Custom rates below 4%
- Dedicated support from Julie
- SLA guarantees
- Custom model configurations
- Priority bug fixes
Good for: High-volume users, startups scaling up
Contact JulieWaterfall vs OpenRouter
They raised $40M. We didn't. Guess who's cheaper.
| Feature | OpenRouter | Waterfall |
|---|---|---|
| Credit purchase fee | 5.5% | None |
| Token markup | Varies | 4% flat |
| Free models | ~20 | 25+ |
| Hidden fees | Credit purchase fee | None |
| Funding | $40M VC-backed | Bootstrapped |
| Team size | 20+ engineers | Julie + Claude |
Frequently asked questions
No sales calls. Just answers.
How does pricing work?
We add 4% to the model's base cost. That's it. DeepSeek at $0.14/M input tokens becomes $0.146/M through us. Free models stay free -- we don't charge for what's already free.
Why is it cheaper than OpenRouter?
We're bootstrapped. One person, low overhead, no investors demanding returns. No VC money to burn, so we keep costs low. Your money goes to AI providers, not our office lease.
Is there a minimum spend?
No. The free tier requires no payment info at all. Use 25+ models completely free. When you need paid models, you only pay for what you use.
Do you support crypto payments?
Coming soon. USDC on Base and Solana. We hate Stripe's 2.9% cut as much as you do.
What about rate limits?
Free tier gets community rate limits -- enough for development and hobby projects. Paid tier gets generous limits based on your spend. Volume customers get custom limits.
Can I use this in production?
Yes. We have uptime monitoring, fallback routing across multiple providers, and automatic failover. If one provider goes down, your requests route to the next one -- that's the waterfall.
Stop overpaying for AI
Same models, lower prices. No credit fees, no hidden charges. Built by one person who actually uses this stuff.