JanitorAI

JanitorAI is a character chat site. It sends chats to an outside model through a proxy configuration in API Settings. JanitorAI's own beginner guide sets that proxy up with OpenRouter; the same fields take plaingateway. Model ids are OpenRouter's, for example deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash.

Paste this

Open a chat, open the menu at the top of the chat and choose API Settings. Choose Proxy, then + Add Configuration, and fill in the fields. Copy each value from the block:

Config Name: plaingateway DeepSeek
Model Name: deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash
Proxy URL: https://api.plaingateway.com/api/v1/chat/completions
API Key: sk-pg-v1-...

Leave Custom Prompt blank to start. Press Save Settings, then refresh the whole page. JanitorAI's guide calls the refresh crucial: the settings do not apply until you do.

Where the setting lives

JanitorAI keeps the configuration in your JanitorAI account. Add one configuration per model if you want to switch between models in API Settings.

Get a key

1. Sign up at plaingateway.com/signup and click the link in the confirmation email.
2. Open Keys, press New key and copy it. It starts with sk-pg-v1- and is shown once. Paste it into API Key with no spaces before or after.
3. Add credits by card on Credits. Requests are paid from it.

Check it works

Send a message in the chat. From a terminal, the same request to the same address with the same model:

export PLAINGATEWAY_API_KEY="sk-pg-v1-..."
curl -i https://api.plaingateway.com/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PLAINGATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash",
    "max_tokens": 32,
    "messages": [
      {"role": "user", "content": "Say hello in five words."}
    ]
  }'

A 200 means the key and the address work. Three things in the answer tell you what happened: the X-PG-Host header names the provider that served it, X-PG-Cost-USD is the charge, and usage.cost in the body is the same charge. The request also shows on the Activity page.

What it costs

You pay the provider's official list price for tokens, and plaingateway adds nothing on top: 0% platform fee, no markup, no subscription, free with your own provider keys. You can earn up to 20% bonus credit, added to your balance when you add money and never taken off the token price: each person you invite gives you 1% bonus credit once they have paid $20 in total, up to 20%, so $100 paid gets up to $120 of credit. The person you invite gets 5% bonus credit on their first top-up, and you earn 10% of what they pay (How referral works). Each model's price is on Models.

Limits today

• Only openai/ and deepseek/ models answer today. Models lists more ids; any other id returns an error. Ones that answer include deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro, openai/gpt-5.6-luna and openai/gpt-6.1-sol.
• Credit is prepaid. Every message is paid from a balance you add by card; there are no daily free messages. With no balance the gateway answers 402. Each request first holds its largest possible cost, the prompt plus the maximum reply length; on a low balance it holds an eighth of what is left and shortens the answer to fit, so a long chat can get shorter answers, then 402, before the balance is spent.

Gotchas

The Proxy URL is the full address. JanitorAI sends to the address exactly as written and adds nothing, so it ends in /chat/completions. A Proxy URL that stops at /api/v1 gets 404. Paste it, do not click it.

No :free ids. JanitorAI's guide uses OpenRouter ids that end in :free. Those are not plaingateway models. Drop the suffix and use an id that answers, such as deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash.

The model id needs the author prefix. deepseek-v4.1-flash alone returns 400. Copy the full author/slug id from Models.

A 401 means the key. A space before or after the pasted key, or a key cut short, gets 401. Paste it again, or make a new key on Keys.

Moving from OpenRouter

Change two fields in your configuration: Proxy URL becomes the plaingateway address from the block above, and API Key becomes a plaingateway key. Keep Model Name if it is an openai/ or deepseek/ id. The full guide: Migrate from OpenRouter.

JanitorAI's own guide to the proxy fields: help.janitorai.com.