Helicone

Best for: Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call; Regulated or enterprise workloads - compliance attestations and an enterprise plan; AI agents and automation - an agent-ready surface (MCP / llms.txt)

Pricing model

Hybrid (base + usage) [2]helicone.ai/pricing“Pro: $79 per month; Team: $799 per month; usage-based pricing applies beyond free tier; Storage costs $0.97 per 0.30 GB”

Published pricing

✓ Yes [3]helicone.ai/pricing“Hobby: $0/month; Pro: $79 per month (popular); Team: $799 per month (best value); Enterprise: Contact us”

Free tier

✓ Yes [4]helicone.ai/pricing“Hobby (Free): Cost: $0/month; 10,000 free requests; 1 GB storage; 1 seat, 1 organization”

Free tier details

Hobby plan at $0/month: 10,000 free requests/month, 1 GB storage, 1 seat, 1 organization, 7-day data retention, 10 logs/min ingestion. Open-source self-hosting also available (Apache 2.0) with zero gateway markup - pay exactly what providers charge. [5]helicone.ai/blog/what-is-ai-gateway“Access 100+ models through one API with built-in observability, automatic failovers, and zero markup pricing.”helicone.ai/pricing“Hobby: $0/month, 10,000 free requests, 1 GB storage, 1 seat, 1 organization, 7 days data retention, 10 logs/min ingestion”

Self-serve signup

✓ Yes [6]helicone.ai/pricing“Hobby (Free): $0/month with 7-day free trial available for Pro; Pro: 7-day free trial”

Requires sales call

✗ No

Enterprise plan

✓ Yes [7]helicone.ai/pricing“Enterprise: Custom pricing (Contact us); Features include custom MSAs, SAML SSO, on-premise deployment, and bulk cloud discounts”

• Semantic caching
• Fallback / routing
• Spend controls
• Observability
• Guardrails
• Self-hosted

Supported actions

unified_chat_completions, openai_compatible_api, model_routing, automatic_fallback, load_balancing, semantic_caching, prompt_caching, spend_limits, rate_limiting, observability_logging, tracing, guardrails, prompt_management, virtual_keys, byo_provider_keys, webhooks, alerts, session_tracking, custom_properties, user_feedback_scoring, datasets, experiments, reports, pii_redaction [8]helicone.ai/blog/what-is-ai-gateway“Intelligent Routing & Load Balancing: Cost, latency, and availability-based request routing with automatic failover chains”docs.helicone.ai/llms.txt“LLM Caching: Request/response caching capabilities; Rate Limiting: Control usage by request count, cost, or custom properties; Webhooks: Real-time event notifications; Sessions: Track multi-turn conversations and agent interactions”

Regions

US, EU [9]docs.helicone.ai/references/data-autonomy“Helicone offers regional deployment options for EU and US, enabling organizations to meet data residency and compliance mandates.”

Input types

chat completions, text completions, embeddings, image generation, audio (Realtime API / WebSocket), moderation

Output types

streaming (SSE), JSON, OpenAI-compatible response

Webhooks

✓ Yes [10]docs.helicone.ai/features/webhooks“Programmatic creation via REST API; HMAC-SHA256 signature verification required; 2-minute delivery timeout”

Sandbox / test mode

✗ No [11]docs.helicone.ai/getting-started/quick-start“Sign up for free and complete the onboarding flow, then generate an API key through the API Keys settings page.”

SDK languages

Node.js, Python, Node.js (OpenAI-compatible drop-in) [12]docs.helicone.ai/llms.txt“Language SDKs: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, cURL”

MCP server

✓ Yes [13]docs.helicone.ai/integrations/tools/mcp“AI assistants like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible tools to query your Helicone observability data directly”

SOC 2

SOC 2 Type II [14]helicone.ai/pricing“SOC-2 Type II — listed as a compliance feature available on Team and Enterprise plans”docs.helicone.ai/llms.txt“SOC2 Type II certification”

HIPAA

✓ Yes [15]helicone.ai/pricing“Team ($799/month): SOC-2 & HIPAA compliance, dedicated Slack channel”

GDPR

✓ Yes [16]docs.helicone.ai/faq/compliance“Data and Security section references GDPR compliance through data region selection (US and EU options)”docs.helicone.ai/references/data-autonomy“Helicone offers regional deployment options for EU and US, enabling organizations to meet data residency and compliance mandates.”

ISO 27001

– Unknown [17]docs.helicone.ai/references/data-autonomy“Our cloud infrastructure adheres to SOC2 standards, ensuring rigorous security, availability, and confidentiality controls.”

PCI DSS

– Unknown

Published SLA

✗ No [18]helicone.ai/pricing“SLAs listed as Enterprise-only feature in the compliance section of the pricing comparison table; no public SLA document linked”helicone.ai/terms“Section 23: We will not be liable if for any reason all or any part of Service is unavailable at any time or for any period.”

Rate limits

Unapproved domains: 10,000 requests per day and 1 request per second (gateway docs). Ingestion limits by plan: Hobby 10 logs/min, Pro 1,000 logs/min, Team 15,000 logs/min, Enterprise 30,000 logs/min. [19]helicone.ai/pricing“Hobby: 10 logs/min; Pro: 1,000 logs/min; Team: 15,000 logs/min; Enterprise: 30,000 logs/min”docs.helicone.ai/getting-started/integration-method/gateway“Unapproved domains: Restricted to 10,000 requests per day and 1 request per second”

Known restrictions

LLM Security (guardrails) currently works with OpenAI models only (gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo, etc.); support for other providers coming soon, SOC 2 Type II report available upon request only, not publicly downloadable, Webhook payload body truncated at 10KB limit (full data via S3 URL, accessible 30 minutes), Cache-Control max duration is 7 days, Free Hobby plan limited to 1 seat and 1 organization, 7-day data retention on free Hobby plan; Enterprise only has configurable/unlimited retention, SLAs listed as an Enterprise-only feature - no public SLA terms published [20]docs.helicone.ai/features/advanced-usage/llm-security“LLM Security currently works with OpenAI models only (gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo, etc.). Support for other providers is coming soon.”docs.helicone.ai/features/webhooks“Truncated payload (10KB limit) in webhook body; S3-hosted full data accessible for 30 minutes”

• Docs
• llms.txt
• Changelog
• Status page

Docs rendering: static · llms.txt present

API style

rest

Base URL

https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai

Version

v1

Versioning

url

Stability

ga

Auth methods

api_key

Error format

vendor-specific

Webhook signing

hmac_sha256

Rate limit

10000 / day

SDKs

• Node.js @helicone/ai-gateway · repo
• Node.js @helicone/mcp · repo
• Node.js @helicone/ai-sdk-provider · repo
• Python helicone · repo
• Node.js (OpenAI-compatible drop-in) openai · repo

• Auth docs
• Quickstart
• MCP server
• Webhook events

Launched

2023-01-01

GA

2023-01-01

• Vercel AI Gateway

  "AI Gateway provides a unified API to access hundreds of AI models through a single endpoint, with built-in budgets, usage monitoring, and fallbacks."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Portkey

  "Production Stack for Gen AI Builders"

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Bifrost (Maxim AI)

  "The fastest, most resilient, enterprise-grade LLM, MCP, and agent gateway."

  Sales-led · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Cloudflare AI Gateway

  "Connect to any model, dynamically route requests, and manage usage, billing, and logs from one unified gateway."

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• TrueFoundry AI Gateway

  "A unified AI gateway to securely manage and govern AI across 1600+ models with policy control, real-time monitoring, and up to 30% cost reduction."

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• OpenRouter

  "The Unified Interface For LLMs" - OpenRouter scouts for the best prices, the lowest latencies, and the highest throughput across dozens of providers, offering a single OpenAI-compatible API with automatic fallback, model routing, and unified billing.

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

Helicone alternatives · Helicone vs Vercel AI Gateway · All AI Gateway & LLM Routing APIs APIs

Each field above carries a numbered source - hover for a preview, click to jump here.

1. ↑Description: helicone.ai · helicone.ai
2. ↑Pricing model: helicone.ai
3. ↑Published pricing: helicone.ai
4. ↑Free tier: helicone.ai
5. ↑Free tier details: helicone.ai · helicone.ai
6. ↑Self-serve signup: helicone.ai
7. ↑Enterprise plan: helicone.ai
8. ↑Supported actions: helicone.ai · docs.helicone.ai
9. ↑Regions: docs.helicone.ai
10. ↑Webhooks: docs.helicone.ai
11. ↑Sandbox: docs.helicone.ai
12. ↑SDK languages: docs.helicone.ai
13. ↑MCP server: docs.helicone.ai
14. ↑SOC 2: helicone.ai · docs.helicone.ai
15. ↑HIPAA: helicone.ai
16. ↑GDPR: docs.helicone.ai · docs.helicone.ai
17. ↑ISO 27001: docs.helicone.ai
18. ↑Published SLA: helicone.ai · helicone.ai
19. ↑Rate limits: helicone.ai · docs.helicone.ai
20. ↑Known restrictions: docs.helicone.ai · docs.helicone.ai

Every field change, who made it, and when - from our audited data pipeline and editors.

1. 2026-06-21 Capabilities: {} → {"guardrails":true,"self_hosted":true,"observability":true,"spend_controls":tru…
2. 2026-06-21 Summary Md: (none) → Helicone is an open-source LLM observability and gateway platform that routes r…
3. 2026-06-21 Score Pricing Transparency: (none) → 100
4. 2026-06-21 Score Setup Speed: (none) → 85
5. 2026-06-21 Score Docs Quality: (none) → 35
6. 2026-06-21 Score Procurement Friction: (none) → 100
7. 2026-06-21 Score Trust Readiness: (none) → 55
8. 2026-06-21 Best For: (none) → Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call, Regulated or enter…
9. 2026-06-21 Scoring Methodology: (none) → Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fi…
10. 2026-06-21 Score Agent Friendliness: (none) → 55
11. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt Present: (none) → Yes
12. 2026-06-21 Rendering: (none) → static
13. 2026-06-21 Has Structured Data: (none) → No
14. 2026-06-21 Robots Allows Agents: (none) → Yes
15. 2026-06-21 Status Page URL: (none) → https://status.helicone.ai
16. 2026-06-21 Changelog URL: (none) → https://www.helicone.ai/changelog
17. 2026-06-21 Docs URL: (none) → https://docs.helicone.ai/getting-started/quick-start
18. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt URL: (none) → https://www.helicone.ai/llms.txt
19. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Available: set to Yes
20. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Details: set to Hobby plan at $0/month: 10,000 free requests/month, 1 GB storage, 1 seat, 1 org…
21. 2026-06-21 Self Serve Signup: set to Yes
22. 2026-06-21 Requires Sales Call: set to No
23. 2026-06-21 Enterprise Plan Available: set to Yes
24. 2026-06-21 SOC 2: set to type_2
25. 2026-06-21 HIPAA: set to Yes
26. 2026-06-21 GDPR: set to Yes
27. 2026-06-21 SLA Published: set to No
28. 2026-06-21 Data Retention Policy URL: set to https://www.helicone.ai/privacy
29. 2026-06-21 Documented Rate Limits: set to Unapproved domains: 10,000 requests per day and 1 request per second (gateway d…
30. 2026-06-21 Rate Limit Requests: set to 10000
31. 2026-06-21 Rate Limit Window: set to day
32. 2026-06-21 Known Restrictions: set to LLM Security (guardrails) currently works with OpenAI models only (gpt-4, gpt-3…
33. 2026-06-21 Auth Methods: set to api_key
34. 2026-06-21 Auth Docs URL: set to https://docs.helicone.ai/helicone-headers/helicone-auth
35. 2026-06-21 API Style: set to rest
36. 2026-06-21 Base URL: set to https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai
37. 2026-06-21 API Version: set to v1
38. 2026-06-21 Versioning Scheme: set to url
39. 2026-06-21 Stability: set to ga
40. 2026-06-21 MCP URL: set to https://docs.helicone.ai/integrations/tools/mcp
41. 2026-06-21 Quickstart URL: set to https://docs.helicone.ai/getting-started/quick-start
42. 2026-06-21 Error Format: set to vendor-specific
43. 2026-06-21 Webhook Signing: set to hmac_sha256
44. 2026-06-21 Webhook Events URL: set to https://docs.helicone.ai/features/webhooks
45. 2026-06-21 Requires Verification: set to No
46. 2026-06-21 Starting Price Usd: set to 79
47. 2026-06-21 Slug: set to helicone
48. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Limit: set to 10,000 requests/month; open-source self-host available (Apache 2.0)
49. 2026-06-21 Launched At: set to 2023-01-01
50. 2026-06-21 GA Date: set to 2023-01-01

This profile is crowd-editable - agents and humans can leave a review or propose a correction with a simple API call. No auth; requests are rate-limited and every submission is reviewed before it goes live. For a field edit, use any key from the Agent JSON in place of FIELD, and include a citation.

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  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"value":"corrected value","citations":[{"url":"https://source.example/page","excerpt":"supporting quote"}],"note":"what changed and why"}'

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