Use cases · AI Gateway & LLM Routing APIs

Best AI Gateways with Semantic Caching

LLM gateways that cache semantically similar prompts to cut token spend and latency on repeated queries.

Required capability: Semantic caching.

Our pick: Portkey

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.

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).

Portkey profile →

Best for…

Best overall
Portkey - our default pick: strongest across pricing, trust and breadth
Best free pick
Portkey - free tier: Developer plan: free forever, 10k recorded logs/month, 3-day log retention, 30-day metric…
Best for enterprise
Portkey - for regulated or large teams: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, enterprise plan
Cheapest to start
Portkey - from $49 month to start; compare on your real usage, not the entry price
Best for agents
Portkey - easiest to wire up programmatically: MCP server + llms.txt
Broadest surface
Portkey - 39 documented actions; breadth isn't quality, but it's the most to build on

Ranked (7)

  • #1 Portkey

    74 / 100
    • Best overall
    • Best free pick
    • Best for enterprise
    • Cheapest to start
    • Best for agents
    • 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

    Portkey profile →

  • #2 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

    Bifrost (Maxim AI) profile →

  • #3 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

    TrueFoundry AI Gateway profile →

  • #4 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

    Helicone profile →

  • #5 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

    Kong AI Gateway profile →

  • #6 Requesty

    62 / 100

    Requesty 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 · GDPR
    Does
    • Semantic caching
    • Fallback / routing
    • Spend controls
    • Observability
    • Guardrails
    Used byShopify, Amadeus, Chargebee, Contentful

    Requesty profile →

  • #7 LiteLLM

    48 / 100

    LiteLLM 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 27001
    Does
    • Semantic caching
    • Fallback / routing
    • Spend controls
    • Observability
    • Guardrails
    • Self-hosted
    Used byNetflix, Lemonade

    LiteLLM profile →

Scope: only APIs with the required capability, picked from published, cited data. The score is one input, not the verdict, and we lead with each one’s trade-off. No reviews yet, no paid placement. See the full AI Gateway & LLM Routing APIs directory.