Product Model Fit with OpenRouter Model Picker

LLM Model Selection Is a Moving Target - Use OpenRouter Model Picker.

When building LLM-powered apps, choosing the right model is an ongoing challenge with constant trade-offs:

• Cost vs. Quality: The best models are often the most expensive
• Speed vs. User Experience: Users may prefer faster responses over perfect output
• Dev exploration: GPT-4, Claude, or the new Llama - test them all.

Think of this as finding Product-Model Fit - the model that best serves your product at each stage.

OpenRouter Model Picker: Quick Model Selection During Development

I built the openrouter-model-picker npm package to help solve the model selection headache. OpenRouter offers hundreds of models from various providers, but that choice can lead to analysis paralysis.

Instead of alt-tabbing to websites or hardcoding model IDs in your code, this React component gives you an in-app model picker. It pulls the entire OpenRouter catalog and lets you browse, filter, and select models in real-time during development.

What it does: A “Choose Model” button opens a searchable modal with all available models. Filter by provider, see key specs (context length, vision support), and compare costs with color-coded pricing. Pick a model and get its ID for your next API call.

Quick Start: Installing & Using the Picker

Getting started is straightforward. The package is available on npm:

npm install openrouter-model-picker

After installing, import the React component and its styles, then drop it into your app:

import { ModelChooserModal } from 'openrouter-model-picker';
import 'openrouter-model-picker/styles';

// ... inside your component:
<button onClick={() => setModalOpen(true)}>
  Choose Model: {selectedModel}
</button>

<ModelChooserModal
  isOpen={modalOpen}
  selectedModel={selectedModel}
  onModelChange={setSelectedModel}
  onClose={() => setModalOpen(false)}
/>

Here, selectedModel is a state variable for the currently chosen model ID (e.g. "openai/gpt-4o-mini"), and setSelectedModel updates it. Opening the modal presents the model list; when you pick one, the onModelChange handler updates your state. From there, you can use selectedModel in your API calls to OpenRouter.

The openrouter-model-picker project is open-source and available on GitHub.

Wrapping Up

Building LLM-powered-apps means staying flexible and continuously finding the best model for the job. It’s a moving target, but tools like OpenRouter Model Picker can make the journey a bit smoother. Instead of getting stuck in analysis paralysis over which model to use, you can now quickly test and swap models right in your product.

Hopefully it helps app builders speed up their iteration cycles and get closer to that elusive product-model fit for their AI apps.