OpenRouter vs Resend
Unified API for 300+ LLMs across 60+ providers — 1 key, any model
vs. The email API for developers — built by the Nodemailer team
Pricing tiers
OpenRouter
Free
25+ free models. 50 requests/day rate limit. 1M free requests/month base.
Free
Pay-as-you-go
5.5% platform fee on usage. Access to 300+ models, 60+ providers. High global rate limits.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Volume-based pricing, bulk discounts, SSO/SAML, dedicated rate limits. 5M free requests/month.
Custom
Resend
Free
3,000 emails/month, 100 emails/day. 1 custom domain. Ideal for side projects.
Free
Pro — 50k
50,000 emails/month. 10 custom domains. Priority support.
$20/mo
Pro — 100k
100,000 emails/month. 10 custom domains.
$35/mo
Scale — 100k+
Tiered from 100k → 2.5M emails/month. Dedicated IP add-on available.
$90/mo
Scale — 2.5M
2.5M emails/month.
$1150/mo
Enterprise
3M+/month, dedicated IP included, SSO, custom contract.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on OpenRouter vs free on Resend.
| Metric | OpenRouter | Resend |
|---|---|---|
| custom domains | — | 1 domains |
| emails per day | — | 100 emails/day |
| emails per month | — | 3000 emails/month |
Features
OpenRouter · 15 features
- 300+ Models — Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, Qwen, DeepSeek, Cohere, Grok + open-source.
- 60+ Providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Together, Fireworks, Groq, DeepInfra, Replicate, etc.
- Auto Fallback — Automatic retry to backup provider on failure.
- Bring Your Own Key — Use your own provider keys → pay providers directly + no platform fee.
- Credit System — Prepay credits via card, crypto, or bank.
- Data Retention Controls — Opt-out of training/retention per provider.
- Free Models Tier — 25+ models available at $0 (limited rate).
- Prompt Caching — Automatic cache for identical prefixes (provider-dependent).
- Provider Preferences — Pin preferred providers per request or default.
- Rankings & Stats — Public leaderboard of most-used models.
- Regional Routing — Route requests to specific geographic regions.
- Streaming — SSE + partial completions.
- Structured Outputs — JSON-mode + JSON schema across supporting models.
- Tool Use / Function Calling — Unified tool calling across providers.
- Unified OpenAI-Compat API — Same endpoint for every model + provider.
Resend · 12 features
- Audiences — Contact list management with custom fields.
- Batch Send — Send up to 100 emails in one API call.
- Broadcasts — Bulk email campaigns with audiences, A/B testing, analytics.
- Dedicated IP — Add-on for high-volume senders. Auto warmup.
- Domains — DKIM/SPF/DMARC auto-verification. Per-domain analytics.
- Idempotency — Prevent duplicate sends with Idempotency-Key header.
- Logs + Analytics — Full email logs, delivery heatmap, events table.
- React Email — OSS library (3M+ downloads) to compose emails in React/JSX.
- Scheduled Send — scheduledAt parameter for future delivery.
- Send API — POST /emails endpoint to send. Supports attachments, scheduled send, idempotency…
- Suppressions — Auto-managed bounce + complaint list. API to add/remove.
- Webhooks — Email lifecycle events: sent, delivered, bounced, complained, opened, clicked.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | OpenRouter | Resend |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | — | Resend CLI |
| SDK | Any OpenAI SDK | react-email, resend-go, resend-node, resend-php, resend-python, resend-ruby |
| REST | OpenRouter API (OpenAI-compat) | Resend REST API |
| MCP | OpenRouter MCP | — |
| OTHER | OpenRouter Dashboard | SMTP Relay, Webhooks (Svix) |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to OpenRouter and Resend are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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