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Orthogonal acts as a unified gateway to multiple API providers. When you make a call through Orthogonal, here’s what happens:

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Request Flow

Your App → Orthogonal → API Provider → Orthogonal → Your App
1

You send a request

Call /v1/run with the API name, endpoint path, and parameters.
2

We authenticate

Orthogonal adds the correct API key and headers for the target provider.
3

We route the call

Your request is forwarded to the actual API provider.
4

We return the response

You get the API response plus metadata (cost, request ID).

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What Orthogonal Handles

Authentication

We manage API keys for all providers. You just use your Orthogonal key.

Billing

Unified billing across all APIs. Pay per call with no monthly minimums.

Rate Limiting

We handle rate limits and retries for each provider.

Monitoring

Track usage, costs, and errors in your dashboard.

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API Discovery

The Discovery API lets you find APIs programmatically:
EndpointPurpose
/v1/searchNatural language search
/v1/detailsGet endpoint parameters
/v1/integrateGet code snippets
/v1/list-endpointsList all available APIs
This is especially useful for AI agents that need to find and use APIs dynamically.

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Direct Provider Access

For high-volume use cases, you can also use x402 to pay providers directly with cryptocurrency. This bypasses Orthogonal for the actual API call while still using our discovery tools. See the x402 documentation for details.