OpenRouter put a new anonymous model in front of developers on November 3, 2026. It is called Crouton Alpha, it is free, it holds a million tokens and it takes almost any input. OpenRouter’s post on X called it “A highly efficient reasoning model built to scale out the work your agents repeat all day.”
Nobody has claimed it. Within 20 minutes of the announcement, the first fingerprints were pointing at Meta, with one clue that does not fit. Here is what OpenRouter published, what the clues show, and how earlier stealth models were unmasked.
OpenRouter announced Crouton Alpha, a free stealth model, on November 3, 2026 at 20:17 UTC; its catalog entry is timestamped 01:38 UTC the same day.
It takes text, images, video, files and audio, holds 1,048,576 tokens of context, can write up to 943,718 output tokens, and costs $0 in and out.
OpenRouter says the provider is anonymous, and that prompts and completions may be retained by the provider but are not used for training.
Within 20 minutes a tracking account pointed at Meta: the same blocked-country list as Meta’s model API, a Japanese word every Muse model fails on, and Muse-only effort settings.
Not every clue fits: its token counts do not match Meta’s, by the same account’s own test. No maker has claimed it.
§ 01What OpenRouter published
The listing says the model “is developed and operated by a third-party provider who has chosen to remain anonymous during this preview.” OpenRouter “routes requests to it and is not its developer, owner, or provider.”
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Model id | stealth/crouton-alpha |
| Catalog entry | November 3, 2026, 01:38:50 UTC (created timestamp) |
| Announced | November 3, 2026, 20:17 UTC (OpenRouter on X) |
| Maker | Anonymous third-party provider |
| Context and output | 1,048,576 tokens in, up to 943,718 out |
| Input | Text, image, video, file and audio; text out |
| Reasoning | Adjustable, with reasoning effort settings |
| Tools | Tool calling with tool_choice auto only, and structured output |
| Price | $0 input, $0 output |
| Data | “Prompts and completions may be retained by the provider but are not used for training” |
The description pitches it for “executing agentic sub-tasks, tool use, and document analysis in high-volume, repeated work.” That is the job a fast, cheap model does under a bigger planner: the repeated steps, not the plan.
§ 02The clues, graded
The account AI Tracker Bot posted the first identification at 20:29 UTC: “Crouton Alpha looks like Meta”. Its evidence, and our own read of OpenRouter’s catalog:
| Clue | Source | Points to | Our read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same 21 blocked countries as Meta’s model API | AI Tracker Bot | Meta | Specific, not checked by us |
| Fails on a rare Japanese word every Muse model fails on; 93 other models do not | AI Tracker Bot | Meta | Strong if it holds up |
| Only Meta’s Muse listings share its effort settings | AI Tracker Bot | Meta | Fits OpenRouter’s catalog |
| tool_choice limited to auto | AI Tracker Bot, OpenRouter catalog | Meta, per the account | OpenRouter’s metadata for Meta’s own Muse Spark 1.3 lists all four options |
| Tokenizer labeled Other | OpenRouter catalog | Meta, not Google | Every Gemini listing says Gemini; Muse listings say Other |
| Token counts do not match Meta’s | AI Tracker Bot | Against Meta | The one clue that does not fit |
The account itself says the match is not confirmed. Its follow-up added the tool_choice point and then the problem: “its token counts don’t match Meta’s“. Token counts are usually the strongest fingerprint, which is why one mismatch matters.
The size limits fit more than one family. In OpenRouter’s catalog, Crouton’s 943,718 output tokens match Meta’s Muse Spark listings and Google’s Gemini 4 Argon, while Gemini 3.8 Flash stops at 65,536.
So the limits rule out Gemini 3.8 Flash but not Meta or a larger Google model. The tokenizer label and the three tracker clues lean Meta; the token counts do not.
§ 03The stealth record
OpenRouter has named every earlier stealth model it tracks here, and the free price ended each time.
They were revealed as an early GPT-4.1 test (Quasar, April 2025), an early GPT-5 checkpoint (Horizon, July 2025), Z.ai GLM-5 (Pony, February 2026), Z.ai GLM-5.3-Flash (Ox, August 2026), Pareto by Unbiased (Union, September 2026) and MiniMax M3.1-Flash (Space Bunny, September 2026).
Fingerprints were right on Ox Alpha and Space Bunny Alpha, and wrong on Union Alpha, a blended model from a startup nobody guessed. A clean match on three clues and a miss on token counts is closer to the Union case than the Ox one, so we grade Meta as likely, not settled.
§ 04What it means
For builders, a free, fast model with a million tokens is worth testing on the repeated steps of an agent: extraction, tagging, short tool calls. Keep sensitive data out of it: the provider may keep what you send, and you cannot name the provider.
Our conflict, declared: CellCog’s AI employees run on Claude Opus 5.5, and we do not use Crouton Alpha. We have submitted a CellCog connector to Meta’s Muse directory, so read the Meta clues with that in mind.
§ 05Sources
- OpenRouter, Crouton Alpha listing and model catalog API, read November 3, 2026.
- OpenRouter on X, November 3, 2026.
- AI Tracker Bot on X, November 3, 2026.
Q1What is Crouton Alpha on OpenRouter?
A stealth model listed as stealth/crouton-alpha on November 3, 2026. OpenRouter describes it as a lightweight model for scalable coding, agentic and multimodal workflows, and says an anonymous third-party provider runs it.
Q2Is Crouton Alpha made by Meta?
Not confirmed. A tracking account found three Meta-shaped clues within 20 minutes of the announcement, and posted that its token counts do not match Meta’s. No company has named it.
Q3Is Crouton Alpha Google Gemini?
Its 1M context and audio and video input also fit Gemini models. But OpenRouter labels its tokenizer Other, as it does for Meta’s Muse listings, while every Gemini listing says Gemini.
Q4What happens to my prompts?
OpenRouter’s page says prompts and completions may be retained by the provider but are not used for training, with other use under its Stealth Model Terms. Treat anything you send as readable by a company you cannot name.
Q5How long will Crouton Alpha stay free?
Nobody has said. Earlier OpenRouter stealth models stayed anonymous between 1.4 and 25.8 days, and the free price ended when each maker was named.