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How to pick a gateway, compare alternatives, and ship with GPT, Claude, Gemini and more from one prepaid wallet.
Stop juggling separate OpenAI, Anthropic and Google accounts. How a multi-model gateway gives you one API key and one bill for GPT, Claude, Gemini and more.
You don't need Cursor or any IDE to use an AI API key. Six genuinely easy tools that take a key and a base URL, ranked from simplest to most capable.
Cursor is powerful but not the only way to code with AI. Compare Cline, Continue, Zed, Aider and more — all of which take your own API key.
Cursor reserves every claude-* name for its own subscription, so a gateway key silently never routes. Use the sb- alias instead — here is the exact setup.
An OpenAI-compatible API takes the same requests and returns the same shape, so any OpenAI SDK works after changing two lines. And what it does not promise.
Prepaid caps your maximum loss at what you already paid; postpaid is discovered on the invoice. How each fails, and which suits solo builders and teams.
10 OpenRouter alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where OpenRouter is still the better choice.
10 Together AI alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Together AI is still the better choice.
10 Fireworks AI alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Fireworks AI is still the better choice.
10 Groq alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Groq is still the better choice.
10 Replicate alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Replicate is still the better choice.
10 Portkey alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Portkey is still the better choice.
10 LiteLLM alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where LiteLLM is still the better choice.
10 Helicone alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Helicone is still the better choice.
10 Eden AI alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Eden AI is still the better choice.
10 AI/ML API alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where AI/ML API is still the better choice.
10 Requesty alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Requesty is still the better choice.
10 Vercel AI Gateway alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Vercel AI Gateway is still the better choice.
10 Cloudflare AI Gateway alternatives compared on billing, model coverage and OpenAI compatibility — plus where Cloudflare AI Gateway is still the better choice.