Direct answer
Choose OpenRouter when its exact capability is the requirement and it fits your billing path. Choose Fikra when you want one prepaid USD wallet, pinned routes and, in Kenya, M-Pesa or Airtel Money at checkout. Both are honest options; they solve different problems.
Live numbers as of 2026-11-14
These figures come from the public stats snapshot generated on 2026-11-14 from backend ledgers. They show volume and reliability only; they do not prove any single route wins your workload. Run your own 50 prompts before you move budget.
| Metric | Value | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| All-time requests | 126,617 | 109 days since launch |
| All-time tokens processed | 5,460,329,009 | 2,299,586,240 served from cache |
| Requests, last 30 days | 116,189 | 5,437,162,745 tokens across 82 active routes |
| Registered developers (all time) | 424 | Self-serve accounts, prepaid |
| Live model routes | 31 | Catalogue at /models; machine list at /v1/models |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, last 30 days | 63,202 | cache-hit rate 12.94% |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Economy (free), last 30 days | 8,741 | cache-hit rate 97.36%; free window, not an SLA |
| 30-day uptime | 98.95% | 88,390 health checks; status currently reports attention, re-check /status before production |
What the routes cost right now
Prices are USD per 1M tokens, taken from the live registry snapshot dated 2026-11-14. The KES columns use the checkout rate of KES 133 = $1; your bank or card issuer may add its own conversion margin on top.
The catalogue is authoritative at /v1/models (the OpenAI-compatible listing) and at /models (the public card with context windows and rate limits). Check both before a production commitment; prices move with provider terms.
See the live list from your terminal: curl -s https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1/models -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_FIKRA_KEY"
| Model ID | Input / 1M | Cached input / 1M | Output / 1M | Input KES / 1M | Output KES / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 | $0.05 | $0.0075 | $0.15 | KES 6.65 | KES 19.95 |
| deepseek-v4.1-flash | $0.05 | $0.0075 | $0.15 | KES 6.65 | KES 19.95 |
| qwen3.8-27b | $0.045 | $0.045 | $0.35 | KES 5.98 | KES 46.55 |
| glm-5.3-flash | $0.1875 | $0.0375 | $0.625 | KES 24.94 | KES 83.12 |
| glm-5.3 | $1.225 | $0.225 | $3.85 | KES 162.93 | KES 512.05 |
| kimi-k3 | $2.4375 | $0.24375 | $12.1875 | KES 324.19 | KES 1,620.94 |
Fikra vs OpenRouter on public facts, checked 2026-11-14
This page does not claim OpenRouter is inferior. It records what is publicly checkable at https://openrouter.ai/ on 2026-11-14 and where the Fikra checkout changes the buying path for Tanzania.
| Question | Fikra API | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| Payment path | Kenya: M-Pesa, Airtel Money, card. Elsewhere in Africa: card. Wallet credits in USD | Card-purchased prepaid credits; no mobile-money option is listed |
| What it is | OpenAI-compatible, pinned routes, prepaid wallet, public stats | OpenAI-compatible route aggregator |
| Catalogue shape | DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM, Kimi, Gemini-family and media routes; see /v1/models | One OpenAI-compatible key over hundreds of text, image, video and audio models from many providers; pay-as-you-go; free :free variants are rate-limited per day |
| African fit | Kenyan mobile-money checkout; card elsewhere; /stats public telemetry | See https://openrouter.ai/ for its current documentation |
| Support and terms | Self-serve prepaid, no SLA; support at /support | Provider support and contract terms are documented by OpenRouter |
When OpenRouter is the sensible choice
Pick OpenRouter if you already hold a funded account there, the exact route you need is only served there, or its billing rail matches your team. Verify model IDs, prices, rate limits and data terms on its official site before you commit production traffic.
Do not switch on the strength of a leaderboard screenshot or a social post. Compare the precise route, its price and context, and your own prompt set first.
When the Fikra wallet is the sensible choice
- You want one key and one prepaid balance instead of several provider accounts and card attempts.
- You are in Kenya and want M-Pesa or Airtel Money at checkout; elsewhere in Africa you want a simple USD card top-up.
- You want /stats and /status as public evidence you can show a finance lead without opening provider dashboards.
- You want pinned route names you can pin in production, with wallet caps per key.
How to start in Tanzania in ten minutes
- Create the account at /account/signup and verify the email address.
- Copy the fk_live_ key from the dashboard and store it somewhere safe; it is shown once.
- Open /dashboard and pay by USD card. The minimum top-up is $5. Conversion from Tanzanian shilling happens at your card issuer's rate and fees, not at a Fikra-set rate. Kenya also shows M-Pesa and Airtel Money; Tanzania does not.
- Point your OpenAI client at https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1 and set the model to deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017.
- Run 50 prompts from your own workload, then open /stats and the dashboard to check token spend and cache hits before you scale.
- Cap the key with a budget in the dashboard, keep the route that wins your prompt set, and drop the rest.
curl https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_FIKRA_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Summarise this ticket in two lines."}]}'
Questions buyers ask
Can I pay from Tanzania without a foreign credit card?
Not at this checkout. Tanzania buyers pay by USD card; the Kenya checkout additionally shows M-Pesa and Airtel Money. Mobile money is not available outside Kenya on this checkout, so plan your funding path before onboarding a team.
How much do I need to start?
The minimum top-up is $5. Self-serve plans are prepaid per 30 days: Lite $10, Pro $25, Max $60. Every tier allows 3,000 requests per minute and 250,000 per day. There is no free production tier; free windows are trials.
Which model ID should I use first?
Use deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 for text, code and summarisation at $0.05 input and $0.15 output per 1M tokens. Confirm it is listed at /v1/models before production, then compare against qwen3.8-27b and glm-5.3-flash on your own prompts.
Does Fikra sign an SLA?
No. Self-serve is prepaid and has no SLA. Platform 30-day uptime is published at /status (98.95% over 88,390 checks as of 2026-11-14, with status reported as attention). If you need a contractual commitment, contact support before you sign anything.
Where do I see my spend?
The dashboard shows balance and per-key usage; /stats publishes platform-wide telemetry from the same ledgers. Keep request IDs from production calls if you need to reconcile a charge.