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OpenRouter Free Tier Setup

OpenRouter is an alternative free-tier option when you want one API key and access to rotating free chat models. For OpenScribe, it is most useful as a polish experiment path, not the main recommendation.

Free models can change quickly

OpenRouter's free-model availability and rate limits can change. Check the current authentication guide and FAQ before you depend on a specific model.

1. Create an OpenRouter API key

  1. Sign in to OpenRouter.
  2. Create an API key from the key settings flow linked in the authentication guide.
  3. Copy the key.

2. Add the key to OpenScribe

  1. Open Settings > Providers.
  2. Paste the key into the OpenRouter field.
  3. Use Verify.
  4. Use Refresh models.

3. Use OpenRouter for polish

If you want to experiment with OpenRouter on its free tier:

  1. Open Settings > Polish.
  2. Turn polish on.
  3. Choose OpenRouter as the provider.
  4. Start with openrouter/free if it appears in the model list.
  5. If you want a fixed model, choose a model variant that ends with :free.

4. Keep the main recommendation in mind

OpenRouter is useful when you want flexibility. The main free-tier recommendation for the best OpenScribe experience is still:

  • Groq transcription with whisper-large-v3-turbo
  • Groq polish with openai/gpt-oss-120b

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