Skip to main content

​
Model selection quick guide

Speed
  • Alter#light
  • OpenAI#gpt-5-nano
  • Gemini#gemini-2.5-flash-lite
Quality
  • Alter#best
  • OpenAI#gpt-5
  • Gemini#gemini-2.5-pro
  • Claude#claude-sonnet-4-6
Coding
  • OpenAI#gpt-5
  • Mistral#codestral-2501
  • Claude#claude-sonnet-4-6
Web search
  • Perplexity#sonar
  • Perplexity#sonar-pro

​
Usage limits

Under fair use:
  • Daily limit: 200 requests/day
  • After limit: throttled to 1 request / 10 minutes
  • For steady higher volume: top up budget
API Router is designed for personal and low-volume workloads. For multi-user products or heavy agentic traffic, use dedicated provider infrastructure.

​
Common issues

​
Models not listed

  • Manually set the model to Provider#Model-name
  • Verify API key is valid
  • Check client supports model listing endpoints

​
Authentication errors

  • Confirm Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
  • Confirm endpoint is https://alterhq.com/api or /api/v1
  • Confirm your account is active

​
Connection issues

  • Use an OpenAI-compatible client
  • Verify network access to alterhq.com

​
High latency

  • Try lighter models (OpenAI#gpt-5-nano, Alter#light)
  • Use streaming for long outputs

​
Best practices

  1. Keep API keys in env vars (never hardcode)
  2. Monitor request volume and error rates
  3. Match model capability to task complexity
  4. Implement retries with backoff
  5. Use lower-cost models for routine workloads