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AI Chat Importer

How to Get an OpenRouter API Key (and Use It in AI Chat Importer)

Step-by-step guide to creating an OpenRouter API key and using it with AI Chat Importer's Auto-Sort feature — access dozens of AI models through one key.

RM
By R. Miller · AI Chat Importer

AI Chat Importer's Auto-Sort feature supports OpenRouter as a provider. OpenRouter gives you access to dozens of AI models — from Mistral, Meta, Google, and others — through a single API key and a unified billing account. This guide walks through getting an OpenRouter key and configuring it in the app.

What is OpenRouter?

OpenRouter is an API gateway that gives you access to a wide range of AI models through one account and one API key. Instead of signing up separately for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, you top up an OpenRouter credit balance and use any supported model through the same interface.

For Auto-Sort this is useful if you want to try different models, keep all your AI API spending in one place, or use models that aren't available directly through the major providers' own APIs.

What You'll Need

Step 1 — Create an OpenRouter Account

Go to openrouter.ai and sign up or log in.

Step 2 — Add Credits

Go to Credits in your OpenRouter dashboard and add a small amount. A few dollars covers a large volume of Auto-Sort requests — the models used for classification are among the lowest-cost options available.

Step 3 — Create an API Key

  1. Go to Keys in your OpenRouter dashboard
  2. Click Create Key
  3. Give it a name — "AI Chat Importer" works well
  4. Copy the key — store it somewhere safe

Step 4 — Enter the Key in AI Chat Importer

  1. Open the AI Chat Importer desktop app
  2. Go to Settings → Auto-Sort
  3. Select OpenRouter as the provider
  4. Paste your API key into the API Key field
  5. Set the model to mistralai/mistral-7b-instruct — a good balance of speed and accuracy at very low cost for classification tasks
  6. Click Test Connection — you should see a green confirmation

Step 5 — Run Auto-Sort

With your key configured, go to Settings → Auto-Sort Conversations. AI Chat Importer will scan your imported conversations and suggest a folder structure. Review the suggestions and confirm — your conversations are sorted automatically.

Other Models Worth Trying

OpenRouter gives you access to many models. Some alternatives to mistralai/mistral-7b-instruct for Auto-Sort:

  • meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct — Meta's Llama model, good accuracy at low cost
  • google/gemini-flash-1.5 — Google's fast Gemini model via OpenRouter
  • anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5 — Anthropic's fastest Claude model via OpenRouter

Model names on OpenRouter follow the format provider/model-name — make sure to copy the full name including the provider prefix.

Troubleshooting

"Invalid API key" error Double-check you copied the full key with no spaces. Create a new key in your OpenRouter dashboard if needed.

"Insufficient credits" error Add more credits to your OpenRouter account. Go to Credits in your dashboard.

Test Connection passes but Auto-Sort produces nothing Make sure you have conversations imported. Check the model name is exactly as shown — OpenRouter model names include a provider prefix and are case-sensitive.

For a full guide covering all supported providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini, see the Cloud AI Auto-Sort setup guide.

Prefer to keep everything local with no API costs? See the Ollama setup guide.

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