---
title: "AI Token Router vs SiliconFlow"
canonical: "https://router.xark.io/compare/siliconflow"
description: "AI Token Router vs SiliconFlow: One platform for Chinese and Western open-weight models."
section: "provider-comparisons"
updated: "2026-09-02"
source: "https://router.xark.io/compare/siliconflow.md"
---

# AI Token Router vs SiliconFlow

One platform for Chinese and Western open-weight models.

**Availability:** 7 of the 24 catalogued models are callable today. The rest are listed at their intended rate but no configured upstream serves them, so a request naming one returns `no available channel`. Every table below marks which is which.

## Side by side

| Dimension | AI Token Router | SiliconFlow | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Model catalog size | 24 in the catalogue, 7 servable today | 200+ optimised LLMs and multimodal models across text, image, video and audio | SiliconFlow |
| Chinese open-weight coverage | A curated subset | The most complete single source outside China — DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM, Kimi and MiniMax all first-class and all priced publicly | SiliconFlow |
| Headline pricing on flagship Chinese models | 36–43% below each model's official rate | Aggressive — GLM-5 at $0.95/$2.55 and Kimi-K2.5 at $0.45/$2.25 per 1M | SiliconFlow |
| Getting started free | No free tier — you load credits | $1 in free credits, no minimum commitment | SiliconFlow |
| Cached-input pricing published | Dedicated column on every pricing row | Published per model on the rate card | Tie |
| Official-vs-our-price transparency | Both shown on every row, so the saving is stated rather than implied | Their own rate only; you compute the saving yourself | AI Token Router |
| Video billing unit | Per-second, per-resolution rates published, but billed at a fixed 5-second duration during rollout | A flat $0.29 per video regardless of length or resolution | Tie |
| Price stability and currency risk | Clean published USD rates set directly | Unrounded figures like $1.50162 and $1.302 indicate a converted CNY rate card, which drifts with FX | AI Token Router |
| Billing model | Prepaid credits; balance is a hard ceiling, exhaustion returns 429 insufficient_credits | Pay-as-you-go with optional monthly spending limits | AI Token Router |

## Choose SiliconFlow when

If your stack is built on GLM, Kimi, Qwen or DeepSeek, SiliconFlow is the most complete and most competitively priced single source we found outside China, and their published rates on GLM-5 and Kimi-K2.5 are genuinely aggressive — check them against ours model by model before you decide, because on those two we would rather you find out here. They publish a clean, complete rate card with cached-input pricing, which is better transparency than most of this list, and they price all four modalities.

## Choose AI Token Router when

Two concrete differences. We print the model's official rate next to ours, so the saving is a stated number rather than something you derive. And our rates are set in USD directly — SiliconFlow's unrounded prices ($1.50162, $1.302) point to a converted CNY card, which means your unit cost moves with the exchange rate. If a Beijing-headquartered vendor is also a procurement conversation you would rather not have, that is a third reason.