OpenRouter is joining Stripe • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#421

Post by rswail » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:15 AM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #408

nikcub wrote: post #294

I love OpenRouter, long time user. Stripe will hopefully be a good custodian. I just want to point out some features of OpenRouter that make it more than just a model selection and routing endpoint and that I find incredibly useful: 0/ Default routing is to the cheapest provider, but they're usually not the most performant. I'd guess 99% of OpenRouter integrations never tweak the default routing. Here you can setup c…

This seems like something xAi could reproduce in a weekend

Could but hasn't. What exactly is xAI's USP compared to the others?

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#422

Post by JBiserkov » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:18 AM UTC

stinger wrote: post #195

Reminds me of eBay acquiring Skype

eBay actually ended up making a net gain of approximately $1.4 billion on its total investment in Skype.

Are you perhaps thinking of Microsoft acquiring Skype for $8.5 billion? (a similar amount as the OpenRouter deal)

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#423

Post by wseqyrku » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:18 AM UTC

ernsheong wrote: post #352

There should be a ban on using Open* for for-profit VC-backed companies.

That prefix is dead and has lost its meaning. Now you gotta completely avoid it to stand out.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#424

Post by Driftbench » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC

Stripe acquiring the biggest model gateway makes sense when you think of inference as the next payments. Both are developer API infrastructure where routing and provider abstraction matter.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#425

Post by andruby » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC

aleqs wrote: post #183

powvans wrote: post #109

AI products are going to have to deal with accounting. An agent performs some work. It uses some models and perhaps some other metered services. Someone has to meter that activity. They have to attribute costs, apply the product's pricing rules, bill the customer, collect, reconcile with vendors, and maintain the ledger. Stripe can use OpenRouter to build the financial and accounting infrastructure for every product…

Every token/llm provider already has usage metering...so not sure what exactly you're imagining stripe adds here

paying for data access, for "deterministic computing", for letting the AI use online services. Maybe even micro payments for using tested and verified skills/mcps.

Example: access to real-time stock trading data, access to weather information, letting it make stock trades, etc.

At first I was confused why Stripe bought OpenRouter, but I think this makes sense.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#426

Post by johnbarron » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:39 AM UTC

tdeck wrote: post #398

I like OpenRouter. Excited to see where their incredible journey takes them.

Did you meant this for LinkedIn?

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#427

Post by alex43578 » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:48 AM UTC

byzantinegene wrote: post #391

throw03172019 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That feels high if they were bought at $7B? 5.5% of $100B is $5.5B in annual revenue. 1.3x multiple for AI. No way

100b sounds implausible if you consider that anthropic's revenue is only expected to reach 100b this year, 100m is more likely.

100b is too high, but 100m is way too low.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#428

Post by hobofan » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:50 AM UTC

nikcub wrote: post #294

I love OpenRouter, long time user. Stripe will hopefully be a good custodian. I just want to point out some features of OpenRouter that make it more than just a model selection and routing endpoint and that I find incredibly useful: 0/ Default routing is to the cheapest provider, but they're usually not the most performant. I'd guess 99% of OpenRouter integrations never tweak the default routing. Here you can setup c…

> Model router is also a natural home for llm security - OpenRouter has the beginnings of prompt injection detection

Maybe I'm biased from the perspective of a "harness provider", but I think Model routers often have too little context to act as well-informed prompt injection prevention. e.g. it lacks context of where which part of the message(s) originates from and sanitization/safeguards were already performed on the application layer.

Something like OpenRouter's "flag" mode is fine, but usage of auto-redact or auto-block should really only be used if there is significant risk exposure through your harness or otherwise they are a constant source of bugs.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#429

Post by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:54 AM UTC

dayeye2006 wrote: post #399

nikcub wrote: post #294

I love OpenRouter, long time user. Stripe will hopefully be a good custodian. I just want to point out some features of OpenRouter that make it more than just a model selection and routing endpoint and that I find incredibly useful: 0/ Default routing is to the cheapest provider, but they're usually not the most performant. I'd guess 99% of OpenRouter integrations never tweak the default routing. Here you can setup c…

noob q -- does the routing hurt cache hit rate?

By default yes bit you can pin providers to avoid this.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#430

Post by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe » Thu, Aug 20, 2026, 6:56 AM UTC

Computer0 wrote: post #345

HDBaseT wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What other routers exist that are good in your experience?

Eurorouter

Can't find anything by that name