OmniRoute: The Free AI Gateway That Forked 9Router Into 290+ Providers

9Router: Smart LLM Proxy with Token Saver • Orca: The ADE for Running Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor in Parallel

What Is OmniRoute? #

OmniRoute is an open-source AI gateway: install it once, point any OpenAI-compatible tool at its local endpoint (http://localhost:20128/v1), and it handles the mess of juggling multiple LLM providers for you — auto-falling back to another provider the instant one hits a rate limit, runs out of quota, or its key dies.

🔗 GitHub: https://github.com/diegosouzapw/OmniRoute 🌐 Homepage: https://omniroute.online

Note up front: OmniRoute began life as a TypeScript fork of 9Router (rtk-ai/rtk), a project dibi8 already covered. The two have since diverged in different directions — OmniRoute added a much larger provider catalog, multi-modal APIs, and a polished desktop/PWA dashboard, while 9Router/RTK kept growing on its own and, as of late July 2026, actually has more stars (73,600+) than OmniRoute (33,000+). Worth knowing before assuming one is simply an upgrade of the other.

Zero Config on First Install #

A fresh install answers requests immediately, no API keys required, using keyless free backends wired into an auto routing mode:

npm i -g omniroute

curl http://localhost:20128/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"auto","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello!"}]}'

How the Fallback Works #

OmniRoute’s routing sits in front of your provider accounts as a 4-tier cascade — it tries the cheapest/most-available tier first and falls back only when it has to:

Key Features #

Tech Stack (as documented by the project) #

• Runtime: Node.js 22.x/24.x LTS
• Language: TypeScript (project states 100% TypeScript in core, zero any since v2.0)
• Framework: Next.js 16 + React 19 + Tailwind CSS 4
• Database: better-sqlite3 (WAL) + LowDB for legacy JSON, across 95 domain modules
• Auth: OAuth 2.0 (PKCE), JWT, API keys, MCP scoped auth
• Testing: Node.js test runner + Vitest — the project states 25,000+ test cases across 3,300+ files

Install Options #

npm i -g omniroute

Docker is also supported:

docker pull diegosouzapw/omniroute

Desktop (Electron), Android (Termux), and PWA builds are documented on the project’s GitHub releases and website.

Compatible Tools #

Any OpenAI-compatible client works by pointing at OmniRoute’s local endpoint. The project explicitly documents setup for 30+ tools, including:

Claude Code · Codex CLI · Cursor CLI · GitHub Copilot CLI · Cline · Kilo Code · Roo Code · Continue · Aider · OpenCode · Factory Droid · Goose · Hermes Agent · Grok Build

OmniRoute vs. 9Router #

Use Cases #

1. Never Losing Work to a Rate Limit #

Keep coding when Claude Code or Codex hits its quota mid-session — the 4-tier fallback picks up automatically instead of the request failing.

2. Trying Free Tiers Without Juggling Dashboards #

Instead of manually tracking a dozen providers’ free quotas, point one endpoint at OmniRoute and let it route to whichever free backend still has budget.

3. Reducing Token Spend on Tool-Heavy Agent Sessions #

The compression pipeline sits between your agent and the model, aiming to cut the token volume of large tool outputs before they’re billed.

Related Repositories #

Related Articles #

• 9Router: Smart LLM Proxy with Token Saver — the project OmniRoute forked from, now the bigger of the two
• Orca: The ADE for Running Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor in Parallel — a different angle on “one control layer for many AI tools”

Conclusion #

OmniRoute takes the “one endpoint, many providers” idea it inherited from 9Router and adds a much larger provider catalog, a compression pipeline, MCP/A2A support, and a polished Electron/PWA dashboard on top. It’s grown fast — from roughly 17,700 to 33,000+ stars in about two weeks as of late July 2026 — even though its parent project RTK remains the larger of the two. Worth trying if you want a dashboard-driven gateway rather than 9Router’s leaner core.

Best for: Developers who want a visual dashboard and broad provider coverage on top of the fallback-routing idea, and don’t mind a heavier, more actively-marketed project.

GitHub: https://github.com/diegosouzapw/OmniRoute

Recommended Infrastructure for Self-Hosting #

If you’d rather run OmniRoute’s server component on an always-on box instead of your laptop:

• DigitalOcean — $200 free credit for 60 days across 14+ global regions. A common choice for a persistent gateway endpoint.
• HTStack — Hong Kong VPS with low-latency access from mainland China. This is the same IDC that hosts dibi8.com — battle-tested in production.

Affiliate links — they don’t cost you extra and they help keep dibi8.com running.

Last updated: 2026-07-29

References & Sources #

• OmniRoute
• OmniRoute homepage
• 9Router / RTK
• Claude Code