9Router vs New API: two AI gateways solving different problems

9Router looks, at first glance, like another OpenAI-compatible proxy. That description is too flat. The project is really aimed at people who live inside AI coding tools and keep running into the same annoyance: subscriptions run out, free tiers change, provider APIs differ, and tool output eats a surprising amount of context.

New API is a bigger, older, more administrative system. It is an AI model gateway and asset management platform: users, tokens, groups, channels, billing, dashboards, multiple databases, and a long list of relay formats. If 9Router is a router for developers trying to keep their coding agents online, New API is closer to a control plane for running a multi-user model service.

That difference matters. The two projects overlap, but they are not trying to be the same product.

What 9Router does

9Router is an open-source JavaScript/Next.js application published under the MIT license. Its GitHub repository describes it as a router for AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Cline, Copilot, Antigravity, OpenCode and OpenClaw. It exposes an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, normally at http://localhost:20128/v1, and routes requests to a mix of subscription, paid and free providers.

The project has four pieces that explain most of its appeal.

• Routing for coding tools. 9Router is designed around developer clients. Its README lists Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Cline, Continue, Roo, Kilo Code and others as supported tools. The point is simple: configure one local endpoint, then switch providers behind it.
• Fallback across models and accounts. A user can create model "combos" and let 9Router try the next model when the first one fails or hits a limit. The code also supports round-robin behavior and multi-account fallback for a provider. That is useful for people who have several subscriptions or accounts and do not want to babysit them.
• Format translation. The project translates between OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Kiro, Vertex, Antigravity, Ollama and OpenAI Responses style traffic. Its chat handler explicitly says it supports OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and OpenAI Responses formats, with translation handled by the shared translator layer.
• Token reduction for tool output. 9Router includes an RTK port that compresses tool result content before format translation. The code detects common command outputs such as git diff, git status, grep, find, tree, ls, numbered file dumps and repetitive logs. If the compressed output is empty or larger than the original, it keeps the original text. The README claims typical input-token savings of 20-40% for tool-heavy requests. Treat that as a project claim rather than a universal benchmark, but the implementation is real and easy to inspect.

Recent releases also show fast movement. Version 0.4.28 was published on May 10, 2026, adding a Bun SQLite adapter and bulk API key import. The changelog for the weeks before that includes SQLite migration work, MCP marketplace UI, Tailscale tunnel integration, speech-to-text and text-to-speech providers, Caveman mode for shorter answers, Cloudflare AI, Azure OpenAI, BytePlus, Volcengine Ark and several fixes for Codex, Antigravity and provider authentication.

Why people are using 9Router

The usage signal is visible, even if the project is young. The GitHub repository was created on January 5, 2026. By May 10, 2026, the GitHub API showed about 6,624 stars and 1,183 forks. The npm registry reported 85,420 downloads for the package in the 30 days ending May 8, 2026, and 28,342 downloads in the week ending May 8.

The reason is not mysterious. AI coding has a very specific pain profile. A developer may have Claude Code, ChatGPT/Codex, Copilot, Cursor credits, Gemini or regional providers, but each one has its own quota, model names, request format and failure behavior. Coding agents also generate ugly prompts full of diffs, search results, logs and directory listings. 9Router packages several small fixes into one local tool: one endpoint, cheaper fallback, quota visibility, OAuth token refresh, multi-account routing, and compression for the exact kind of text that coding tools produce.

There is another reason: licensing. 9Router uses MIT. For developers who want to run and modify a local proxy without AGPL obligations, that matters.

The caveat is that 9Router's own README leans hard into claims such as "unlimited free" providers and low-cost routing. Free tiers can change. Provider terms can change. Some integrations rely on OAuth flows and provider behavior outside 9Router's control. A serious team should verify provider terms and treat free/cheap routing as an operational convenience, not a permanent contract.

What New API does

New API, now under the QuantumNous GitHub organization, is a much broader gateway. The repository describes it as a unified AI model hub for aggregation and distribution. It supports converting multiple LLM APIs into OpenAI-compatible, Claude-compatible or Gemini-compatible formats, and it includes a centralized dashboard for personal or enterprise model management.

Its README and source code show a different center of gravity from 9Router.

• Multi-user administration. New API includes user management, token grouping, model restrictions, permissions, dashboards and usage statistics.
• Billing and payment. The README lists online recharge through EPay and Stripe, pay-per-use pricing, cache billing and flexible billing policies. The repository includes billing session and billing expression code for quota pre-consumption and settlement.
• Many relay surfaces. The router code exposes OpenAI chat completions, OpenAI Responses, realtime WebSocket, images, embeddings, audio, rerank, Claude Messages, Gemini routes, Midjourney proxy routes and Suno routes.
• Channel distribution. New API chooses channels by group, model, priority and weight, with retry behavior and support for automatic channel disabling/enabling on errors. This is closer to load balancing for an API service than a personal coding-router setup.
• Deployment choices. It supports Docker, Docker Compose, SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Its AGENTS.md also describes Redis and in-memory cache support, layered Go backend architecture and multiple frontend themes.

The adoption signal is much larger. The GitHub API returned about 32,045 stars and 6,921 forks on May 10, 2026. The latest GitHub release at the time of checking was v1.0.0-rc.4, published on May 6, 2026. The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0, with additional attribution requirements for modified versions that present a user interface.

Where 9Router is stronger

• Developer workflow fit. 9Router is built around AI coding tools. It talks directly to the problems users hit in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw and similar clients.
• Fast local setup. The npm package exposes a 9router command. The common path is install, open dashboard, connect providers, point a tool at localhost.
• Token compression for tool output. New API has broad routing and billing features, but 9Router's RTK path is unusually specific to coding-agent traffic.
• MIT license. For local hacking and embedding, MIT is easier to work with than AGPL.
• Subscription and free-tier routing. 9Router has first-class language around using subscription quotas, OAuth accounts, cheap providers and free fallbacks as one stack.

Where 9Router is weaker

• It is young. The repo started in January 2026. The pace is impressive, but the issue count and changelog also show a product still moving quickly.
• Its strongest claims depend on providers. "Free" and "unlimited" are not properties 9Router controls. They depend on upstream services and their policies.
• It is less suited to running a public or internal billing platform. 9Router has usage analytics and API-key controls, but it is not trying to match New API's user, recharge, channel-group and billing system.
• JavaScript/Next.js tradeoffs. That stack is comfortable for a dashboard-first local app, but some operators will prefer New API's Go service for server deployment.

Where New API is stronger

• Operational depth. New API has the pieces expected in a managed gateway: users, tokens, groups, channel weights, retries, model restrictions, dashboards, quota logic and payment support.
• Protocol breadth. Its relay router covers far more than chat completions: Responses, realtime, image, audio, embeddings, rerank, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney and Suno routes are all visible in the code.
• Database and deployment maturity. SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL support make it easier to match different deployment sizes.
• Larger community footprint. Its star and fork counts are much higher than 9Router's, and it has existed since late 2023.

Where New API is weaker

• Heavier setup. New API is not as small or casual as a localhost coding router. That is the price of its admin and billing features.
• AGPL obligations. The AGPL-3.0 license, plus the additional UI attribution requirements described in the README, may be a dealbreaker for some commercial modifications.
• Less focused on coding-agent token waste. New API can route many formats, but it does not appear to make tool-output compression the product center the way 9Router does.
• More surface area to operate. More protocols, payments, databases, caches and admin features mean more things to configure and monitor.

Which one should you choose?

Choose 9Router if the job is personal or team-level AI coding: one endpoint for coding tools, fallback across providers, OAuth subscription reuse, cheap/free backups, and less wasted context from diffs and logs. It is the more natural fit for developers who want their agents to keep working when a provider gets rate limited.

Choose New API if the job is running an AI gateway for users: account management, quota and billing, payment, channel distribution, groups, model permissions and a wide API surface. It is the safer fit when the gateway itself is infrastructure.

The cleanest summary is this: 9Router optimizes the developer's workstation; New API optimizes the AI service operator's control panel. Confusing those two jobs leads to bad comparisons. Used for the right job, both projects make sense.

Sources checked

• decolua/9router GitHub repository
• 9Router README
• 9Router changelog
• 9router npm package
• QuantumNous/new-api GitHub repository
• New API README
• New API documentation
• Repository source files inspected locally: 9Router chat handler, combo routing and RTK modules; New API relay router, distributor and channel selection code.