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> Pricing-wise, we charge the same rates as the backend providers we route to, without taking any margins. We also give $50 in free credits to all new signups.
by jefftk 2y ago
> Pricing-wise, we charge the same rates as the backend providers we route to, without taking any margins. We also give $50 in free credits to all new signups.
What's your plan for making money? Are you planning to eventually take a margin? Negotiate discounts with your backend providers? Mine the data flowing through your system?
- kromem 2y agoMan, this space would get so much more interesting so quickly if base model providers had a revenue share system in place for routed requests...
- runako 2y agoThis would quickly erode confidence in the routers themselves...
- loceng 2y agoOr create a competitive environment between routers?
- danlenton 2y agoAnother point here is that some users prefer to use their own API keys for the backend providers (a feature we're releasing soon). Any "discounts" would then be harder to implement. I do generally think it's much cleaner if we route based on the public facing price + performance, so our users don't need to lock into our own SSO if they'd prefer not to.
- loceng 2y agoI think the biggest risk with advanced AI is that it's captured [likely by bad actors under the guise of cover stories] and that it strays away from being as free market as is possible. E.g. I don't think there should be any patents regarding what AI creates and how it can create it - let's not give people monopolies anymore for which all possibilities will come into existence due to passionate people, not due to the possibility of being able to patent something. E.g. telling the system to turn a 2D photo into a 3D rendering and then extrapolating/reverse engineering that to tie into materials and known building code requirements is plainly obvious, as one easy example; a "gold rush" for patents on AI etc only aims to benefit relatively rent-seekers and those in the VC industrial complex, etc.
- danlenton 2y agothat's a good point, impartiality would then be questioned
- danlenton 2y agoI certainly wouldn't complain about this lol
- namdnay 2y agoSo they end up in the same situation as hotels or airlines, beholden to the middlemen? They’ll never allow that :)
- cosmojg 2y agoThe data flowing through LLM routers is a hot commodity right now. OpenRouter, for example, even provides a flat-rate 1% discount across the board if you agree to let them use your API calls for model training, and rumor has it that they're already profitable. To be fair, they do seem to be collaborating with model providers on some level, so they are likely getting discounted access on top of selling data.
- ec109685 2y agoIt’s surprising how these app developers are okay with this much data being shown: https://openrouter.ai/models/mistralai/mixtral-8x7b-instruct?tab=apps https://openrouter.ai/models/mistralai/mixtral-8x7b-instruct...
- danlenton 2y agoThe idea is that at some point in future, we release new and improved router configurations which do take small margins, but from the user perspective they're still paying less than using a single endpoint. We don't intend to inflate the price when users only use the single-sign-on benefits. Negotiating discounts with backend providers is another possibility, but right now we're just focused on providing value.
- disagree123 2y ago[flagged]
- danlenton 2y agolol well sure, that too
- disagree123 2y agobut only as a secondary goal right? ;) It's all about value for the world!
- Aeolun 2y agoHonestly, I’d feel a lot more secure about building on this if you did take (for example) a small fixed fee every month. Or a 10% commission on any requests (volume discounts on that commission for high-volume users?). If I start using you now you’ll either disappear in the future or you’ll suddenly start charging more, neither of which I like. I’m already paying for inference, a little amount on top of that for the convenience of a single API is pretty useful.
- danlenton 2y agoMakes sense, thanks a lot for the feedback. We're pretty confident that future versions of our router will provide sufficient value where we can take margins here, we therefore don't expect the need to start charging for Single-sign-on (SSO) alone. The SSO benefits are only the beginning in my mind, our main value will come from custom benchmarks across all models + providers and optimizing LLM applications, including agentic workfows. I do very much see your point though. Thankfully, we're very fortunate to have several years of runway, so we don't plan on disappearing anytime too soon!