OpenRouter Rebuilds Provider Routing for Speed

This is a meaningful infrastructure upgrade: OpenRouter is optimizing for the cost of a successful answer, not merely the cheapest attempt. The tradeoff is sensible for production workloads, but developers should monitor spend rather than assume “default routing” still means lowest price.

• –Providers now compete on measurable inference quality, speed, capacity, and reliability—not just token pricing.
• –The router remains cache-aware, keeping ongoing conversations pinned to the same provider when possible.
• –Developers retain control through `provider.sort: "price"`, `:floor`, `provider.order`, and provider allowlists.
• –The 6% cost increase may pay for itself in agent workflows by reducing retries, waiting, and failed requests.
• –The quality signal currently emphasizes usable tool calls, so broader output-quality evaluation will determine how powerful this becomes.