AI Providers

Providers & Models

FindRomCover supports cloud providers, local servers, and custom endpoints. All of them are configured in Settings > AI Settings....

Provider comparison

Provider	Base URL	Default model	Key required	Notes
OpenRouter	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1	qwen/qwen3.7-flash	Yes	Aggregator with hundreds of models; cheapest vision options
OpenAI	https://api.openai.com/v1	gpt-4o-mini	Yes	Reliable JSON output; gpt-5-nano is a low-cost alternative
Anthropic	https://api.anthropic.com/v1	claude-sonnet-4-5	Yes	Strong visual reasoning; native Messages API
Gemini	https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta	gemini-2.5-flash	Yes	Generous free tier; gemini-2.5-flash-lite is cheaper
GLM	https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4	glm-4.5v	Yes	Zhipu/Z.AI; use https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4 for the China endpoint
Local	http://localhost:11434/v1	qwen2.5vl:7b	No	Ollama or LM Studio; no cloud cost, slower on weak hardware
Custom (OpenAI-compatible)	User-defined	User-defined	Optional	Proxies, gateways, self-hosted servers
Custom (Anthropic-compatible)	User-defined	User-defined	Optional	Endpoints speaking the Anthropic Messages API

OpenRouter

1. Create an API key at openrouter.ai/keys.
2. Select OpenRouter in AI Settings, paste the key, and click Test / Load Models.
3. Pick a model. The default qwen/qwen3.7-flash is the cheapest vision-capable model on OpenRouter at the time of writing.

OpenRouter exposes modality metadata, so the model picker knows exactly which models accept image input. See Recommended Models for a cost-ranked list.

OpenAI

1. Create an API key at platform.openai.com/api-keys.
2. Select OpenAI, paste the key, and click Test / Load Models.
3. Choose a vision-capable model such as gpt-4o-mini or gpt-5-nano.

The OpenAI adapter uses the shared OpenAI-compatible client and supports response_format JSON mode where available.

Anthropic

1. Create an API key at console.anthropic.com.
2. Select Anthropic, paste the key, and click Test / Load Models.
3. Choose a model such as claude-sonnet-4-5 or claude-haiku-4-5 for lower cost.

Anthropic uses a native adapter implementing the Messages API, including image blocks.

Gemini

1. Create an API key at aistudio.google.com/apikey.
2. Select Gemini, paste the key, and click Test / Load Models.
3. Choose a model such as gemini-2.5-flash or gemini-2.5-flash-lite.

Gemini uses a native adapter implementing generateContent with inline image data. The free tier is generous, which makes it a good starting point.

GLM

1. Create an API key at z.ai.
2. Select GLM, paste the key, and click Test / Load Models.
3. Choose glm-4.5v or another vision-capable GLM model.

For the China endpoint, change the Base URL to https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4.

Local (Ollama / LM Studio)

Run a local vision model and point FindRomCover at it. No API key is required.

Ollama

ollama pull qwen2.5vl:7b
ollama serve

• Base URL: http://localhost:11434/v1
• Model: qwen2.5vl:7b (or another vision model you have pulled)

LM Studio

• Start the local server in LM Studio (default port 1234).
• Base URL: http://localhost:1234/v1
• Model: the identifier shown by LM Studio.

Local models are private and free to run, but they are slower and generally less accurate than cloud models. They are a good fit for small collections or offline setups.

Custom endpoints

Use a custom provider when you have a proxy, gateway, or self-hosted server:

Option	API style	When to use
Custom (OpenAI-compatible)	/chat/completions	Anything that speaks the OpenAI API, including Azure OpenAI gateways and LiteLLM
Custom (Anthropic-compatible)	/messages	Endpoints that speak the Anthropic Messages API

Enter the Base URL and Model manually. The API key is optional — some self-hosted servers ignore it.

OpenCode Zen

OpenCode Zen is an OpenAI-compatible gateway from the OpenCode team. It currently offers MiMo-V2.5 Free, a multimodal model that accepts image input:

Setting	Value
Provider	Custom (OpenAI-compatible)
Base URL	https://opencode.ai/zen/v1
API Key	Zen key from opencode.ai/auth
Model	mimo-v2.5-free

See Recommended Models for cost notes and caveats.

The model picker

Click Test / Load Models to:

1. verify the API key and base URL by contacting the provider;
2. download the list of available models;
3. cache the list for the selected provider and base URL for 7 days.

The picker:

• shows vision-capable models only by default (based on provider modality metadata where available, and a name heuristic otherwise);
• can be filtered with the filter box — type part of a model ID to narrow the list;
• displays the number of loaded models;
• falls back to the cached list instantly on later visits.

If the provider is offline or the key is invalid, an error message explains the problem and no list is loaded.

How FindRomCover talks to providers

All adapters share one abstraction with identical prompts, JSON parsing, timeouts, and friendly error messages. OpenAI, GLM, local, and custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints share one adapter; Anthropic and custom Anthropic-compatible endpoints share the native Anthropic adapter; Gemini uses its native adapter.

Images are downscaled before upload, and responses are parsed as JSON. Models without native JSON mode still work — FindRomCover extracts JSON from the response text.

Related pages

• AI Settings
• Recommended Models
• AI Troubleshooting