OpenRouter gives you a single API key that routes to dozens of providers: Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, Mistral, and more. Instead of juggling separate keys for each provider, you manage one.
OpenClaw has built-in OpenRouter support. Set the provider to openrouter and prefix the model name with the original provider:
{
"modelRef": "openrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
}
OpenRouter also offers a free tier for select models. This is a good way to experiment before committing to a paid plan. The trade-off? Slightly higher latency because requests pass through an extra proxy layer. For most use cases, you won't notice.