Best AI Gateway & LLM Routing APIs

Best overall: Vercel AI Gateway

███████▓░░ 77 / 100 data score

Vercel AI Gateway is a unified REST API that routes requests to hundreds of AI models across multiple providers through a single endpoint, with built-in automatic fallback, load balancing, spend limits, and observability logging. It launched in May 2025 and reached general availability in August 2025, and is used by teams at v0.app, Browserbase, and Perplexity. Pricing is usage-based per token with a free tier offering $5 of credits every 30 days on a rate-limited subset of models; paid tiers unlock BYOK, zero data retention routing, and higher rate limits. The service holds SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS certifications, and exposes OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic-compatible, and native SDKs for TypeScript and Python.

free tier available.

How it stacks up

• ✓ For coding-agent use, Portkey scores higher on agent-friendliness (65 vs 55).
• ✓ Vercel AI Gateway supports webhooks for event-driven integration; the other does not document them.

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).

Vercel AI Gateway profile → · Vercel AI Gateway vs Portkey →

At a glance

Quick pick by use case

If you only have thirty seconds, find your situation:

• If you want the strongest all-round pick, pick Vercel AI Gateway - our default pick: strongest across pricing, trust and breadth.
• If you want to start free, pick Vercel AI Gateway - free tier: $5 of AI Gateway Credits every 30 days for teams that have not purchased credits. Free ti….
• If you're buying for a regulated or large team, pick Vercel AI Gateway - for regulated or large teams: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, published SLA.
• If you want the lowest published entry price, pick Portkey - from $49 month to start; compare on your real usage, not the entry price.
• If you're wiring this into coding agents or AI workflows, pick Vercel AI Gateway - easiest to wire up programmatically: MCP server + llms.txt.
• If you want the broadest documented surface, pick Portkey - 39 documented actions; breadth isn't quality, but it's the most to build on.

The picks in depth

• #1 Vercel AI Gateway

  ███████▓░░ 77 / 100
  • Best overall
  • Best free pick
  • Best for enterprise
  • Best for agents

  Vercel AI Gateway is a unified REST API that routes requests to hundreds of AI models across multiple providers through a single endpoint, with built-in automatic fallback, load balancing, spend limits, and observability logging. It launched in May 2025 and reached general availability in August 2025, and is used by teams at v0.app, Browserbase, and Perplexity. Pricing is usage-based per token with a free tier offering $5 of credits every 30 days on a rate-limited subset of models; paid tiers unlock BYOK, zero data retention routing, and higher rate limits. The service holds SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS certifications, and exposes OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic-compatible, and native SDKs for TypeScript and Python.

  PricingUsage · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001 · PCI DSS

  Does

  • Fallback / routing
  • Spend controls
  • Observability

  Used byv0.app, Browserbase, Perplexity

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 55 · Pricing 75 · Setup 85 · Docs 55 · Procurement 90 · Trust 100

  Vercel AI Gateway profile →

• #2 Portkey

  ███████▒░░ 74 / 100
  • Cheapest to start
  • Broadest surface

  Portkey is a production infrastructure layer for generative AI teams, providing a unified REST API across 1,600+ models with built-in routing, automatic fallback, load balancing, semantic caching, and observability logging. It targets developers and enterprises building LLM-powered applications who need cost controls, prompt versioning, and AI guardrails including PII redaction. Paid plans start at $49 per month with a free tier capped at 10,000 logged requests; an open-source self-host option is available under the MIT license. Portkey holds SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001 certifications, though compliance certificates and private VPC deployments are restricted to the Enterprise tier.

  PricingHybrid · from $49 month · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001

  Does

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

  Used bySnorkel AI, RVO Health, Haptik, SiteGPT

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 65 · Pricing 100 · Setup 85 · Docs 25 · Procurement 100 · Trust 70

  Portkey profile →

• #3 Bifrost (Maxim AI)

  ██████▓░░░ 67 / 100

  Bifrost by Maxim AI is an LLM, MCP, and agent gateway that provides unified routing, automatic failover, load balancing, semantic caching, and spend controls across multiple AI providers through an OpenAI-compatible REST API. It targets enterprise teams that need governance, observability, and cost management over LLM usage. The core product is open-source under Apache 2.0 for self-hosting, while enterprise features including guardrails, RBAC, SSO, audit logs, and in-VPC deployment require a custom-priced plan. SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance are available at the enterprise tier.

  PricingSales-led · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001

  Does

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

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 55 · Pricing 75 · Setup 85 · Docs 25 · Procurement 90 · Trust 70

  Bifrost (Maxim AI) profile →

• #4 Cloudflare AI Gateway

  ███████▓░░ 78 / 100

  Cloudflare AI Gateway is a unified proxy layer for teams routing requests across multiple LLM providers, offering automatic fallback, response caching, rate limiting, spend controls, and centralized observability from a single endpoint. Core features including analytics, caching, and rate limiting are free on all plans with 100,000 logs per account; paid plans expand log capacity and gateway count, and an enterprise tier adds HIPAA coverage and Logpush. The gateway is OpenAI and Anthropic API-compatible, supports bring-your-own-key management, and holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and GDPR certifications. A 5% fee applies to credits purchased through Unified Billing, while provider inference pricing passes through without markup.

  PricingHybrid · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001 · PCI DSS

  Does

  • Fallback / routing
  • Spend controls
  • Observability
  • Guardrails

  Used byRightBlogger

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 65 · Pricing 75 · Setup 80 · Docs 55 · Procurement 90 · Trust 100

  Cloudflare AI Gateway profile →

• #5 TrueFoundry AI Gateway

  ████████░░ 80 / 100

  TrueFoundry AI Gateway is a unified LLM proxy that routes requests across 1,600+ models from 15+ providers, with built-in failover, semantic caching, spend controls, PII redaction, and observability. It is aimed at enterprises needing centralized AI governance, including regulated industries that require on-premises or air-gapped deployments. Paid plans start at $499 per month (Pro, 1M requests, 10 users), with a free Developer tier capped at 50,000 requests and 3 users. The platform holds SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR certifications, though HIPAA and GDPR-ready deployments require the Pro Plus plan or above.

  PricingHybrid · from $499 month · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR

  Does

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

  Used byInnovaccer, Whatfix, Wadhwani AI, Aviva Credito

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 75 · Pricing 100 · Setup 95 · Docs 35 · Procurement 100 · Trust 75

  TrueFoundry AI Gateway profile →

• #6 Helicone

  ███████░░░ 72 / 100

  Helicone is an open-source LLM observability and gateway platform that routes requests across 100+ models through a single OpenAI-compatible API, with built-in monitoring, semantic caching, automatic failover, and spend controls. It targets developers and teams building AI applications who need multi-provider flexibility without markup on model costs. Paid plans start at $79 per month, with a free tier capped at 10,000 requests per month and an Apache 2.0 self-hosted option. Helicone holds SOC 2 Type II certification and is HIPAA and GDPR compliant, with SDKs for Python and Node.js and an MCP server available.

  PricingHybrid · from $79 month · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR

  Does

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

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 55 · Pricing 100 · Setup 85 · Docs 35 · Procurement 100 · Trust 55

  Helicone profile →

• #7 OpenRouter

  ██████▓░░░ 67 / 100

  OpenRouter is a unified LLM gateway that routes requests across 70-plus providers through a single OpenAI-compatible API, with automatic fallback, load balancing, and response caching to optimize cost and latency. Pricing is usage-based, passing through provider costs plus a platform fee; a free tier covering 25-plus models is available with no credit card required. The service holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification and GDPR compliance, and SDKs are available for TypeScript, Python, and Go, including drop-in OpenAI SDK replacements. Enterprise plans add EU in-region routing, SSO, and negotiated SLAs.

  PricingUsage · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · GDPR

  Does

  • Fallback / routing
  • Spend controls
  • Observability
  • Guardrails

  Used byFramer, NIST, AMD, Nvidia

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 55 · Pricing 75 · Setup 85 · Docs 55 · Procurement 90 · Trust 40

  OpenRouter profile →

• #8 Kong AI Gateway

  ███████▒░░ 74 / 100

  Kong AI Gateway is a control plane for teams routing traffic across multiple LLM providers, offering unified OpenAI-compatible API access, automatic fallback, semantic caching, token-based spend limits, PII sanitization, and MCP/agent-to-agent governance. It targets platform and security engineering teams that need centralized AI access control, observability, and audit logging across providers. Paid plans start at $105 per seat per month with no sales call required, and a fully self-hosted open-source option (Kong Gateway 3.9.1 and earlier) is available at no cost. The platform holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification, is GDPR and PCI DSS compliant, and publishes an SLA.

  PricingHybrid · from $105 seat/month · free tier ✓

  TrustSOC 2 Type II · GDPR · PCI DSS

  Does

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

  Used byRabobank, Richemont, Sky Italia, Verifone

  Strengthstransparent public pricing · a free tier · self-serve signup

  ScoresAgent 65 · Pricing 100 · Setup 85 · Docs 25 · Procurement 100 · Trust 70

  Kong AI Gateway profile →

See all 14 AI Gateway & LLM Routing APIs compared →

How we rank

The headline score is the average of six 0-100 axes computed only from each API’s published, sourced fields: agent-friendliness, pricing transparency, setup speed, docs quality, procurement ease, and trust readiness. An unknown signal scores 0 for its axis - we credit what’s confirmed, never guess. The score is one input, not the verdict: we lead with each pick’s trade-off, and where a job has only one real option we say so rather than crown it. Full method on the methodology page.

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• ✓ Every field cited. Each profile links the source for every claim - check us.
• ✓ Public audit log. Every change to this data is recorded per field, with who changed it and why.
• ✓ Published, deterministic methodology. The score is a formula over the same fields you can see - recompute it yourself.
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• ✓ No reviews yet - and we say so rather than synthesizing them.

Frequently asked questions