Introducing the AnyRouter Pool

Free models run on someone's quota. When that quota is one provider key, a burst of traffic ends in 429 errors and the model looks broken. The AnyRouter Pool spreads that load. Members donate spare provider keys, and the gateway sends matching requests through whichever donated key is ready.

A donated key keeps belonging to its owner. You flip a switch on a key you already added under BYOK, and you can flip it back at any time. In return, every request your key serves adds to a pending credit balance. The rate is 5% of the request's notional token cost, or 8% on Pro, Pro+, Max and Enterprise, capped at $1 per key per UTC day. Donors who price a paid model themselves receive what the caller paid minus a 10% platform fee instead.

Any signed-in member can donate a key for a provider AnyRouter can route to. Claude on Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry is the exception, because those credentials open a whole cloud account rather than one inference key.

1. Open Dashboard, BYOK and add the provider key. AnyRouter checks it against the provider first.
2. Turn on Donate to pool for that key and confirm the one-time consent. The text says other members' requests will use your key, that usage appears on your provider account, and that you are responsible for your provider's terms.
3. Choose the coverage. Free coverage serves only free models. Paid coverage also serves paid models at prices you set, from $0 up to 10% over the provider's list price.

The live pool page shows aggregate activity. The step-by-step version is in the shared pool guide.

The pool runs on reciprocity. A member can use it with at least one active donated key, or on a paid plan: Go, Pro, Pro+, Max or Enterprise. Decisions models are the exception, because they are free to every signed-in member.

Models marked Free via Pool in the catalog are served by donated keys, and they need Go or a donated key of your own. A Free-plan member who calls one gets a message that offers both ways to unlock it, either subscribe to Go or donate a key. Free models that do not say via Pool run through AnyRouter's own routes and stay open to everyone. The free models list shows both kinds, so check the label before you plan around a model, and see Pricing for plan details.

Your key is encrypted before it is stored, with a separate random salt for each key, and the encryption is tied to your workspace so a copied value cannot be decrypted as someone else's key. The secret that unlocks it sits in the platform's secret store, not in the database. After you save, the dashboard shows an alias and a masked identifier, never the key. Server logs mask credential fields, and your key goes only to the provider it belongs to.

When a request qualifies, the gateway adds donated keys to the list of routes it can try. It picks the key that has been idle the longest, with some randomness among the less recently used keys so that a burst of simultaneous requests does not pile onto one key. The pool never hands you your own donated key. Your key still serves you as a normal BYOK key.

A free-coverage key serves only free models. A paid model needs a key donated with paid coverage. If no donated key can serve a request, the gateway moves to the next route and the caller sees one response.

A donated key leaves the pool when it stops being healthy, and the cause decides how it comes back.

OpenRouter keys with a zero balance are the one case that keeps serving, because free models there cost nothing. If your only donated key pauses, Go that came from donating pauses with it, this month's $4 credit is clawed back, and you get an email. Donate a working key again in the same month and the unspent remainder, $4 minus what you already used, is restored.

Zero data retention is the one privacy routing setting. It is off by default, so a pooled request can reach a host that keeps or trains on prompts. Turn on Always enforce ZDR in Privacy settings and a donated key serves your request only on routes that declare zero data retention. A donated Vercel key never carries ZDR traffic.

If you donate, remember that the prompts of other members pass through your provider account. Read your provider's data and sharing terms before you switch it on.

Turn off Donate to pool on the key. It leaves the pool right away and serves only your own requests again. You can turn it back on later.

curl https://anyrouter.dev/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANYROUTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"anyrouter/free","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hi"}]}'