SmartyPress AI Engine Documentation Article

OpenRouter Provider

Single API key for 100+ AI models. Configure text and image model lists.

Openrouter Provider is the focus of this documentation page. Single API key for 100+ AI models. Configure text and image model lists. Follow the sections below to configure the feature correctly, choose the right settings, avoid common mistakes, and verify the result inside WordPress.

OpenRouter provides a single API key that gives you access to 100+ AI models from multiple providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and more. It also supports image generation models.

Getting Your OpenRouter API Key

  1. Sign in to OpenRouter.
  2. Open openrouter.ai/workspaces/default/keys.
  3. Click + Create Key.
  4. In the Create API Key modal fill:
    • Name — for example, SmartyPress
    • Expiration — leave No expiration, or choose a date if you want the key to expire
    • Credit limit — optional; leave blank for unlimited
    • Reset limit every… — leave N/A unless you set a credit limit that should reset
  5. Click Create, copy the key immediately (it starts with sk-or-v1-...), and add credits to your account if needed.
Tip: Create and manage keys at openrouter.ai/workspaces/default/keys. Sign in, open the workspace API Keys page, click + Create Key, fill the form, then copy the secret once — OpenRouter shows the full value only at creation.
OpenRouter API Keys page with the Create Key button
On openrouter.ai/workspaces/default/keys, click Create Key to open the new key form.
OpenRouter Create API Key modal with Name, Expiration, and Credit limit fields
Fill Name, Expiration, and optional Credit limit, then click Create and copy the key immediately.

Configuring in SmartyPress

  1. Go to SmartyPress AI → Settings (#/settings).
  2. Open the OpenRouter provider card.
  3. Paste your key into the API Key field.
  4. Optionally configure the Text Models and Image Models limit toggles (see below). These fields control which models appear later; they are not the Default Model selectors.
  5. Click Save Provider Settings — SmartyPress saves the credentials and automatically tests the connection (smartypress/v1/settings/test-provider). There is no separate Test Connection button.
  6. Return to Settings and, under General Settings, choose Default Provider = OpenRouter and a Default Model (for example, openai/gpt-4o-mini). Click Save Changes.
OpenRouter provider settings in SmartyPress AI with the text model restriction list
One OpenRouter key routes requests to many models; the list limits which of them appear on generation screens.

Filtering Available Models

OpenRouter model catalogs are loaded from the OpenRouter API (https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/models), cached for 12 hours, and fall back to a small built-in list if the request fails. On the OpenRouter card you can optionally restrict which models appear in generation screens:

  • Text Models — enable Limit available text models, then check the text models that should stay available
  • Image Models — enable Limit available image models, then check the image models that should stay available

When a limit toggle is disabled, all loaded OpenRouter models of that type remain available. When enabled, only the checked models appear in the provider/model dropdowns throughout the plugin.

Web Search Capability

Some OpenRouter models support web search (for example, Perplexity Sonar models such as perplexity/sonar). When available, the SEO Analysis module can use these models to research competitors during content plan generation.

Note: OpenRouter pricing varies by model. Check the OpenRouter models page for current pricing.
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