I'm going to show you exactly how to use 9Router — from a clean local install to routing 573+ models through the subscriptions you already pay for. No new accounts. No new credits. No new API keys. Just a free, open-source router pointed at access you already own.
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I covered what the tool actually is in my full 9Router review — if you want the background and my honest verdict on where it fits, start there. This page is the practical companion: the setup, the day-to-day workflow, and the two-router pattern I run inside my own system.
Fair warning: the setup is almost disappointingly short. The interesting part is what you do with it afterwards.
What You're Actually Setting Up
Quick shape-of-the-thing before the steps, because once you see the trick, you already understand half of how to use 9Router. The tool — you'll also see it written as NymRouter, and it's said aloud as Nine Router, same thing — is a free, open-source AI coding router. It's local. It installs into a folder on your own machine and runs on localhost. There's no hosted service in the middle, and there's no subscription for the router itself.
The core trick is the part most people miss on first read: 9Router wires into the OAuth sessions you already have. Already signed in to Claude? Codex? GitHub Copilot? Cursor? 9Router routes through that access. You're not signing up for anything new — you're pointing a router at access you've already paid for and mostly leave sitting idle.
And the scale is genuinely silly. After installing, I counted over 573 models across more than 40 providers, all available in one place. That's what showed up in my own install when I sat and counted — not a number off somebody's landing page.
How to Use 9Router: Step-by-Step
Here's the whole process, start to finish.
- Install it locally. Grab 9Router from its GitHub page and follow the current instructions there. I'm deliberately not pasting install commands into this post, because open-source setups change and the repo stays current whilst blog posts go stale. Honestly, though, the fastest route right now: ask Claude Code or a Hermes agent to install and configure it for you. Describe what you want, let the agent do the plumbing. That's exactly how I'd set it up today.
- Connect your existing sign-ins. This is where the OAuth trick happens. Whatever you're already signed in to — Claude, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor — 9Router picks up and routes through. Got all four? Brilliant. Got one? Still worth it. One subscription turns into a lot of routed access.
- Open the model list. This is the moment it clicks. My install showed 573+ models across 40+ providers sitting in a single list. Scroll through it once, just so you understand what you're now holding.
- Pick a model and start building. Choose one, point your coding session at it, and give it a real task. From here it behaves like any other AI coding session — except you picked the brain from a list of hundreds instead of accepting whatever one tool handed you.
- Let automatic fallback do its job. If a provider or model runs out, 9Router moves you to the next one automatically. You don't babysit it. Half the time you won't even notice it happened.
That's it. Install, connect, pick, build, and let fallback catch the drops. Everything past this point is about using it well.
If you want all of this working without doing the setup yourself, the AI Profit Boardroom ships the Agent OS with the free-coder tab — 9Router and OmniRoute already wired in. → Skip the setup and start routing
Using 9Router Inside the Agent OS
Here's the honest answer to how to use 9Router day to day: I barely open it directly. It lives inside my Agent OS as the free AI coder tab, which means my agents route through it without me — or them — ever touching a terminal.
That's the difference between a tool you tried once and infrastructure you actually rely on. When routing is a tab inside the system you already work in, it stops being a decision. The agent needs a model, the tab provides one, the work happens. If you want to see how a router plugs into an agent properly, my walkthrough on wiring OmniRoute into a Hermes agent shows the exact pattern — 9Router slots into the same seat.
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The Two-Router Pattern: Never Bet on One
Inside that free-coder tab there's a dropdown with two routers in it: OmniRoute and 9Router. Both open source. Both free. And the reason is boringly practical: if one gets rate-limited, or a subscription runs low on tokens, I flip the dropdown and carry on. No "come back in five hours" message killing a session mid-build.
For the record, I haven't personally seen 9Router get rate-limited. I still like the second option sitting there. Which router wins? Wrong question. You don't bet — you switch.
| Router | What it routes | When to flip to it |
|---|---|---|
| 9Router | The OAuth subscriptions you already pay for — Claude, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor | When you want the quality of your paid tiers, or the free pool is having a bad day |
| OmniRoute | A free provider pool — no subscriptions required | When a subscription runs low on tokens and you want to save them for the work that matters |
If you want the other half of the dropdown set up, my OmniRoute install guide walks through it, and OpenCode vs OmniRoute covers how it stacks up against the tool people usually compare it with.
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What to Actually Build With It
The pattern I actually run: route background and experimental coding through 9Router, so your paid tokens go further on the work that pays you. Scaffolding, refactors, throwaway prototypes, "try this idea and tell me if it's daft" sessions, agents grinding away on drafts while you do something else — all of that goes through routed access instead of burning your premium allowance one tab at a time.
Two places to start if you want ideas: giving your Hermes agent a free API so it can work in the background, and running Kimi K3 for free as an experimental workhorse.
And with 573 models one dropdown away, model choice stops being tribal. My Goldie Bench habit — same task, two models, compare the outputs side by side — is how I work out which routed model actually deserves the job. Ten minutes of testing beats six months of loyalty to the wrong model.
The Honest Limits
Same framing I used in the review, because it's still true: 9Router routes access you already have. The quality ceiling is whatever models and subscriptions you route through it. If your best sign-in is a bottom-tier plan, routing won't magically make the outputs smarter — it'll just give you more ways to reach the same ceiling.
And local doesn't mean magic. Local means private, free and yours — which is genuinely valuable — but it's a router, not an upgrade. Know what it is, use it for what it is, and it earns its place.
How to Use 9Router: FAQ
Is 9Router free?
Yes — free and open source, installed locally on your own machine. The models cost whatever your existing subscriptions already cost. The router itself adds nothing on top.
Is 9Router the same as NymRouter?
Same tool. You'll see it written as NymRouter, and it's said aloud as Nine Router. If you're hunting for the GitHub repo or docs, both names point to the same place.
Do I need new API keys or accounts?
No — that's the whole point. It wires into the OAuth sessions you're already signed in to: Claude, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor. If you already pay for one of those, you already have everything 9Router needs.
What if 9Router gets rate-limited?
I haven't personally seen it happen. But two things cover you anyway: automatic fallback moves you to the next model when one runs out, and the two-router dropdown means OmniRoute is one flip away. Between those, sessions don't die.
Should I use 9Router or OmniRoute?
Both. That's not a dodge — it's the actual setup I run. 9Router routes the subscriptions you pay for; OmniRoute taps a free provider pool. Keep both in the dropdown and switch based on the day, not the ideology.
The Verdict
So that's how to use 9Router: install it locally from the GitHub instructions (or make an agent do it for you), connect the sign-ins you already have, and suddenly 573+ models across 40+ providers are one dropdown away — with automatic fallback catching the failures and a second router on standby. It cost me nothing, it routes access I was already paying for, and it's been sitting in my Agent OS free-coder tab quietly doing its job ever since.
The tools are free. The access is already yours. The only real question is whether you'll spend twenty minutes wiring it up — or keep paying full price to use one model at a time.
If you want 573+ models working for you without paying for a single new subscription, check out the AI Profit Boardroom — inside you get the Agent OS with both routers already set up, daily tutorials, four live coaching calls a week, and me answering questions personally. → Join the Boardroom and route everything
