head to head · open source
one-api vs CliRelay
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. CliRelay has 1,011 stars, 121 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 3,554% (36,940 vs 1,011 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; CliRelay is written in Go under MIT. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, CliRelay 12%. CliRelay was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (api-gateway, openai), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| one-api | CliRelay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 121 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick one-api if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CliRelay if
- You want the CliRelay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and CliRelay fits your workflow better
About one-api
One API is a self hosted LLM API management and key redistribution system that exposes many model providers through the standard OpenAI API format, aimed at developers, teams and operators who want a single endpoint, a single key model and a single quota surface across providers.
read the full one-api overview →
About CliRelay
🔀 CliRelay A unified proxy server for AI CLI tools — use your existing subscriptions with any OpenAI / Gemini / Claude / Codex compatible client. Multi tenant web panel · request logs & quotas · routing groups & failover · self hosted English 中文 📖 Docs · 🖥️ Management Panel · 🐛 Report Bug · ✨ Request Feature ⚡ What is CliRelay? ✨ Heavily enhanced fork of the CLIProxyAPI project — rebuilt with a production grade management layer, web control panel hosting, and a terminal TUI for day 2 operations. CliRelay turns AI CLI subscriptions, OAuth credentials, API keys, and compatible upstream services into one managed…
read the full CliRelay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or CliRelay more popular?
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars and CliRelay has 1,011. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and CliRelay free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and CliRelay under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and CliRelay?
one-api is written in JavaScript and CliRelay in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, one-api or CliRelay?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,940 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose CliRelay if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.