# Liquid Inference vs Requesty

Requesty is a hosted gateway. You pick a provider and a model, or you write a routing policy, and Requesty adds 5% when you buy credit. Liquid Inference is an exchange. Providers quote their own prices, and each request starts an auction among the offers that meet your rules.

Both services take the OpenAI and Anthropic formats. The facts about Requesty come from its own pages, checked on 10 November 2026. The links are in [Sources](#sources).

## Feature by feature

| Feature                   | Requesty                                                                            | Liquid Inference                                                      |
| ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Price                     | The provider's price                                                                | Each provider quotes its own price                                    |
| Provider choice           | You name it, or set a fallback, split or fastest policy                             | An auction: the lowest charge plus wait cost wins                     |
| Fee                       | 5% on each top-up                                                                   | 5% of the charge, or a floor on cheap models. No top-up fee           |
| Cap for each request      | No                                                                                  | Yes. `cap_usd`; the provider pays any usage above it                  |
| Spend limits              | Yes. Monthly, for each key, service account and user. Group budgets need Enterprise | Yes. For each key, workspace, organization and end user               |
| Preview with no charge    | No                                                                                  | Yes. The charge and cap of each offer, and why others are out         |
| Record of each request    | Yes. `usage.cost` in each response, and a log                                       | Yes. A receipt: rates, fee, cap, charge split and the offers left out |
| No prompt logs by default | No. Kept 30 days in the EU unless you turn them off for a key                       | Yes. The exchange stores no prompt or answer                          |
| No retention by default   | Partly. ZDR for the organization, on written request                                | Yes. Only offers that keep no prompt compete                          |
| Open to sellers           | No. Requesty picks the providers                                                    | Yes. By application; sellers post their own offers                    |
| Own cloud keys            | Yes. No fee, for six providers                                                      | Partly. Beta. The exchange fee at the list price, for sixteen clouds  |
| Self-host                 | No                                                                                  | No                                                                    |

## What the exchange does that Requesty does not

- **Prices from competition.** Each provider quotes its own price for each model, and the auction buys the lowest cost. See [Price and wait](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/price-and-wait.md).
- **A hard cap for each request.** Send `exchange.cap_usd`, or the `x-liquid-cap-usd` header. An offer whose worst case is higher does not compete. See [Purchasing rules](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/rules.md).
- **A dry run.** See which offers compete and what the request can cost before you buy. See [Purchasing rules](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/rules.md).
- **No prompt logs.** The exchange keeps metadata and receipts, not the text. See [Data handling](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/data-handling.md).
- **An open market for sellers.** Any provider can apply and quote. See [Become a provider](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/provider.md).

## When Requesty is the better choice

- You send most traffic through your own keys. Requesty charges no fee on them, at any volume.
- You need EU data residency. Requesty runs its gateway in Frankfurt on every plan.

## Switch in one line

```diff
 client = OpenAI(
-    base_url="https://router.requesty.ai/v1",
+    base_url="https://router.inference.ai.exchange/v1",
     api_key=...,
 )
```

Then change each `model` to a name that `GET /v1/models` lists. The exchange has no `provider/model` names. To limit the providers, use `exchange.candidates.providers.allow`. See [Purchasing rules](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/rules.md).

## Questions

### Is the fee the same?

On models that cost more than about $0.20 for each million tokens, yes: both are 5%. On cheaper models, the floor of the exchange fee can be more. Requesty adds its fee to each top-up. The exchange takes it from each settled job, so a job that fails before output pays no fee.

### How do I copy a Requesty fallback policy?

Send a basket: `architect.basket` with `exchange.candidates.models.allow`. The exchange ranks the offers of each model in the list. See [Purchasing rules](https://liquidinference.ai/docs/rules.md#the-basket).

## Sources

Checked on 10 November 2026.

- Product and routing: [llms.txt](https://docs.requesty.ai/llms.txt), [Managed policies](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/managed-policies), [Latency routing](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/latency-routing)
- Fees and BYOK: [Pricing](https://www.requesty.ai/pricing), [Billing](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/billing), [Bring your own keys](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/bring-your-own-keys)
- Spend limits: [API limits](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/api-limits), [Users](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/users)
- Request record: [Cost tracking](https://docs.requesty.ai/features/cost-tracking)
- Logs and retention: [Security](https://www.requesty.ai/security), [Privacy](https://www.requesty.ai/privacy)
- Self-hosting and EU: [Enterprise](https://www.requesty.ai/enterprise)