For use with CouncilAI
OpenRouter is different from the other providers — instead of giving access to one company's models, it's a single key that unlocks hundreds of models from many different providers (DeepSeek, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, and more). It's the easiest way to add real model diversity to your council without signing up for a separate account with each one.
OpenRouter has free models. Many models (including some DeepSeek and Llama variants) are available at zero cost, with rate limits. This is a good way to try CouncilAI with an additional provider before spending anything.
Visit openrouter.ai and click Sign Up. You can register with email, Google, or GitHub.
Once signed in, go to openrouter.ai/keys. Click Create Key, give it a name like "CouncilAI", and click Create.
Your key starts with sk-or-. It's shown only once — copy it right away. If you lose it, you'll need to create a new one.
If you want to use paid models beyond the free tier, go to the Credits page in your OpenRouter dashboard and add funds — $5 minimum. Free models work without this step.
Once you have your key, go back to CouncilAI and paste it into the OpenRouter field in Settings, then click Test & Save.
Email contact@councilai.ca if you get stuck.