AI, OpenRouter and Pricing
LLM Cost (OpenRouter)
pinakea uses OpenRouter to access cloud AI models. This page explains where OpenRouter credit can be used and how to keep spending controlled.
Final measured pinakea timing and cost guidance is not published yet. Avoid treating this page as a cost calculator; use OpenRouter’s dashboard and pinakea’s in-app spend indicators for actual usage. For the in-app monthly counter to reflect pinakea alone, use a dedicated OpenRouter API key only with pinakea.
Where OpenRouter Credit Is Used
In Online Mode, OpenRouter is used for:
- Embeddings for semantic search
- Summaries
- AI titles
- AI tags
- Chat
- AI tag consolidation
In Mixed Mode, OpenRouter is still used for:
- Chat
- AI tag consolidation
Mixed Mode runs embeddings, summaries, AI titles, and AI tags locally. Chat and AI tag consolidation still use OpenRouter.
Every online AI request is routed through OpenRouter Zero Data Retention providers. DeepSeek chat uses reasoning and an fp8 provider floor; summaries, titles, tags, tag consolidation, and embeddings do not use chat reasoning.
Zero Data Retention on embeddings is not an embedding migration. Online Mode still uses qwen/qwen3-embedding-8b, so existing Online embeddings stay in the same vector space and do not need to be regenerated just because of this routing policy.
pinakea uses DeepSeek V4 Flash for online text generation: titles, summaries, tags, chat, and AI tag consolidation. It uses Qwen3 Embedding 8B for embeddings.
Model Price Reference
OpenRouter listed prices, as per 10 June 2026:
| Model | Context | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Relative Output Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1M | ~$0.10 | ~$0.20 | 1x |
| GPT-4.1 | 1M | ~$2 | ~$8 | ~40x |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 1M | $3 | $15 | ~75x |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | 1M | $5 | $25 | ~125x |
| GPT-5.5 | 1M | $5 | $30 | ~150x |
Initial Library Processing
When you first add sources to pinakea in Online Mode, every item needs embeddings plus summaries, titles, and tags. This is usually the largest one-time OpenRouter usage event for a Set.
Actual usage depends on content length, provider pricing, and how much work is regenerated. Larger Sets naturally require more processing than smaller Sets. OpenRouter reports the real per-request cost in usage payloads, and pinakea uses that value when available.
Ongoing Usage
After initial processing, OpenRouter usage can come from:
- New items arriving through sources
- Chat conversations
- Search query embeddings in Online Mode
- Mode switches that regenerate AI content for a populated Set
Mode Switches
Switching modes can use OpenRouter credit.
- Online -> Mixed: Online embeddings generated with OpenRouter credit are replaced and cannot be reused for Mixed Mode. Existing summaries, titles, and tags are kept.
- Mixed -> Online: local embeddings, AI-generated summaries, AI-generated titles, and LLM tags are cleared and regenerated through OpenRouter credit.
Cost Control
You’re never at risk of surprise bills if you set limits:
- Set a spending limit on your API key in OpenRouter’s dashboard.
- Use a dedicated API key only for pinakea, so OpenRouter key usage matches pinakea usage.
- Monitor spending in pinakea’s status bar and OpenRouter’s dashboard.
- Avoid automatic top-up unless you explicitly want it.
See OpenRouter and BYOK for setup instructions.