How to connect OpenRouter

About 4 minutes · 6 steps · no technical knowledge needed

  1. Go to openrouter.ai and sign in. You can use a Google or GitHub account.
    about 30 seconds
  2. Add credit first: open "Credits" from the menu under your picture, top right, and buy some. OpenRouter pays the model providers on your behalf, so a key with no credit will not answer.
    about 2 min
  3. Open openrouter.ai/keys.
    about 10 seconds
  4. Press "Create Key", name it "Julia" and confirm.
    about 20 seconds
  5. Copy the key -- it starts with sk-or-v1- and is shown once.
    about 15 seconds
  6. Paste it into the box below and press "Test connection".
    about 15 seconds

What Julia will ask you for

API key Starts with sk-or-v1-

If something goes wrong

If it says the key is wrong: copy it again and check there is no space at the start or end. A key pasted from an email often picks one up.

The key is shown ONCE. If you closed the page without copying it, delete that key and make a new one -- you cannot look the old one up.

If it says insufficient credit: buy credit on the Credits page. This is OpenRouter's own balance, not a Julia charge.

Open OpenRouter