Best AI Gateways for LLM Spend Control
LLM gateways with budgets, spend limits, and virtual keys to govern model costs across teams and projects.
Our pick: Vercel AI Gateway
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.
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).
Best for…
- Best overall
- Vercel AI Gateway
- Best free pick
- Vercel AI Gateway
- Best for enterprise
- Vercel AI Gateway
- Cheapest to start
- Portkey
- Best for agents
- Vercel AI Gateway
- Broadest surface
- Portkey
Ranked (13)
#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 DSSDoesUsed byv0.app, Browserbase, Perplexity#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 27001DoesUsed bySnorkel AI, RVO Health, Haptik, SiteGPT#3 Bifrost (Maxim AI)
67 / 100Bifrost 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 27001Does#4 Cloudflare AI Gateway
78 / 100Cloudflare 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 DSSDoesUsed byRightBlogger#5 TrueFoundry AI Gateway
80 / 100TrueFoundry 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 · GDPRDoesUsed byInnovaccer, Whatfix, Wadhwani AI, Aviva Credito#6 Helicone
72 / 100Helicone 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 · GDPRDoes#7 OpenRouter
67 / 100OpenRouter 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 · GDPRDoesUsed byFramer, NIST, AMD, Nvidia#8 Kong AI Gateway
74 / 100Kong 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 DSSDoesUsed byRabobank, Richemont, Sky Italia, Verifone#9 LLM Gateway
68 / 100LLM Gateway is a unified routing layer that sends requests across 280+ models through a single OpenAI-compatible endpoint, handling automatic failover, load balancing, response caching, and per-key spend limits without requiring code changes when switching providers. It targets teams managing multi-provider LLM costs, offering bring-your-own-keys with no markup plus a 5% gateway fee on credits for the hosted service, or a self-hostable AGPLv3 open-source build for teams that want full control. Pricing is usage-based with a free tier covering three rate-limited models, and enterprise plans add SSO, audit logs, and custom rate limits. The service is SOC 2 Type 2 certified, GDPR compliant, and counts Samsung and Harvard among its customers.
PricingUsage · free tier ✓TrustSOC 2 Type II · GDPRDoesUsed bySamsung, Harvard, Coloop.ai, FieldKo#10 Requesty
62 / 100Requesty is a unified AI gateway and LLM router that provides a single OpenAI-compatible endpoint for accessing over 400 AI models, with automatic failover, load balancing, and prompt caching built in. It is aimed at teams and enterprises that want cost control and observability across multiple LLM providers, offering real-time cost and latency dashboards, RBAC, spend limits, and model whitelists. Pricing is usage-based at a 5% markup on base model costs for pay-as-you-go accounts, with a free tier capped at 200 requests per day. Customers include Shopify, Siemens, Pfizer, and PwC, and the service runs across EU, US, and APAC regions with GDPR compliance and a published SLA.
PricingUsage · free tier ✓TrustSOC 2 In progress · GDPRDoesUsed byShopify, Amadeus, Chargebee, Contentful#11 LiteLLM
48 / 100LiteLLM is an open-source LLM gateway that provides a unified OpenAI-compatible API across 100+ model providers, handling load balancing, automatic failover, semantic caching, rate limiting, and spend tracking in one proxy layer. It is self-hosted rather than offered as a managed SaaS, making it suited for teams that need centralized governance over multiple LLM deployments without vendor lock-in. The free tier covers self-hosting with SSO available up to five users; enterprise licensing is required for features such as audit logs, SCIM, per-key guardrails, and batch cost tracking. LiteLLM holds SOC 2 Type I and ISO 27001 certifications, with SDKs for Python and Node.js and support for API key, JWT, and OAuth2 authentication.
PricingSales-led · free tier ✓TrustSOC 2 Type I · ISO 27001DoesUsed byNetflix, Lemonade#12 LangDB
53 / 100LangDB is an AI gateway that provides multi-provider LLM routing, observability, and cost governance for teams building and operating AI agents. It exposes an OpenAI-compatible REST API with support for automatic fallback, load balancing, response caching, and routing strategies including latency-based and percentage-based rules. Pricing is subscription-based with a free cloud trial and published tiers; guardrails and budget controls require Business or Enterprise plans. SDKs are available for Python and TypeScript, an MCP server is supported, and the service is GDPR-compliant but explicitly not suitable for HIPAA-regulated workloads.
PricingSubscription · free tier ✓TrustGDPRDoesAvoid ifYou have strict compliance requirements#13 Unify
60 / 100Unify is an LLM routing gateway that lets developers access models from multiple providers through a single API key, dynamically selecting the best model per prompt to balance quality, speed, and cost. It is aimed at teams that need provider-level failover, observability, spend controls, and benchmarking across LLMs. Pricing starts at $75 per month with a self-serve signup and free starter credits; an enterprise plan with on-premises deployment is available through sales. The platform is GDPR compliant, with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications in progress.
PricingHybrid · from $75 month · free tier ✓TrustSOC 2 In progress · GDPRDoes