Ox Alpha Pricing & Availability

Ox Alpha is currently free through OpenRouter. The live model metadata listed prompt and completion pricing at $0 per token on August 23, 2026, which OpenRouter displays as $0 per million input tokens and $0 per million output tokens. That is the confirmed present state—not a promise about the next week, month, or production lifetime.

The anonymous provider has not published a permanent price, a guaranteed free period, a service-level objective, or a transition plan. Treat zero as a preview condition that must be rechecked before every large experiment.

Price and availability record

This table records observations, not predictions. If the live OpenRouter page and this page disagree, use the live listing for the current request and treat this tracker as historical context.

What “free” covers

The zero price applies to the model’s listed prompt and completion token rates on OpenRouter. You still need an OpenRouter account and an API key for direct API requests. The platform may apply account limits, rate limits, abuse controls, or provider capacity constraints even when the per-token line item is zero.

The price also does not make every surrounding cost zero. A developer still spends time preparing context, reviewing changes, running tests, recovering from interrupted calls, and repairing regressions. Long agent runs can consume compute in your own environment. If a free model needs more turns or more review than a paid baseline, its cost per accepted task can be higher.

Measure the operational unit that matters: accepted tasks, not raw tokens. Record model calls, wall-clock time, retries, review minutes, failures, and any damage to the working tree. The benchmark page explains why an isolated score or price cannot answer that question alone.

How long will the free preview last?

There is no confirmed lasting end date from the anonymous model creator. OpenCode promotional posts and media coverage described a short free window or free access during the launch, but those statements are not a permanent OpenRouter pricing contract. The live OpenRouter metadata is authoritative for the current listed price; it still cannot guarantee tomorrow’s availability.

A team planning a multi-week evaluation should define a stop condition. For example: run 20 frozen tasks while price remains zero, then pause if the model is removed, materially repriced, or routed through a different identity. Do not create a production budget that assumes a stealth promotion will continue.

Do you need an API key?

Yes. Direct API requests use an OpenRouter API key even while the model price is listed as free. Authentication identifies the account, applies platform controls, and lets OpenRouter return usage and error information. The setup guide shows how to store the key in an environment variable and send a minimal request without placing the secret in source code.

Browser chat access may have a different sign-in flow, but “free” never means it is safe to expose an API key in client-side JavaScript. Keep secrets on the server or in a local environment and rotate a key that is accidentally logged or committed.

Availability is a separate metric

Early community threads report slow responses, timeouts, and capacity problems during heavy demand. Those reports are useful warnings, but they are not a controlled uptime measurement. OpenRouter availability can reflect the anonymous upstream provider, platform routing, rate limits, region, workload size, and launch traffic.

For production planning, record success rate and latency by time of day with the exact request size and model ID. Distinguish a clean “model unavailable” response from an application timeout. Do not silently convert either into a successful empty answer. A fallback to another model should be explicit because the output no longer measures Ox Alpha.

Data handling changes the value calculation

OpenRouter’s Stealth provider page says the provider retains prompts and completions and does not use them for training. The upstream company is not named. A zero token rate does not compensate for an unapproved data path.

Use public or synthetic inputs until your organization can make a real vendor-risk decision. Remove repository credentials, personal information, customer records, unpublished product details, and secrets. If a useful evaluation requires proprietary context, compare the preview with a named provider operating under accepted terms rather than lowering the data standard because one line item is free.

Can companies use it commercially?

The model creator has not published a clear, broad commercial-use statement tied to Ox Alpha. OpenRouter provides access under platform and Stealth provider terms, but access to an API is not the same as an affirmative statement about every commercial scenario, data obligation, warranty, or future service commitment.

For a public demo using non-sensitive material, the practical risk may be acceptable. For customer-facing automation, regulated data, contractual code, or a workflow that creates legal or financial effects, obtain a qualified review of the current terms. This tracker does not turn missing official language into permission.

What to monitor

Before each evaluation batch, check:

1. The exact model ID is still stealth/ox-alpha.
2. Input and output prices on the live listing.
3. Context and output limits.
4. Provider data-retention language.
5. Rate-limit or availability notices.
6. Whether an official creator reveal changes the terms or route.
7. Whether your client received Ox Alpha rather than a fallback.

Save the date and a copy of the relevant metadata with benchmark results. A score without its price, provider state, and model route is hard to interpret later.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ox Alpha free on OpenRouter?

Yes. OpenRouter listed both prompt and completion pricing at $0 per million tokens as of August 23, 2026.

How long will Ox Alpha stay free?

The anonymous provider has not published a lasting price or a guaranteed end date for the free OpenRouter preview.

Do API requests require an OpenRouter key?

Yes. Direct API requests use an OpenRouter API key even while the model price is listed as free.

Can a company use Ox Alpha commercially?

No public statement from the anonymous model creator confirmed broad commercial-use terms as of August 23, 2026.

The most conservative plan is simple: use the free period to collect evidence, keep an approved fallback, and revisit the decision when the provider reveals a name, stable price, or durable terms. For the larger context, read what Ox Alpha is and the ongoing identity investigation.

Last updated: 2026-08-23