Cannot use any models if OpenAI base URL overridden

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I’m creating a new thread as the closest one related to this issue was closed due to inactivity:

At the moment, we cannot use any models from Cursor or even from other API like Gemini, if OpenAI base URL is overridden.
For example when using OpenRouter models (or any other custom OAI endpoints).

All models except OpenRouter will return API errors like:

We encountered an issue when using your API key: Provider was unable to process your request API Error: Request failed with status code 400

or

Unauthorized User API key

Right now the only way is to constantly disable/enable manually the OpenAI API key, which is cumbersome and inefficient

It would be nice to not be locked out from all models, when we have a a custom OAI API key activated. CC @Deanrie as he was on it in the previous thread.

Steps to Reproduce

  • Override OpenAI base URL for example OpenRouter: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
  • Activate OpenAI API key
  • Use a non OpenRouter model

Expected Behavior

I can use other models, from Cursor or other API, while still having my OAI key activated

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.0.43 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 8e4da76ad196925accaa169efcae28c45454cce0
Date: 2025-10-30T18:49:27.589Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

2

Hey, thanks for the report. You’re right, OpenRouter integration is a known issue the team is working on.

As an alternative, you can use one of the currently supported BYOK providers directly (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure OpenAI, or AWS Bedrock) if you have API keys for those services.

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