The cheapest per-token inference...
If you've looked at routstr (nprofile…qeaf) and want cheap AI inference paid in sats (without e-mail address and without KYC) but don't want to manually pick and babysit nodes, run routstrd locally.
First the prices. I am monitoring prices and for most models, you can get somewhere between 53% and 66% of PPQdotAI (nprofile…etsy) (also pay per query) price on Routstr. Yep, between half and two-thirds. Some models, such as Kimi K3 are often 36%. And PPQ is around 5% more expensive than OpenRouter. I do not know of a cheaper way to get per-token API inference right now (besides subscriptions, they are a different beast).
Back to routstrd. It's a small daemon, not a node itself, that sits on your machine and exposes a normal OpenAI-compatible API on localhost:8008. Point your apps at it and it handles the rest.
Under the hood it finds nodes by reading provider announcements off Nostr relays, verifying them and refreshing the list every 21 minutes, and it only trusts nodes that have a positive review from the Routstr team — anything unreviewed is disabled by default. For whatever model you're calling, it compares prices across all known nodes and routes to the cheapest one, and if a request fails it automatically fails over to the next cheapest instead of just erroring out.
On payments, it defaults to a mode where it quietly exchanges a Cashu token for each node's own API key, holds onto it, and tops it up as the balance runs low — so it genuinely manages real provider API keys for you behind the scenes. You fund it with Lightning or a Cashu token, and your apps never touch the e-cash directly, they just get a local key from the daemon.
Worth trying, just keep the wallet funded with small amounts you're comfortable topping up regularly rather than loading it with a lot of sats at once.
Basic commands to get going:
bun i -g routstrd
routstrd onboard
routstrd receive <cashu-token> # fund with a Cashu token
routstrd receive 2100 # or top up 2100 sats via Lightning
routstrd start # starts the daemon on localhost:8008
routstrd clients add --claude-code # or --pi-agent / --opencode
routstrd status
routstrd balance
P.S.: I run price monitoring of Routstr nodes and I only count nodes that respond to API requests with completion - so these prices are representative of real prices that you can get, not only advertised prices.
Juraj / Juraj🏴💛🌘
npub1m2…lr8p9
2026-10-05 00:56:34 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1m2mvvpjugwdehtaskrcl7ksvdqnnhnjur9v6g9v266nss504q7mqvlr8p9Published at
2026-10-05 00:56:34 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "The cheapest per-token inference...\n\nIf you've looked at nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq32amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7tcqyz9lv2dn65v6p79g8yqn0fz9cr4j7hetf28dwy23m6ycq50gqph3xdsqeaf and want cheap AI inference paid in sats (without e-mail address and without KYC) but don't want to manually pick and babysit nodes, run routstrd locally.\n\nFirst the prices. I am monitoring prices and for most models, you can get somewhere between 53% and 66% of nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqy2hwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytn00p68ytnyv4mz7qpq6g4umvwj2pduqc8kt2rv6heq2vhvtulyrsr2a20d4suldwnkl4hq62etsy (also pay per query) price on Routstr. Yep, between half and two-thirds. Some models, such as Kimi K3 are often 36%. And PPQ is around 5% more expensive than OpenRouter. I do not know of a cheaper way to get per-token API inference right now (besides subscriptions, they are a different beast).\n\nBack to routstrd. It's a small daemon, not a node itself, that sits on your machine and exposes a normal OpenAI-compatible API on localhost:8008. Point your apps at it and it handles the rest.\n\nUnder the hood it finds nodes by reading provider announcements off Nostr relays, verifying them and refreshing the list every 21 minutes, and it only trusts nodes that have a positive review from the Routstr team — anything unreviewed is disabled by default. For whatever model you're calling, it compares prices across all known nodes and routes to the cheapest one, and if a request fails it automatically fails over to the next cheapest instead of just erroring out.\n\nOn payments, it defaults to a mode where it quietly exchanges a Cashu token for each node's own API key, holds onto it, and tops it up as the balance runs low — so it genuinely manages real provider API keys for you behind the scenes. You fund it with Lightning or a Cashu token, and your apps never touch the e-cash directly, they just get a local key from the daemon.\n\nWorth trying, just keep the wallet funded with small amounts you're comfortable topping up regularly rather than loading it with a lot of sats at once.\n\nBasic commands to get going:\n\nbun i -g routstrd\nroutstrd onboard\nroutstrd receive \u003ccashu-token\u003e # fund with a Cashu token\nroutstrd receive 2100 # or top up 2100 sats via Lightning\nroutstrd start # starts the daemon on localhost:8008\nroutstrd clients add --claude-code # or --pi-agent / --opencode\nroutstrd status\nroutstrd balance\n\nP.S.: I run price monitoring of Routstr nodes and I only count nodes that respond to API requests with completion - so these prices are representative of real prices that you can get, not only advertised prices.",
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