Alternative · verified 2026-10-26
The OpenAI API alternative with a lower per-token rate
Same SDK, same request body, same streaming. The base URL changes, the key changes, and every price below drops.
List price vs price here
The left column of each pair is the vendor’s published list price; the right is this gateway’s rate for the same model. All figures are USD per 1,000,000 tokens, read from platform.openai.com/docs/pricing on 2026-10-26.
| Model | List · in | Here · in | List · cached | Here · cached | List · out | Here · out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-6 Astravendor: gpt-6-astra | $10.00 | $0.90 | $1.00 | $0.08 | $50.00 | $0.90 |
| GPT-6.1 Solvendor: gpt-6.1-sol | $2.00 | $0.30 | $0.10 | $0.08 | $10.00 | $0.30 |
| GPT-6 Lunavendor: gpt-6-luna | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.02 | $0.50 | $0.10 |
| GPT-5.6 Solvendor: gpt-5.6-sol | $4.00 | $0.90 | $0.40 | $0.08 | $20.00 | $0.90 |
List prices are what the model author charges when you buy direct. Prices here can sit below list, and that saving is structural rather than a temporary discount.
What that means per month
The same GPT-6 Luna priced across four modelled traffic shapes, at list and at the rate here. Token counts represent common production patterns rather than benchmarks.
| Workload | At list | Here | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot100k conversations/month · 500 prompt · 300 completion tokens | $20.20 | $8.40 | 2.4× cheaper |
| Coding agent5k agent turns/month · 8k prompt · 1.5k completion tokens | $7.95 | $5.15 | 1.5× cheaper |
| RAG answers20k answers/month · 20k prompt with a large cached prefix | $48.00 | $47.00 | 1.0× cheaper |
| Batch classification1M calls/month · 200 prompt · 20 completion tokens | $30.00 | $22.00 | 1.4× cheaper |
The migration
Two values change. The endpoint path, request body, streaming format and error envelope do not.
const client = new Client({
baseURL: "https://api.openai.com/v1",
apiKey: process.env.VENDOR_API_KEY,
});const client = new Client({
baseURL: "https://uncensoredai.dev/v1",
apiKey: process.env.UNCENSOREDAI_KEY,
});Where each one wins
Where OpenAI is the better choice
- First-party tooling: fine-tuning, the Assistants API, batch processing and organisation controls.
- Direct access to new releases on launch day.
- Enterprise agreements, invoicing and the vendor's own uptime commitments.
- A direct commercial relationship if procurement requires one.
Where UncensoredAI is the better choice
Lower rates on input and output
Output is cheaper here on all four shared models, and input is cheaper on three of four — GPT-6 Luna sits at the same $0.10 input rate. The gap is structural rather than a promotional discount that expires. Cached input is cheaper on three of four; Luna's cache rate is higher here.
One key reaches eight families
The same credential also serves DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, MiMo, Grok, Gemini and the Anthropic family, so a fallback or a cost-driven swap is a model-string change rather than a second integration.
Uncensored and abliterated builds
Refusal-free models are not offered by the model author. They are ordinary priced model ids here, on the same endpoint and the same bill.
No identity to hand over
No email, name, phone number or KYC. A random 16-digit key is both the login and the API credential, so there is nothing personal stored to be breached.
The longer version
The migration is genuinely one line, and that is the least interesting thing about this comparison. Because the gateway speaks the same Chat Completions schema, an existing client keeps its message format, its streaming parser, its tool-call handling and its retry logic. Only the base URL and the credential change.
What actually differs is the price and the catalog. The model author sells at list; this platform prices the same model lower on most columns — output on all four shared models, input on three of four, cached on three of four. That is a durable difference rather than a promotion, and it is also the trade-off: a single model route has no second fleet behind it, so a model outage is an outage here.
The catalog is the second difference. A first-party API only serves its own models. A gateway serves many, which matters when the cheapest competent model for a task is not from the vendor you started with. Routing a coding loop to DeepSeek and a hard reasoning step to GPT-6 Astra should be a parameter change, not a procurement exercise.
The honest limitation is tooling. Fine-tuning, batch jobs, assistants and organisation-level administration are first-party products that a gateway does not reimplement. If those are load-bearing in your stack, the first-party API remains the right call and the price difference is the cost of that tooling.
Questions
- Do I have to change my code to switch?
- Two values: the base URL and the API key. The endpoint path, request body, streaming format and tool-call shape are identical, so an existing client works unchanged once those are updated.
- Why is it cheaper than the first-party price?
- The per-token rate here is set independently of the author's list price, which is why it can sit below list without a promotional expiry.
- Can I still use fine-tuning or the batch API?
- No. Those are first-party products. If your workload depends on training a model or on a managed batch pipeline, stay on the first-party API.
- Is there a rate limit or a minimum spend?
- There is no subscription, seat fee or minimum. Limits are per-account and published on the rate-limits page; the balance is prepaid and spent per token.
Verdict
Move if you are consuming models rather than training them, and the per-token rate is the line item that matters. Stay if fine-tuning, batch processing or a first-party commercial agreement is load-bearing.
Keep reading
Change the base URL
Generate a key, point your SDK at https://uncensoredai.dev/v1, and send a request. No email, no card, no KYC.