OmniRoute is an open-source gateway that connects Claude Code to 357 AI providers and 1.6 billion free monthly tokens. When your Claude plan hits its limit, it routes to the next available model automatically. Setup is one command and one config line.
Your sessions keep running. Your plan stays the same.
The Problem With Hitting Your Limit Mid-Session
You're running Claude Code on a client build. Agents are moving. Claude cuts out.
Now you're waiting for the reset window. Or you're upgrading your plan to avoid it next time.
Neither is the actual fix. The plan limit hits again. The agent stops again.
OmniRoute solves it from the outside. Install one gateway locally, point Claude Code at a single endpoint, and the routing layer handles model selection from there. When Claude runs out of quota, the switch happens in milliseconds. You don't touch anything.
What OmniRoute Is
OmniRoute is a free, MIT-licensed gateway that runs on your machine at localhost:20128. It accepts any request formatted for Claude Code, Cursor, or any OpenAI-compatible tool.
What it does with that request: it scores 357 registered providers across 16 factors, including health status, quota, latency, task fit, and cost. Then it routes to the best available option. If that provider becomes unavailable or runs out, it cascades through four tiers automatically.
- Subscription accounts
- API key accounts
- Budget-friendly providers
- Free providers (152 of the 357)
The gateway catalogs 1.62 billion free tokens per month from 35 recurring budget pools and 54 perpetually free providers. First-month signup credits push that to around 2.22 billion.
Step One: Install in One Command
Open a terminal. Run:
Copy this.
npm install -g omniroute
That's the install. The gateway starts on localhost:20128. Verify it's running with:
Copy this.
curl http://localhost:20128/v1/models
You should see a list of providers. If you do, the gateway is up.
Step Two: Point Claude Code at the Local Endpoint
Open your Claude Code configuration and set the API base URL:
Copy this.
{
"apiBaseUrl": "http://localhost:20128/v1"
}
Or as an environment variable before starting Claude Code:
Copy this.
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:20128/v1
Claude Code now routes through OmniRoute instead of Anthropic's servers directly. Your sessions, your prompts, your workflow: nothing changes visually. The switching happens in the gateway layer.
Step Three: Let the Compression Work
This is the step most people skip.
OmniRoute runs two compression engines on every prompt before it reaches the model. Eligible workloads see 15 to 95% token reduction. The average across sessions lands around 89%.
Same answer back. Fewer tokens burned.
If you run long-context sessions or agents that pass full file trees into context, this matters. A prompt that costs 100K tokens normally might cost 11K through OmniRoute. You stretch the free pool much further than the raw token count suggests.
You don't configure anything for this. It runs automatically.
Your First Real Run
After setup, run a Claude Code session through OmniRoute. Open the local dashboard at http://localhost:20128/dashboard.
Watch two things: the provider name handling your request, and the token count on your prompt. If you see a provider that isn't Anthropic and a token count lower than your raw prompt size, the routing and compression are both working.
Run one real task. Then check back.
The Mistake That Makes It Fail
Leaving Claude Code configured with both the local endpoint and your Anthropic API key at the same time.
If Claude Code falls back to the direct Anthropic endpoint when the local gateway is unreachable, you're back to hitting the plan limit. Check that your environment doesn't have two base URLs competing.
Test it: start OmniRoute, run a session, then shut down the gateway mid-session. If Claude Code switches to a different endpoint, find where that fallback is set and remove it.
The Limits You Should Know
Response quality varies by provider. Claude Sonnet or Opus gives you a specific capability floor. Free-tier providers include models that won't match that quality. OmniRoute's scoring tries to send requests to the best available option, but "best available" sometimes means a smaller model.
Latency varies too. Free providers don't have guaranteed response times. A session that runs instantly on Claude might take three to eight seconds per response on a free provider. For interactive sessions, that's noticeable.
Free tiers change. The 1.62 billion token figure reflects what's available in the pool today. Providers adjust their free tiers. OmniRoute updates its catalog, but there's no guarantee a specific pool stays at its current allocation.
There's also a local dependency. OmniRoute has to be running for your routing to work. Set it to auto-start at login so you don't come back to a stopped gateway after a restart.
What the Numbers Mean in Practice
After setup, Claude Code is routing through 357 providers instead of one. Your free token pool is 1.62 billion per month. Auto-switches take under a second. Prompt compression averages 89% reduction on eligible inputs. You have 19 routing strategies available, with the default set to best-available.
For anyone running AI agents daily on client work, the math changes. You're not capped at your plan's monthly allocation. The limit still exists. OmniRoute routes around it.
Install it. Run one session. Check the dashboard.