AI Gateways
Middleware to handle API keys, load balancing, and fallback routing between different model providers.
| Rank | Model | Price | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Open Source | The Universal Standard. It has become the 'Docker' of LLM connectivity. It normalizes inputs/outputs for 200+ providers (OpenAI, Vertex, Bedrock) into a single format, allowing teams to swap models with zero code changes. | |
|
2
|
Freemium | The Control Plane. Goes beyond routing to offer 'Virtual Keys' and integrated guardrails. Its 'Semantic Cache' feature can reduce API bills by 30% by serving repeated questions from memory without hitting the model. | |
|
3
|
Free / Usage | The Infrastructure Edge. Runs on Cloudflare's massive global network. It offers the fastest caching and rate-limiting because it sits closer to the user than any other gateway. Essential for high-traffic public apps. | |
|
4
|
Enterprise | The Enterprise Fortress. Built on the world's most popular API gateway. It introduces 'Semantic Routing', allowing you to route queries to different models based on the *meaning* of the prompt (e.g., coding prompts -> Claude, creative prompts -> GPT-5). | |
|
5
|
Usage Based | The Intelligence Router. Unlike a passive proxy, it is an active 'Model Recommender'. It analyzes every prompt in real-time to route it to the cheapest model that can successfully answer it, often beating GPT-5 quality at 1/10th the cost. | |
|
6
|
Usage Based | The Marketplace. The easiest way to access new models. It aggregates hundreds of providers, allowing you to use a single credit card and API key to access everything from Llama 4 405B to Claude Opus without managing separate accounts. | |
|
7
|
Open Source | The Observability Proxy. While it handles routing, its superpower is distinct visibility. It provides the granular 'Cost per User' and 'Latency per Prompt' metrics that engineering managers need to optimize production apps. | |
|
8
|
Open Source | The Speed Demon. Written in Go, it is the fastest open-source gateway with sub-millisecond overhead. It is designed for high-frequency trading or real-time voice agents where every microsecond of latency counts. | |
|
9
|
Enterprise | The Security Sentry. An enterprise gateway focused strictly on compliance. It sits between your users and the models to scrub PII, block prompt injections, and enforce data residency rules before the request leaves your VPC. | |
|
10
|
Included in Vercel | The Frontend Native. Integrated directly into the Next.js ecosystem. It allows developers to stream UI components from the edge, handling complex model tool-calling logic completely server-side. |
Just the Highlights
LiteLLM Proxy
The Universal Standard. It has become the 'Docker' of LLM connectivity. It normalizes inputs/outputs for 200+ providers (OpenAI, Vertex, Bedrock) into a single format, allowing teams to swap models with zero code changes.
Portkey
The Control Plane. Goes beyond routing to offer 'Virtual Keys' and integrated guardrails. Its 'Semantic Cache' feature can reduce API bills by 30% by serving repeated questions from memory without hitting the model.
Cloudflare AI Gateway
The Infrastructure Edge. Runs on Cloudflare's massive global network. It offers the fastest caching and rate-limiting because it sits closer to the user than any other gateway. Essential for high-traffic public apps.
Kong AI Gateway
The Enterprise Fortress. Built on the world's most popular API gateway. It introduces 'Semantic Routing', allowing you to route queries to different models based on the *meaning* of the prompt (e.g., coding prompts -> Claude, creative prompts -> GPT-5).
Not Diamond
The Intelligence Router. Unlike a passive proxy, it is an active 'Model Recommender'. It analyzes every prompt in real-time to route it to the cheapest model that can successfully answer it, often beating GPT-5 quality at 1/10th the cost.
OpenRouter
The Marketplace. The easiest way to access new models. It aggregates hundreds of providers, allowing you to use a single credit card and API key to access everything from Llama 4 405B to Claude Opus without managing separate accounts.
Helicone
The Observability Proxy. While it handles routing, its superpower is distinct visibility. It provides the granular 'Cost per User' and 'Latency per Prompt' metrics that engineering managers need to optimize production apps.
Bifrost (Maxim AI)
The Speed Demon. Written in Go, it is the fastest open-source gateway with sub-millisecond overhead. It is designed for high-frequency trading or real-time voice agents where every microsecond of latency counts.
Javelin
The Security Sentry. An enterprise gateway focused strictly on compliance. It sits between your users and the models to scrub PII, block prompt injections, and enforce data residency rules before the request leaves your VPC.
Vercel AI Gateway
The Frontend Native. Integrated directly into the Next.js ecosystem. It allows developers to stream UI components from the edge, handling complex model tool-calling logic completely server-side.