Does 9Router Store Or Log My API Keys And Requests?

9Router runs entirely on your local machine as a self-hosted proxy. Your API keys and request payloads never leave your computer unless you explicitly enable Cloud Sync or deploy to a VPS. The debug request log is stored locally and can be toggled off at any time.

How Does The 3-Tier Fallback System Decide Which Provider To Use?

9Router checks quota availability in real time across all configured accounts. When a Tier 1 subscription provider hits its rate limit or token quota, 9Router automatically routes the next request to the cheapest available Tier 2 provider (e.g., GLM at $0.6/1M tokens), then falls to a fully free Tier 3 provider like Kiro or OpenCode Free — all without any interruption to your coding session.

What Is RTK And How Is Token Compression Lossless?

RTK (Result Token Kompressor) inspects the first 1 KB of each tool_result block and applies format-specific filters — git-diff, grep, find, ls, tree, and more — to remove redundant characters and structure. If any filter increases the token count or throws an error, RTK silently falls back to the original text, making the process completely safe and lossless.

Can 9Router Work With IDEs Like Cursor Or VS Code Copilot Without A Custom Setup?

Yes. For standard API-key-based tools like Cursor, Cline, and Continue, you simply point the base URL to http://localhost:20128/v1. For subscription-based IDEs like GitHub Copilot and Kiro IDE, 9Router uses its MITM bridge to intercept traffic at the network level, allowing you to redirect those subscriptions to any backend provider.

What Deployment Options Does 9Router Support Beyond Localhost?

9Router supports localhost (default), VPS/cloud deployment via PM2, Docker (multi-platform: linux/amd64 and linux/arm64), Cloudflare Workers edge tunnel, and Tailscale Funnel for stable TLS. Docker images are published on both Docker Hub and GitHub Container Registry.

9Router

Name: 9Router
Availability: InStock
Author: decolua (Open Source / Community)

by decolua (Open Source / Community) • Vietnam (inferred from repository contributor activity) • Founded 2025

Free Open-Source AI Router That Eliminates Rate Limits Forever

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ai-router open-source developer-tools token-saver llm-proxy

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4.2 /5

15 reviews

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Completely Free & Open Source (MIT License)

What is 9Router?

9Router is a free, open-source local proxy that sits between your AI coding tools and 60+ AI providers, intelligently routing every request through a smart 3-tier fallback system — subscription models first, cheap pay-per-token backup next, and genuinely free providers last.

Built for developers who use Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Codex, or GitHub Copilot, it eliminates downtime from quota exhaustion without switching tools manually. The built-in RTK Token Saver losslessly compresses git diffs, grep outputs, and file trees before they hit the LLM, cutting input token consumption by 20–40% on every single request.

9Router — Free Open-Source AI Router That Eliminates Rate Limits Forever Whether you're evaluating 9Router for your team or comparing it to alternatives in the AI Code Tools category, this in-depth review covers everything: features, pricing, real user reviews, pros and cons, integrations, and direct comparisons against competitors.

Key Features 8

3-Tier Auto-Fallback: Subscription → Cheap → Free With Zero Downtime

RTK Token Saver Losslessly Compresses Git Diffs And Tool Outputs

Caveman Mode Injects Terse Prompts To Cut Output Tokens Up To 65%

MITM Bridge Intercepts GitHub Copilot And Kiro IDE Subscription Traffic

Multi-Account Round-Robin With Automatic Per-Provider Failover

OpenAI-Compatible Single Endpoint Translates Anthropic, Gemini, And Cursor Formats

Cloudflare Edge Tunnel Exposes Local Router Across 300+ Global Locations

OIDC SSO Login Support For Authentik, Keycloak, Google, And Okta

Who Is 9Router For

1 Solo Developers

2 AI Power Users

3 Open-Source Contributors

4 DevOps Engineers

5 Budget-Conscious Indie Hackers

Pros & Cons

Pros 4 benefits

Truly Free, MIT Licensed
Daily Active Changelog Updates
Massive Provider Coverage
Zero Token Cost Combos Possible

Cons 3 limitations

Requires Local Node.js Setup
No Managed Cloud-Hosted Version
CLI-First Learning Curve

Frequently Asked Questions

5 questions

How 9Router works

9Router is positioned as free Open-Source AI Router That Eliminates Rate Limits Forever. Under the hood it ships 8 headline capabilities, including 3-Tier Auto-Fallback: Subscription → Cheap → Free With Zero Downtime, RTK Token Saver Losslessly Compresses Git Diffs And Tool Outputs, Caveman Mode Injects Terse Prompts To Cut Output Tokens Up To 65%, MITM Bridge Intercepts GitHub Copilot And Kiro IDE Subscription Traffic, Multi-Account Round-Robin With Automatic Per-Provider Failover and OpenAI-Compatible Single Endpoint Translates Anthropic, Gemini, And Cursor Formats. Together these features cover the core workflows most teams expect from a modern ai code tools, from initial setup through day-to-day production use.

9Router runs as a self-contained product, so you can adopt it without touching the rest of your stack — useful when you want to evaluate the tool in isolation before wiring up integrations.

Who is 9Router for?

9Router is most useful for Solo Developers, AI Power Users, Open-Source Contributors and DevOps Engineers. If your team falls into one of those buckets, the feature set lines up well with how you already work — you won't be forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Beyond the obvious use case, the product tends to attract users who want a free option in the ai code tools space.

9Router pricing explained

9Router is fully free to use, with no paid tier required to access the headline functionality. That removes evaluation friction — you can sign up, run a real project through it, and decide whether it earns a permanent spot in your stack without committing budget.

Across the AI Gear Base rubric, we score free pricing models on transparency, rate-limit honesty, and how predictable spend is at scale. 9Router's free approach is unusually friendly to small teams and indie builders.

Our verdict on 9Router

9Router hasn't been rated by enough reviewers yet to publish an aggregate score. The strongest signal in those reviews is that truly free, mit licensed. The most common complaint is that requires local node.js setup — worth knowing before you commit, but rarely a deal-breaker for teams that already match the use case.

If you're evaluating 9Router against alternatives, weigh it on the same 7-criteria rubric we apply to every tool: capability, integrations, pricing transparency, support, security posture, roadmap velocity, and community signal. Built by decolua (Open Source / Community), founded in 2025, the product has a clear track record you can verify before adopting it. The bottom line: 9Router is a solid pick in the ai code tools category, and it deserves a spot on your shortlist if your workflow matches what it was built for.

What's New

daily

xAI Grok Provider + OAuth Windows Fix 0.4.59

Added xAI Grok as a full OAuth and API-key provider with image support; fixed OAuth login flow on Windows and paginated provider account limits UI.

May 21

Vercel AI Gateway Provider + Kiro RTK Compression 0.4.52

Added Vercel AI Gateway provider support and extended RTK tool result compression to the Kiro message format, achieving ~13.6% additional token savings on Kiro-formatted requests.

May 17

View all updates

User Base

13K+ GitHub Stars

Active Users

Security & Privacy

Self-hosted (user-controlled)

Fully self-hosted — no data sent to 9Router servers OAuth callback scoped to expected origins (CWE-1385 fix applied in v0.4.30) TLS verification re-enabled on DNS-bypass fetch (CWE-295 fix applied in v0.4.30) JWT-based dashboard authentication with configurable secret OIDC/SSO support (Authentik, Keycloak, Google, Okta) added in v0.4.31 Encrypted Cloud Sync storage for cross-device config

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