Alibaba Bailian vs OpenRouter
Compare Alibaba Bailian and OpenRouter: free credits, features, and ratings. Which one is right for you?
Category
LLM
API Platform
Rating
β 3.5
β 4
Free Credits
100 undefined
50 requests/day (1000 after $10 top-up)
Refresh Period
one-time
daily
Resolution
N/A
Watermark
No
No
Commercial Use
Yes
Yes
Paid From
Pay-per-use after free credits consumed
$10 top-up
Alibaba Bailian
Alibaba Cloud's LLM platform (DashScope) with 130+ models via unified API. New users get 1M free tokens per model, covering Qwen series, vision models, Tongyi Wanxiang image generation. All models share one API key, OpenAI compatible.
Pros
- β130+ models, unified API and key
- β~1M free tokens per model
- βQwen series, low latency in China
- βOpenAI compatible, easy integration
- βFull modality: text/vision/image/voice
- βAlibaba Cloud stable and reliable
Cons
- βRequires ID verification
- βFree credits not directly visible, check per model
- βAPI Key location is hidden deep
- βOne-time credits, no refresh
Key Features
130+ models unified accessQwen3.6-Flash fast modelQwen-VL-OCR vision recognitionTongyi Wanxiang image generationAll models share one API keyOpenAI SDK compatible
OpenRouter
API aggregation platform β one endpoint to access them all. 27 free models, accessible from China without VPN. Switch between backends by just changing the model name. Free tier: 50 requests/day, unlock 1000/day with $10 top-up.
Pros
- βAccessible from China without VPN
- β27 free models available
- βOpenAI-compatible format, switch models by changing name
- βDiverse model selection across providers
Cons
- βFree tier limited to 50 requests/day
- βUnlocking 1000/day requires $10 top-up
- βFree model quality varies
Key Features
27 Free ModelsChina Direct AccessOpenAI-Compatible APIUnified Model SwitchingDeepSeek/Qwen/Llama Support