Docs · Routes and pricing

Shared pool, official line and auto route

2026-10-29

Same models, different routing and price: what each API-key route means and how Auto route picks one for you.

Every API key belongs to one route, the Group field when you create a key (Edit changes it later). The route decides how traffic reaches the provider and which fixed USD price applies; the models are the same.

The routes

Claude, OpenAI and Grok each have two routes:

• Shared pool (claude-shared, openai-shared, grok-shared): 50% of list price.
• Official line (claude-official, openai-official, grok-official): 90% of list price. If the official line has no dedicated channel for a model, the shared pool serves it at the official price and the log records fallback_group.

Claude routes sell claude-opus-5-5, claude-sonnet-5-5 and claude-fable-5-1; OpenAI routes sell gpt-6-astra, gpt-6.1-sol and gpt-6.1-terra; Grok routes sell grok-4.7, plus grok-imagine-video-1.5 on the official line only, billed per second.

For a limited time Claude also has a third route, Special offer (claude-special), for claude-opus-5-5 only: $0.45 input / $0.90 output / $0.10 cache read / $0.20 cache write ($0.30 for a 1-hour write) per million tokens. It is often unavailable for long stretches with no availability guarantee, adds its own system prompt to every request, has no fallback and is never chosen by Auto route. Its terms are on the Claude Opus 5.5 special offer page.

Four model families have one route and no shared pool:

• DeepSeek: deepseek-official carries deepseek-flash-Abliterated, a private deployment with fixed $1.20 input / $0.15 cache read / $2.40 output per million tokens. The route id is retained for keys; Flash is not the official DeepSeek API.
• Kimi: kimi-official, kimi-k3.1-pro at 120% of list price.
• Jev (TypeSafe's System One model): typesafe-official, 107% of TypeSafe's list price, via POST /v1/systemone. Model jev-1.14.0 (aliases jev-latest, jev-preview bill the same): $0.04494 per million input tokens, output $0.
• GLM: z-official, a private deployment of a fine-tuned GLM 5.3, text only, priced above the base model's list price.

Image models (gpt-image-2.5-sunburst, gpt-image-2.5-flare) sit on the image route, priced per image.

Prices differ per lane (input, output, cache read, cache write), and OpenAI and Grok add a long-context tier from 272,001 and 200,000 input tokens. Expand a route's model-count button in the Group list for its USD per 1M tokens table.

Two refusals happen before anything is forwarded or charged, both HTTP 403 permission_denied: a model outside the catalogue gets "Model is not offered by this service"; a model your route does not sell gets "Model is not available on this API key route".

Auto route

Pick Auto route and one key covers the catalogue. Per request the relay lists the routes that sell the model (shared pool, official line, then single-route lines) and takes the cheapest one that can serve it now, by input price then output; image and video compare their cheapest size or resolution. Ties keep shared first. Only Claude, OpenAI and Grok text models have a real choice.

A route with no configured price is skipped; if none is left, the request gets the same 403 as above. If no priced route has an enabled channel, the first priced candidate is tried and fails with HTTP 503 upstream_unavailable, "The model provider is temporarily unavailable. Please retry." Nothing is charged either way.

Today every Claude, OpenAI and Grok text model resolves to its shared pool. The usage log shows the concrete route next to the key name; auto_route: true appears only in the API's log record, never auto as a route.

For a dedicated official-price line, write to support@topxea.com.

Related

• Create an API key and choose a route
• How requests are billed
• Every model's price
• TopxAI vs the providers' own APIs: price, retention and what stays direct

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