Guides

End-to-end setups for real situations. Each guide starts from where you are, lays out the plan, walks the dashboard steps, and explains why the resulting setup is worth having. For copy-paste integration code, see the Quickstart.

All guides

Upgrading to FreeRouter from OpenRouter in your existing app

Already calling OpenRouter in production? Put FreeRouter between your app and OpenRouter in five steps — move the key, mint a FreeRouter key, route 100% to OpenRouter, swap the key and base URL.

Best for: existing apps that call OpenRouter today and want gateway optionality without a rewrite.
Starting fresh with FreeRouter in a new app

No gateway yet? Pick a provider, store its key, mint a FreeRouter key, attach a routing rule, and integrate — so you can add a second gateway later with zero code deploys.

Best for: new projects choosing their first LLM gateway.

Guides vs. quickstarts

Guides and quickstarts overlap on purpose but answer different questions. A guide covers the situation: the plan, the dashboard sequence, and the payoff — read it to decide what to set up and why. A quickstart covers the integration: base URLs, SDK snippets, and streaming — open it when you're editing code. Each guide links to the quickstart you'll need at the code step.

What every guide assumes

  • A FreeRouter account (email + one-time passcode) with a personal workspace. New workspaces get a Starter key with $5 of OpenRouter credit so you can try a request before adding your own provider. See Getting Started.
  • Bring-your-own-keys past the starter: FreeRouter routes with the provider keys you store, and you keep paying those providers directly. See Providers.
  • One routing rule per FreeRouter key: a weighted %-split or a priority order with failover. See Routing Rules.
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