OpenRouter

OpenRouter compared three ways to get reliable JSON out of models, using 24 messy support messages across nine models that support structured outputs: send a strict JSON Schema, force a single tool call, or switch to a decision model that only returns labels. Across the nine models, 209 of 216 replies matched a strict schema, and all 7 misses came from one provider that ignores the schema; asking for JSON only in the prompt produced 18 failures, each from a code fence. For GLM 5.3 FlashX, which only supports tools, forcing the tool call gave 22 valid outputs out of 24, against 0 when the schema was sent directly.

OpenRouter compared three ways to get reliable JSON out of models, using 24 messy support messages across nine models that support structured outputs: send a strict JSON Schema, force a single tool call, or switch to a decision model that only returns labels. Across the nine models, 209 of 216 replies matched a strict schema, and all 7 misses came from one provider that ignores the schema; asking for JSON only in the prompt produced 18 failures, each from a code fence. For GLM 5.3 FlashX, which only supports tools, forcing the tool call gave 22 valid outputs out of 24, against 0 when the schema was sent directly.

OpenRouter compared three ways to give an agent the same GitHub capability, an MCP server, the gh command-line tool and a gh skill, counting input tokens across the whole task. On Claude Sonnet 5.5 all three answered correctly, but the GitHub MCP server with its 46 default tools used 59,417 input tokens, the CLI 1,421 and the skill 3,315. Scoping the server to the 2 tools the task needs cut it to 23,228, and capping tool results at 4,000 characters brought it to 5,357.

OpenRouter compared three ways to give an agent the same GitHub capability, an MCP server, the gh command-line tool and a gh skill, counting input tokens across the whole task. On Claude Sonnet 5.5 all three answered correctly, but the GitHub MCP server with its 46 default tools used 59,417 input tokens, the CLI 1,421 and the skill 3,315. Scoping the server to the 2 tools the task needs cut it to 23,228, and capping tool results at 4,000 characters brought it to 5,357.

OpenRouter released a new generation of Auto Router and added Auto Code, a router tuned for coding work. The previous router relied on a few imprecise signals such as task type; the new routers weigh eleven factors about each request together with live pricing, provider health and cache status to pick both model and reasoning effort. Across five benchmarks Auto Code scores in line with Claude Opus 5.5 while costing 74% less per task, and the routing step runs at 0.65s at p90 in a live test against 1.96s for the old router.

OpenRouter released a new generation of Auto Router and added Auto Code, a router tuned for coding work. The previous router relied on a few imprecise signals such as task type; the new routers weigh eleven factors about each request together with live pricing, provider health and cache status to pick both model and reasoning effort. Across five benchmarks Auto Code scores in line with Claude Opus 5.5 while costing 74% less per task, and the routing step runs at 0.65s at p90 in a live test against 1.96s for the old router.

OpenRouter launched Private Endpoints, letting enterprises register fine-tuned models, dedicated deployments, or reserved capacity as endpoints visible only inside their organization, while continuing to call them through the existing API, model slug, and routing preferences. Previously such deployments meant maintaining a second integration alongside OpenRouter; now an organization's traffic prefers the endpoint by default and can fall back to public providers under existing preferences when it is rate-limited or unavailable. Endpoints must be hosted by a BYOK-supported provider and serve a model already in the catalog, and activation requires one real request that verifies the key, streaming, usage reporting, and model ID.

OpenRouter launched Private Endpoints, letting enterprises register fine-tuned models, dedicated deployments, or reserved capacity as endpoints visible only inside their organization, while continuing to call them through the existing API, model slug, and routing preferences. Previously such deployments meant maintaining a second integration alongside OpenRouter; now an organization's traffic prefers the endpoint by default and can fall back to public providers under existing preferences when it is rate-limited or unavailable. Endpoints must be hosted by a BYOK-supported provider and serve a model already in the catalog, and activation requires one real request that verifies the key, streaming, usage reporting, and model ID.