How to Connect OpenRouter to Cursor

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Using OpenRouter with Cursor allows you to access hundreds of models (like DeepSeek, Mistral, or Llama) through a single API key by overriding the default OpenAI settings.

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1. Navigate to openrouter.ai and sign up or sign in to your account.
2. Click on the Get API Key button at the center of the page.
3. Generate your unique API key by clicking on Create API key button.
4. Initiate your API key creation to start building immediately
5. Name your API key for easy identification across projects
6. Copy the key immediately and save it in a secure place, as it will be hidden once you close the window.
7. Go to your Cursor app and open the Settings by clicking the Gear icon in the top right or pressing Ctrl + Shift + J.
8. Click on the Model Selector button located at the bottom left of the chat box, and select Add Models.
9. Scroll down until you find the OpenAI API Key section and toggle the switch to On.
10. Paste your unique OpenRouter API Key into the provided input field.
11. Toggle the switch for Override OpenAI Base URL to On and enter: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
12. Scroll back to the top of the Models page and click the + Add Custom Model button.
13. Enter the exact Model ID from OpenRouter (such as deepseek/deepseek-chat) and press Enter.
14. To use the model for your current task, open the Chat (Ctrl + L) or Composer (Ctrl + I).‍
15. Select the newly added model from the model dropdown at the bottom.