Ramp Launches AI Model Router After 3 Years of Internal Use, Cuts Costs by 40%

Ramp launches its own AI model router, called Router

Corporate expense management platform Ramp is hot on the heels of Stripe in setting up toll houses for AI inference. Ramp on Wednesday evening launched its own AI model routing service, dubbed Router, that lets users and companies use and switch between various large language models through an API. The company says it has been using the router it built for its own AI usage needs over the past three years. The service is only available in the United States. It's free to use for the remainder of 2026 (users will still have to pay for AI model inference costs), and it comes with a $26 credit launch offer. The company did not say how much the service will cost next year. In its function, Router is pretty similar to how OpenRouter operates, though the latter offers many more AI model options than Ramp's current offerings. Router offers access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Minimax, Nvidia, xAI, and Z.ai. It also provides several "strategies" to help its customers route AI requests to models based on their preferences. For example, one lets users set a preference for model providers' flex usage tiers, while another lets Router choose which model to route queries to based on up to three user-specified benchmarks. Users can also choose to route only difficult problems to expensive models or test models easily without having to switch. Users get a dashboard, too, that lets them see token spend, cost, latency, fallback attempts, and other details. Notably, Router has an opt-out data retention policy: it will record model inputs, outputs and tool calls for one year by default, though the company says it will remove "personally identifiable information before using that content to improve the product." For Ramp, entering the model routing business offers a two-pronged opportunity: it gets to tap the booming AI inference market, and also offer its existing clients a model routing service that fits in neatly with its existing products, which includes AI token usage monitoring and token spend management. And, if Router proves as attractive of a model testing arena as OpenRouter has, Ramp may also be able to build long-standing relationships with AI labs and inference providers worldwide. That could help Ramp, which raised $750 million at a $44 billion valuation in June, gain new customers and a new point of entry for selling its expense management products.

Ramp Takes a Shot at OpenRouter With New AI Service

Ramp launched a new AI tool Thursday that lets businesses access multiple large language models through a single API, pushing the corporate spend platform deeper into the fast-growing AI inference market. Dubbed Router, the service also ties AI model selection and usage more closely to Ramp's existing tools for tracking and managing AI spending. TechCrunch reported that the product resembles OpenRouter, though Ramp currently supports fewer models. The company is positioning Router as both a new AI revenue opportunity and a way to deepen relationships with existing customers through integrated monitoring and spend controls. Ramp said it has quietly relied on an internal version of the routing system for about three years to support its own AI workloads. Router's model menu includes options from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Minimax, Nvidia, xAI and Z.ai. Ramp also offers multiple routing approaches, including settings that steer traffic toward certain provider tiers and another that selects models based on up to three user-chosen benchmarks. The product includes tools designed to lower experimentation costs by routing complex requests to more expensive models while handling simpler tasks with cheaper alternatives. A dashboard provides visibility into usage and performance, including token consumption, costs, response times and fallback behavior. Markets Arctos Adds Another NFL Team With $10.6 Billion Falcons Deal Arctos reached an agreement Thursday to acquire a 10% interest in the Atlanta Falcons at a reported $10.6 billion enterprise valuation. 3 min read Read this article Ramp's default data policy records prompts, responses, and tool calls for up to a year unless customers opt out. The company said it will remove "personally identifiable information before using that content to improve the product." Latest Private Market Opportunities Join 400,000+ Investors Router is available only in the U.S. at launch and will be free to use through the rest of 2026, though customers still cover the underlying model-compute charges. Ramp also attached a $26 credit as part of the rollout, but hasn't disclosed what it plans to charge in 2027. In June, the New York-based fintech startup closed its $750 million Series F funding round, putting the company's valuation at $44 billion. The new capital would be used to further expand its AI-focused product development for customers, the company said at the time. Glyman founded Ramp in 2019 with Karim Atiyeh and Gene Lee. The company provides an all-in-one spend management and corporate card platform. By leveraging AI and automation, Ramp's software is designed to help businesses handle corporate credit cards, control expenses and accounting. Markets xAI Just Did in 2.3 Years What Took SpaceX Nearly Two Decades It took SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) nearly two decades to reach a $100 billion valuation. xAI did it in just 2.3 years. 3 min read Read this article This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Stripe and Ramp Are Betting on AI Traffic Controllers | PYMNTS.com

Ramp launched Router.com on Wednesday (Aug. 19), opening up a tool it had run internally for three years. A company can connect an application programming interface (API) to Router instead of directly at OpenAI or Anthropic, and Router picks which model handles each request based on cost and whether that model is good enough for the job, Ramp said in its announcement. Internally, Router has cut Ramp's own AI costs by about 30%, and the company said early customers are cutting costs by an average of 40%. Stripe made a bigger version of the same bet, agreeing to buy OpenRouter, an independent startup, in a deal reported to be worth at least $7.5 billion, according to a Wednesday report by Silicon Angle. While Ramp built its router to manage its own workflow and is now selling it, OpenRouter was built as a public marketplace: developers connect once and reach more than 400 models from over 80 providers, instead of setting up a separate connection to each AI company. OpenRouter processes more than 10 trillion tokens a day and serves more than 10 million developers, Silicon Angle reported. A Router Handles What No Single Model Can The logic behind both deals is the same. The cost of solving the same task, writing a line of code or addressing a support ticket can differ enormously depending on which AI model handles it. As companies run AI across millions of requests, the the processing costs of those requests escalate. A router sits between the app and the AI companies to fix that. Instead of an app being locked into one model, Router.com and OpenRouter each check every request and send it to the cheapest model that can still do the job well, and both switch to a backup model if a provider goes down, according to Ramp's own product page and reporting on OpenRouter's platform. Ramp built its own testing system, using real engineering work at the company, because public rankings of AI models didn't answer the specific cost questions Ramp needed answered, according to Ramp's own engineering blog. Both Companies Are Building a Cost-Control Layer for AI What Stripe and Ramp are building resemble the discipline companies already use to control cloud-computing costs, deciding in real time whether a task needs an expensive tool or a cheap one, instead of buying one fixed amount of capacity in advance. Stripe already processes payments for many AI companies and has spent the past year building tools to help businesses track what they spend on AI, according to Stripe's own announcement. Buying OpenRouter gives Stripe a direct view into which models developers actually pick and what they pay for them. Ramp's version sits inside the same platform companies already use to track software and employee expenses, and extends that same visibility to AI. Both companies are betting that as businesses spread their AI work across many models instead of picking just one, the more valuable business won't be building the smartest model. It will be deciding which model gets picked next. For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.