If someone from Stripe / OpenRouter is listening, please let me provide Open Router OAuth to my users and let me take a cut of their usage. Apple takes 30, I would take whatever the users are willing to pay. 5 to 15 is reasonable.

I'm still amazed at Apple's 30%, it's just so brazenly high (like: "fuck you, we're Apple, we do what we want and you'll lick it up"). Unfortunately, too, other companies follow Apple's lead, and so this massive rent seeking percentage has become normalised.

I can totally agree that Apple sucks for doing this, but you seem to insinuate they started this. As always Apple wasn’t first not even tenth: Nintendo, Steam, Xbox, Kindle all did it prior to “the platform economy” 3)

Didn't know there was prior art of that 30% scale, as I generally avoid as much of that shit as I can, Apple is the one I hear about the most.

I amend my prior comments (with actually being able to amend them) to Apple sucks as much as the rest of the rent seekers, and in reference to Aeolun's comment, it doubly sucks that enough people choose to lick it up that the rent seekers don't feel ashamed of their rent seekery, but in fact profit handsomely from it, thus encouraging others to follow suit.

It feels ridiculous that you can't buy directly from the software publisher - like the old internet when they were called programs. I feel I may be on the end of pointing and laughing at the old man, but the situation now is literally a gatekeeping middle-man that gets a 30% cut. WTF? Nice work if you can get it.

Makes me feel like a rube (in a significant majority, mind) for the few games I've bought off Steam. Eesh, even GOG is 30%. Epic's seems reasonable at 12% and only after the first million in revenue per year.

Software publishers need a 'donate' button on their websites where erstwhile pirates can cough launder cough their procurements.

I mean, the problem isn’t the rent seeking. It’s the licking it up part.

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For the first part they have https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/overview/auth/oauth (which I haven't used). That gives you an openrouter key for that user (openrouter bills the user).

What value are you providing that you'd take some further cut? You could take the money from the user via stripe and then pay your own openrouter bill instead.

This simplify integrations. Right now you have to maintain your own billing credits for user and even maintain user database, abuse detection, planning when you have to top up your openrouter accounts etc. Lots of hassle and this is a reason why many developers charge e.g. more in subscriptions the end user.

It's more user and developer friendly when you tell your user:

- you don't have to create new account just log in to your openrouter account

- bring your own key

- you don't have to pay any subscription. we charge small markup fee (e.g. 5-10%) over your usage inside our app.

I am using oauth already. Thanks. I really need the second part.