OpenRouter alternatives that work from Russia

According to users, since May 2026 OpenRouter has not accepted payment from accounts it links to Russia, and one outlet reported that since late June it has not served such accounts either. Below are eight services with one API key for many models that accept payment from Russia, plus Kumo, our own product. The comparison uses the same criteria for everyone, with a date and a source for every fact, a price check on two models and a short guide to choosing.

What happened to OpenRouter in Russia

How we compared

Protocols and catalogue

Payment and terms

Prices of two models

How to choose

• A company needs an invoice and closing documents. AITUNNEL (invoice from 10 000 ₽, UPD through e-document exchange), ProxyAPI, Polza AI, RouterAI, GPTunneL, provod.ai and Selectel AI Router say plainly that they take payment by invoice. We do not name Kumo here: its pages do not describe invoicing for companies.
• Claude Code and other agents. Claude Code speaks the Anthropic protocol, so you need a service with such an address: in the table that is Kumo, AITUNNEL, ProxyAPI, Polza AI, RouterAI, BotHub and provod.ai, and GPTunneL for Claude models only. Cursor, Cline and similar editors connect through the OpenAI-compatible address, which all nine have.
• You want a chat, not an API. BotHub and GPTunneL are built around a chat and ready-made tools; BotHub has packages, a free starter amount and a Telegram bot. Others have a chat too: «Studio» at AITUNNEL, «Neurostudio» at Polza AI, a web chat and a Telegram bot at RouterAI, Kumo Chat in the Kumo console.
• You need a wide catalogue. By the sites' own words: 500+ models at ProxyAPI, 400+ at Polza AI and RouterAI, over 400 at Selectel AI Router, 400 in BotHub's catalogue. Kumo has 120 models from 35 vendors: if you need a rare model, look it up in the catalogue first.

Where Kumo stands in this list

Moving off OpenRouter: what to change

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.kumorouter.com/v1",  # was https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
    api_key="kumo_sk_...",                     # a Kumo key instead of the OpenRouter key
)
reply = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="anthropic/claude-opus-5-5",  # on OpenRouter: anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
)
print(reply.choices[0].message.content)

FAQ

Is OpenRouter not working in Russia?

There is no official OpenRouter statement. By the letter Habr published, since May 2026 the service has not accepted payments from accounts linked to Russia, and according to Nnets.ru of 25 June, from 27 June it stopped serving such accounts. This is a single outlet's report: we found no confirmation in other media or on OpenRouter's own pages, and the 27 June date is repeated only in blog posts. For a new project it is simpler to pick a service that accepts payment from Russia.

Can I pay OpenRouter with a Russian card?

The OpenRouter FAQ lists credit cards, AliPay and USDC, with payments going through Stripe and Coinbase. By the OpenRouter letter Habr published, top-ups do not work for accounts linked to Russia, neither by card nor by cryptocurrency. Details are in How to pay for OpenRouter from Russia.

Which OpenRouter alternatives are available from Russia?

In our check on 12 November: AITUNNEL, ProxyAPI, Polza AI, RouterAI, BotHub, GPTunneL, provod.ai, Selectel AI Router and Kumo, our service. All of them accept payment from Russia in one way or another; methods, minimums and catalogues differ, see the tables above.

Do the alternatives have free models?

By the sites: BotHub has a Free starter package of 30 000 Caps, GPTunneL has free generations in its own Grom 1.5 model, Kumo has 7 free models within a limit, Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol among them (details). At RouterAI sign-up is free but there is no free plan; the other sites do not mention free access.

Do the alternatives route between suppliers the way OpenRouter does?

Polza AI and RouterAI say that when a supplier is down, the request automatically goes to a backup one. AITUNNEL lists several suppliers on a model's page and lets you choose them with a provider parameter. Selectel warns that a model may have several suppliers at different prices.

Sources

• «OpenRouter stopped accepting payments for accounts with the Russia region», Habr, 12 May 2026 (in Russian).
• «Users complained of blocked OpenRouter payments for accounts from Russia», Skillbox Media, 19 May 2026 (in Russian).
• «OpenRouter stops working in Russia from 27 June», Nnets.ru, 25 June 2026 (in Russian).
• OpenRouter: FAQ, terms of service, API model list. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• Kumo: home, catalogue, price list, free models. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• AITUNNEL: home, Claude Code, payment, contacts, for companies, DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• ProxyAPI: docs, Claude Code, models, balance, terms, home, Claude Opus 5.5, catalogue. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• Polza AI: home, Claude Code, llms.txt, Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• RouterAI: docs, Claude Code, models, home, Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• BotHub: API, Claude Code, models, home, business, agreement. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• GPTunneL: docs, Anthropic API, home, prices, request cost. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• provod.ai: home, Claude Code, company billing, overview, company details, prices. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• Selectel: quick start, AI router, top-up, payment model. Saved on 12 November 2026.
• TeamoRouter: home. Saved on 12 November 2026.