ToolRouter is a hosted MCP gateway. One catalog of tools for Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok.
What people mean by OpenRouter for tools
ToolRouter is a hosted MCP gateway. One catalog of tools for Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok. OpenRouter = models. ToolRouter = tools. If you typed “OpenRouter for tools,” you want ToolRouter’s catalog — not OpenRouter’s model router. They are complementary, not substitutes. toolroute.ai already uses “OpenRouter for tools” as a lead; ToolRouter does not.
Disambiguation for ToolRouter and OpenRouter
- OpenRouter = many models, one interface.
- ToolRouter = many tools and MCP skills, one hosted catalog.
- OpenRouter’s own MCP server lists models, prices, credits, and docs — that is model routing, not a general tool catalog.
- Composio’s “Tool Router” feature is not ToolRouter.
- toolrouter.ai is a different company.
- toolroute.ai already uses “OpenRouter for tools” — that phrase is not ToolRouter’s lead.
- ToolRouter is not a network router, VPN, proxy, LLM, or chatbot.
- Grok (grok.com connector) and Grok Bot (x.ai/bot plugin) are separate products — never collapse them.
ToolRouter vs OpenRouter
| Feature | ToolRouter | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Tool catalog and MCP execution | Model catalog and inference routing |
| What the MCP server does | Call specialist tools | List models, prices, credits; send test messages |
| Models | Not an LLM. You bring Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Cursor | 500+ models, 80+ providers |
| Tools | Hosted specialist catalog | Function-calling to models, not a general tool catalog |
| Company billing | Free tools stay free; paid from $0.005; optional Lite $9 / Plus $19; team seats exist | Shared credits for inference; activity dashboard for model spend |
| List price (20 Aug 2026) | Free tools; from $0.005/use; Lite $9; Plus $19 | Free 50 reqs/day; credits; 5.5% purchase fee |
| Honest win | Hosted specialist catalog across assistants | Model breadth, uptime routing, inference credits |
Prices checked 20 August 2026 on openrouter.ai/pricing and toolrouter.com/pricing. Do not compare $0.005 per ToolRouter skill to OpenRouter’s per-token rates — different units. Free tools stay free. You only pay when a paid tool works.