ClawRouter is an open-source smart LLM router that reduces AI API costs by up to 84%. It analyzes each request across 15 dimensions and routes to the cheapest capable model in under 1ms, entirely locally. It is the only LLM router that an autonomous agent can pay for by itself — a wallet signature is the account, and USDC micropayments over the x402 protocol are the billing — and it takes an ordinary credit card too: sign up at user.blockrun.ai, top up, and run the same router on an API key. 78 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, and more. MIT licensed.
What BlockRun is
BlockRun lets agents pay for the outcome — every LLM, tool and data source, best value per dollar.
Not a seat, not a subscription, not a monthly minimum you keep paying while the agent idles. An agent asks for one thing — an answer, an image, a transcript, a price, a call placed — and pays for that one thing at the moment it happens. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to cancel.
|
|
| Every LLM |
78 chat models across 9 providers, behind one endpoint and one balance |
| Every tool |
10 image models, 8 video models, music, 5 voices, img2img editing, and outbound phone calls that come back as transcripts |
| Every data source |
web, news and neural search; prediction markets; live crypto and equity quotes; on-chain SQL over 100M+ labeled wallets; DEX routing; RPC across 40 chains |
| Best value per dollar |
15-dimension local routing sends each request to the cheapest model that can actually do it — 84% below pinning Claude Opus 5 on the same traffic, computed from a published workload mix rather than estimated |
ClawRouter is how an agent reaches it. BlockRun is the gateway and the billing; ClawRouter is the MIT-licensed router that runs on your machine, decides which model each request deserves, and settles the bill — a wallet signature in USDC, or a credit-card-funded API key. The rest of this README is about ClawRouter.
Why ClawRouter exists
Every other LLM router was built for human developers — create an account, get an API key, pick a model from a dashboard, pay with a credit card.
Agents can't do any of that.
ClawRouter is built for the agent-first world:
- Starts at $0 — 6 open-weight models are free forever (incl. a 1M-context reasoner and two sub-second coders). Image turns route to paid models — see the free-tier note below.
- No accounts needed — a wallet is generated locally, no signup
- No API keys needed — your wallet signature IS authentication
- No model selection — 15-dimension scoring + constraint-first ranking (router-core) picks the right model automatically
- No credit card needed — agents pay per-request with USDC via x402
- No trust required — runs locally, <1ms routing, zero external dependencies
This is the stack that lets agents operate autonomously: x402 + USDC + local routing.
…and if you are a human, not an agent
Every "no X needed" above is a capability, not a restriction. ClawRouter takes a credit card too. Sign up at user.blockrun.ai, top up, mint an API key, and run clawrouter login brk_live_…. Same router, same 78 models, same local routing — calls go to api.blockrun.ai on a bearer token and bill your account credit. No crypto, no gas, no seed phrase.
| You are |
Pay with |
Setup |
| Just trying it |
Nothing |
Install and pin a free model |
| A person |
Credit card → account credit |
Sign up at user.blockrun.ai → clawrouter login brk_live_… |
| An autonomous agent |
USDC on Solana or Base, per request |
Nothing — a wallet is generated on first run (Solana by default) |
Full walkthrough: Paying with a credit card.
How it compares
|
OpenRouter |
LiteLLM |
Martian |
Portkey |
ClawRouter |
| Models |
200+ |
100+ |
Smart routing |
Gateway |
78 |
| Free tier |
Rate-limited |
BYO keys |
No |
No |
6 models, no signup |
| Routing |
Manual selection |
Manual selection |
Smart (closed) |
Observability |
Smart (open source) |
| Auth |
Account + API key |
Your API keys |
Account + API key |
Account + API key |
Wallet signature or API key |
| Payment |
Credit card |
BYO keys |
Credit card |
$49-499/mo |
USDC per-request or card credit |
| Runs locally |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Open source |
No |
Yes |
No |
Partial |
Yes |
| Agent-ready |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
✓ Open source · ✓ Smart routing · ✓ Runs locally · ✓ Crypto native · ✓ Agent ready
We're the only one that checks all five boxes.
Quick Start
No wallet? 6 models work free out of the box. Install, run, and pin free/nemotron-3.5-lightning (or any of the 6) — no crypto, no signup, no balance required. Add a credit card or USDC later when you want paid models.
Two ways to pay for the paid ones — pick one, the rest of ClawRouter is identical:
|
Wallet (default) |
API key |
| Who it is for |
Autonomous agents, and anyone happy holding USDC |
People who would rather pay with a card |
| Setup |
Nothing — a wallet is generated on first run |
Sign up at user.blockrun.ai, top up, mint a key, clawrouter login brk_live_… |
| Auth |
An x402 signature per request |
Authorization: Bearer brk_live_… |
| Gateway |
sol.blockrun.ai (Solana, default) / blockrun.ai (Base) |
api.blockrun.ai |
| Billing |
USDC leaves your wallet per call, non-custodial |
Card-funded account credit, drawn down at exact usage |
| Fees |
$0.001/tx settlement fee (covers on-chain gas) |
5.5% + $0.30 on the top-up, then list price with nothing per call |
ClawRouter prefers the API key whenever one is configured, so clawrouter login
is all it takes to switch and clawrouter logout is all it takes to switch back.
Where do I sign up? user.blockrun.ai — sign in with
Google, add credit with a card under Credits, mint a key under API Keys. That
one key covers all 78 chat models
plus images, video, speech and the live-data APIs. No wallet, no crypto, no seed phrase.
Desktop control plane (macOS)
The Electron app in apps/desktop provides one-click connections
for OpenClaw, Codex, Hermes, DeepSeek Harness, and Pi, plus model pricing/context,
wallet balances, Solana/Base switching, and Coinbase Onramp. It snapshots each
agent's existing config before changing it and restores the original bytes when
you disconnect. Wallets are shared through ~/.blockrun; older ClawRouter
wallets are copied there automatically without overwriting existing Core files.
Option A — OpenClaw Agent
OpenClaw is an AI coding agent. If you're using it, ClawRouter installs as a plugin. Two paths:
A1. Recommended — one-shot install script:
curl -fsSL https://blockrun.ai/ClawRouter-update | bash
openclaw gateway restart
This handles everything: registration, models config, auth profile, wallet setup. Smart routing (blockrun/auto) is now your default model.
OpenClaw now also bundles an unrelated plugin named clawrouter
(@openclaw/clawrouter). BlockRun uses the distinct plugin id
blockrun-clawrouter; the installer preserves the official plugin and allows
both products to coexist.
A2. If you prefer pure npm:
npm install -g @blockrun/clawrouter
clawrouter setup # finishes OpenClaw integration — REQUIRED
openclaw gateway restart
⚠️ Skipping clawrouter setup will leave you broken. Bare npm install -g only puts the package on disk; it does NOT register the plugin with OpenClaw, sync the models allowlist, or write the auth profile. Symptom: /models in your bot shows only OpenClaw's defaults instead of the 55 BlockRun models. Run clawrouter setup to repair, or use path A1 to begin with.
Option B — Standalone (continue.dev, Cursor, VS Code, any OpenAI-compatible client)
Using Claude Code? Check out BRCC — it's purpose-built for Claude Code with the same smart routing and x402 payments.
Using NousResearch Hermes? See ClawRouter-Hermes — a Python plugin that wires Hermes into the ClawRouter proxy. Same wallet, same 78 models, same x402 USDC settlement on Solana & Base.
No OpenClaw required. ClawRouter runs as a local proxy on port 8402.
1. Start the proxy
npx @blockrun/clawrouter
2. Fund your wallet — optional, skip for free tier
Your wallet address is printed on first run. For paid models, send a few USDC on Solana (the default chain) or Base — $5 covers thousands of requests. Prefer a card? Sign up at user.blockrun.ai and run clawrouter login brk_live_… instead. To stay at $0, pin any of the 6 free models (e.g. free/nemotron-3.5-lightning) or use /model free inside OpenClaw.
3. Point your client at http://localhost:8402
continue.dev — ~/.continue/config.yaml
Important: apiBase must end with /v1/ (including the trailing slash). Without it, continue.dev constructs the URL as /chat/completions instead of /v1/chat/completions, and the proxy returns 404.
models:
- name: ClawRouter Auto
provider: openai
model: blockrun/auto
apiBase: http://localhost:8402/v1/
apiKey: x402
roles:
- chat
- edit
- apply
To pin a specific model, replace blockrun/auto with any model from blockrun.ai/models, e.g. anthropic/claude-opus-5, xai/grok-4.5.
Both provider: openai and provider: clawrouter work — just make sure apiBase ends with /v1/.
Legacy JSON format (~/.continue/config.json)
{
"models": [
{
"title": "ClawRouter Auto",
"provider": "openai",
"model": "blockrun/auto",
"apiBase": "http://localhost:8402/v1/",
"apiKey": "x402"
}
]
}
Cursor — Settings → Models → OpenAI-compatible
Set base URL to http://localhost:8402, API key to x402, model to blockrun/auto.
Any OpenAI SDK
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="http://localhost:8402", api_key="x402")
response = client.chat.completions.create(model="blockrun/auto", messages=[...])
Routing Profiles
Choose your routing strategy with /model <profile>:
| Profile |
Strategy |
Savings |
Best For |
/model free |
Free NVIDIA models |
100% |
$0 balance, learning |
/model auto |
Balanced (default) |
84% |
General use |
/model eco |
Cheapest possible |
98% |
Maximum savings |
/model premium |
Best quality |
0% |
Mission-critical |
Shortcuts: /model grok, /model br-sonnet, /model gpt5, /model o3
How It Works
100% local routing. <1ms latency. Zero external API calls.
Routing decisions come from @blockrun/router-core — Router Core V3.5, the constraint-first portfolio router shared by every BlockRun product (ClawRouter, Franklin, the @blockrun/llm SDKs, ClawRouter-Hermes). ClawRouter inlines it at build time, pinned to an exact commit, and injects its live model catalog at startup.
Request → 15-dimens
ClawRouter 是一个为自主智能体打造的开源 LLM 路由器：它能在不到 1 毫秒内、完全在本地，从 9 家服务商的 78 个模型中挑选出最便宜且能胜任任务的模型，并允许智能体通过 x402 协议以 USDC 按次付费，无需注册人工账户。