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docs/2026-08-23-ox-alpha-provider-limits.md

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Ox Alpha provider limits

Date: 2026-08-23

Status: Point-in-time measurement

This document records the Ox Alpha capacity that a router can verify without guessing. The measurements use public model catalogs and one bounded, unauthenticated completion request per provider. Authenticated provider keys were not available, so the run did not attempt load testing or claim a concurrent-request ceiling.

Provider promotions and model availability can change without notice. Recheck the linked sources and the authenticated limit endpoints before changing a production routing budget.

Evidence labels

  • Measured: A provider API returned the value or response on 2026-08-23.
  • Documented: Current provider documentation states the value.
  • Observed: The value was recorded from a provider surface, but the current public surface does not expose enough information to reproduce it.
  • Claimed: A provider or announcement advertised the value without an API receipt that a router can enforce.
  • Unknown: The provider does not publish the value, or an authenticated request is required.

Limit map

Provider Model Availability measurement Context Maximum output RPM TPM Other quota Concurrent requests Limit scope
OpenRouter stealth/ox-alpha Public catalog listed the model at $0 input and output. An unauthenticated completion returned 401. 1,048,576 measured 131,072 measured 20 documented for free models Unknown 50 requests/day before $10 of lifetime credit; 1,000 requests/day after $10, documented for free models Unknown OpenRouter documents that additional accounts or API keys do not increase its global rate limit. The exact treatment of this zero-priced slug, which does not end in :free, requires an authenticated response.
Nous Portal stealth/ox-alpha Public catalog listed the model at $0 input and output, but an unauthenticated completion returned 400 with Unknown model. 1,048,576 measured 131,072 measured 50 observed for the Free plan 500,000 observed for the Free plan No numeric daily quota verified Unknown Unknown. The public plan page describes account plans but does not state whether multiple keys share one quota.
Venice stealth-ox-alpha Public catalog listed the beta model as online at $0 input and output. An unauthenticated completion returned 402 with Authentication required. 1,048,576 measured 131,072 measured Unknown for Ox Alpha Unknown for Ox Alpha Venice documents model tiers from 20 to 500 RPM and 500,000 to 1,000,000 TPM, but does not map Ox Alpha to a tier publicly. Unknown The authenticated /api_keys/rate_limits endpoint returns limits for one key. Whether multiple keys share another account-level ceiling remains unknown.
OpenCode Zen x-preview-f-free Documentation listed Ox Alpha Free. An unauthenticated completion reached the gateway and returned 503 with Endpoint is unavailable. Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown OpenCode Go lists dashes for Ox Alpha's five-hour, weekly, and monthly request estimates. Unknown Unknown

The OpenRouter free-model quota applies across free-model traffic rather than reserving capacity for Ox Alpha. OpenRouter can also return an upstream provider 429 after its own quota accepts a request.

The Nous Free plan values were recorded in issue #40 on 2026-08-22 as 50 RPM and 500,000 TPM. The current unauthenticated plan page says only “Standard rate limits,” so treat those numbers as an observation until an authenticated key reports matching headers or limits.

Venice publishes these default model tiers:

Tier RPM TPM
XS 500 1,000,000
S 75 750,000
M 50 750,000
L 20 500,000

Do not assign Ox Alpha one of these budgets by model size or performance. Use GET /api/v1/api_keys/rate_limits with the routing key and record the returned model mapping.

Routing conclusion

The current evidence does not support a multi-request concurrency budget for any provider. A router can use these results as admission gates:

  • Keep OpenRouter within the documented 20 RPM and account-level daily quota, but start with one in-flight request until an authenticated probe finds the upstream ceiling for stealth/ox-alpha.
  • Keep the Nous lane disabled until an authenticated completion resolves the public-catalog and completion-endpoint mismatch.
  • Admit Venice only after its key-specific limit endpoint maps Ox Alpha to an RPM and TPM budget.
  • Keep OpenCode Zen disabled while the Ox Alpha endpoint returns 503.

The advertised OpenCode capacity of 100 trillion tokens per day and Nous capacity of 1 quadrillion tokens per day are claims, not routing budgets. The Nous Free plan observation is 500,000 TPM, which can carry at most 720 million tokens per day if the limit remains continuously available.

Measurement procedure

Use a dedicated free-tier account and key for each provider. Do not rotate accounts or keys to evade a provider limit.

  1. Fetch the provider's key or rate-limit endpoint and save the response headers without the authorization header.
  2. Send one completion with a fixed prompt and max_tokens: 16. Confirm the model identifier, context metadata, and rate-limit headers.
  3. Run three batches at concurrency 1, 2, 4, and 8. Stop at the first 429, quota error, or batch with more than 20% provider failures.
  4. Do not retry failed requests during the measurement. Record Retry-After, every X-RateLimit-* header, the accepted concurrency, and the first rejected concurrency.
  5. Wait for the longest reported reset window before testing the next provider. Keep the prompt and output bound unchanged.
  6. Repeat the probe with a second key in the same account. If the remaining quota changes for both keys, record the limit as account-scoped. Use a provider-supported organization test only when its terms permit one.

Use the following catalog and limit sources:

Probe receipts

The bounded unauthenticated probes ran between 04:44 and 04:46 UTC on 2026-08-23:

Provider Endpoint HTTP status Result
OpenRouter POST https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions 401 No cookie auth credentials found
Nous Portal POST https://inference-api.nousresearch.com/v1/chat/completions 400 Unknown model: stealth/ox-alpha
Venice POST https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions 402 Authentication required
OpenCode Zen POST https://opencode.ai/zen/v1/chat/completions 503 Endpoint is unavailable

Each request used the provider-specific model identifier, one user message that requested OK, and an eight-token output bound. The run sent no concurrent traffic.