OpenRouter updates its provider router to weigh inference quality and request cost

OpenRouter says its provider router previously prioritized mostly by price. The update rewards providers for inference quality relative to a request’s actual cost and directs more traffic to those delivering more value. A separate post quoting the announcement reports early comparisons with the old router: roughly 20% faster time to first token, 20% higher throughput, 40% fewer fallbacks and 60% fewer rate-limit errors.