head to head · open source
one-api vs macai
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. macai has 931 stars, 77 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. one-api leads on adoption by 3,867% (36,932 vs 931 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; macai is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, macai 8%. macai was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (chatgpt, claude, gemini), 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 | macai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 931 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 77 |
| 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 macai if
- You want the macai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and macai 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 macai
macai is an all in one native macOS AI chat application that connects to virtually any AI provider — ChatGPT, Claude, xAI (Grok), Google Gemini, Perplexity, Ollama, OpenRouter, and almost any OpenAI compatible API — and it is built for people on macOS 14.0 or later who want one app instead of a different client per provider.
read the full macai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or macai more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and macai has 931. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and macai free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and macai under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and macai?
one-api is written in JavaScript and macai in Swift. 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 macai?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose macai if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.