L
LDesktop agent for documents, code and automation using local or open models
Free, from $20/mo
Ollama vs OpenRouter
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
O
Choose Ollama if…
- you want open source you can self-host or audit
- you work on macOS, Windows, Linux
- you're in its core audience: developers, ai engineers
O
Choose OpenRouter if…
- you work on Web
- you're in its core audience: software developers, ai app and agent builders
Side by side
Feature Ollama OpenRouter
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$16.67/mo—
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your contentNo—
Data retentionCloud prompts/responses processed transiently, not stored beyond request time—
GitHub stars185K—
Works fully offline—
Optional cloud models—
OpenAI-compatible API—
Apple Silicon acceleration—
Runs on CPU only—
Team admin / SSO—
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, Linux, APIWeb, API
CategoryLocal & Open ModelsLLM APIs & Model Hosting
CompanyOllamaOpenRouter
Full feature lists
O Ollama
- Run open models locally with unlimited usage
- Cloud-hosted open models with pay-as-you-go token pricing
- Off-peak discounted rates for some models
- Tool calling support on compatible cloud models
- Concurrent requests up to 10 on higher plans
- API keys with per-key cost budgets (Enterprise)
- Shared team billing and administration
- Usage alert email at 90% of monthly allowance
O OpenRouter
- OpenAI-compatible chat completions endpoint
- Access to 600+ models from 80+ providers
- Automatic fallbacks around provider outages and rate limits
- Image, video, text-to-speech and speech-to-text endpoints
- Bring your own provider keys
- Budgets, spend controls and activity log export
- EU and US in-region routing
- Hosted MCP server for agent tooling
Their home pages
What each vendor shows first: the pitch, the plans and the sign-up.
Ollama · ollama.ai
OpenRouter · openrouter.aiWhat you'd pay
The cheapest plan that fits, per month, billed yearly where the plan offers it.
| Team size | Ollama | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $16.67 Pro | no published plan |
| 5 people | $500 Team (early access) | no published plan |
| 20 people | $500 Team (early access) | no published plan |
What the free plans include
Ollama
- Pay as you go: $0 subscription, pay per token for cloud models
- 3 concurrent requests
- Running models on your own hardware is unlimited
OpenRouter
Free plan limits aren't published.
All plans and prices
Ollama
Free$0
Pro$20/mo or $200/yr ($16.67/mo billed annually)
Max$100/mo
Team (early access)$500/mo
EnterpriseCustom
OpenRouter
FreeFree
Standard5.5% fee on credit purchases
Business8% fee on credit purchases
EnterpriseCustom
Price changes we've recorded
We re-read each pricing page every month and log what changed.
Ollama
No changes since we started tracking.
OpenRouter
- Nov 8, 2026Standard: Pay-as-you-go, 5.5% fee on credit purchases → 5.5% fee on credit purchases; Business: Pay-as-you-go, 8% fee on credit purchases → 8% fee on credit purchases
Strengths and limitations
Ollama
- Local model use is free and unlimited
- Prompt and response data is never logged or trained on
- Open source project on GitHub
- Published per-token prices for every cloud model
- Free cloud usage is limited to starter models unless you buy credits
- Unused monthly credits do not roll over
- Free plan allows only 1 concurrent cloud request
- Cloud hosting is primarily in the US
OpenRouter
- No markup on provider token prices
- Free plan with 25+ free models
- BYOK fee-free up to $25,000 of monthly inference
- Payment by card, AliPay or USDC
- 5.5–8% platform fee on credit purchases
- Free plan limited to 50 requests per day
- SSO/SAML and SLAs only on Enterprise
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Facts from each vendor's public pages, prices checked Oct 26, 2026. Editorial policy