Comparisons

LLM Gateway vs the alternatives

LLM Gateway is an open-source AI gateway that routes requests to 40+ providers and 200+ models through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. These 7 breakdowns show where it differs from the gateways, cloud platforms, and coding assistants teams usually evaluate alongside it.

  • 7comparisons
  • 40+providers
  • 200+models
  • AGPLv3open source

Every alternative at a glance

Licensing and hosting are what separate these products fastest. Everything else — routing, pricing, model coverage — is covered in each deep dive.

LLM Gateway compared with seven alternatives by open-source licensing and self-hosting
ProductCategoryOpen sourceSelf-hostableDeep dive
LLM GatewayAI gateways & routersFull platform (AGPLv3)Yes—
OpenRouterAI gateways & routersNoNoCompare
PortkeyAI gateways & routersGateway + platform (MIT)Most componentsCompare
LiteLLMAI gateways & routersYes (MIT)YesCompare
Vercel AI GatewayAI gateways & routersNoNoCompare
AWS BedrockCloud model platformsNoNoCompare
Azure AI FoundryCloud model platformsNoNoCompare
GitHub CopilotCoding assistantsNoNoCompare

AI gateways & routers

LLM Gateway vs OpenRouter

What OpenRouter is
A hosted marketplace that puts hundreds of models behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with its own credit system on top.
Where LLM Gateway differs
LLM Gateway is open source and self-hostable, so the routing layer can run inside your own infrastructure instead of only as someone else's service.
Pick OpenRouter if
You want the widest possible catalogue of niche and community models and have no interest in running any infrastructure yourself.
Read the comparisonMigration guide

LLM Gateway vs Portkey

What Portkey is
An AI gateway paired with a broader LLMOps suite covering prompt management, evaluations, and observability.
Where LLM Gateway differs
The entire LLM Gateway platform ships under AGPLv3, where Portkey's gateway is open source but the surrounding platform is a proprietary hosted product.
Pick Portkey if
You want prompt management and evaluation tooling bundled with the gateway, and you are happy on a hosted platform.
Read the comparisonMigration guide

LLM Gateway vs LiteLLM

What LiteLLM is
A widely used open-source Python proxy and SDK that normalises calls across providers, run and operated by you.
Where LLM Gateway differs
LLM Gateway is a managed, production-ready service — dashboard, analytics, worker, and gateway in one deploy — rather than a proxy you host, monitor, and upgrade yourself.
Pick LiteLLM if
You already run Python infrastructure, want library-level control, and would rather own the operational burden than pay a platform fee.
Read the comparisonMigration guide

LLM Gateway vs Vercel AI Gateway

What Vercel AI Gateway is
A managed routing service built tightly around the Vercel AI SDK and the Vercel deployment platform.
Where LLM Gateway differs
LLM Gateway is open source and self-hostable with zero token markup, and it is not tied to one hosting platform or SDK.
Pick Vercel AI Gateway if
Your stack already lives entirely on Vercel and you want routing that is one configuration line away inside the AI SDK.
Read the comparisonMigration guide

Cloud model platforms

LLM Gateway vs AWS Bedrock

What AWS Bedrock is
Amazon's managed service for the models AWS hosts, billed and governed through your existing AWS account.
Where LLM Gateway differs
LLM Gateway reaches every major lab and cloud — Bedrock included — behind one API, so a model AWS does not host is still one string change away.
Pick AWS Bedrock if
Everything must stay inside AWS billing and IAM, and the models you need are all available in Bedrock.
Read the comparison

LLM Gateway vs Azure AI Foundry

What Azure AI Foundry is
Microsoft's managed platform for the models Azure hosts, reached after you create resources, deployments, and quota.
Where LLM Gateway differs
LLM Gateway needs no per-model provisioning: one key reaches every provider, and Azure can stay in the mix as one of them.
Pick Azure AI Foundry if
Azure is your mandated cloud and the provisioning workflow is already part of how your team ships.
Read the comparison

Coding assistants

LLM Gateway vs GitHub Copilot

What GitHub Copilot is
GitHub's coding assistant, which since June 2026 bills chat and agent usage through usage-based AI Credits.
Where LLM Gateway differs
LLM Gateway charges zero token markup and enforces hard budget caps at organization, project, and key scope.
Pick GitHub Copilot if
You want a single vendor for editor, repository, and assistant, and one per-seat bill matters more than per-project and per-key cost attribution.
Read the comparisonMigration guide

Which one should you choose?

If you need one endpoint across many providers, want the routing layer to be inspectable and self-hostable, and care about paying provider rates rather than a marked-up bill, LLM Gateway is built for that. If your models all live in one cloud you are already committed to, that cloud's own platform is the shorter path — and LLM Gateway can still sit in front of it with your own keys at 0% markup.

The comparisons above are written to help you rule LLM Gateway out as readily as in. Each one names what the other product does better.

Choosing an AI gateway, answered

What is the best OpenRouter or Portkey alternative?
LLM Gateway is an open-source AI gateway that routes requests to 40+ providers and 200+ models through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Unlike hosted-only alternatives, the whole platform is AGPLv3 licensed, so you can run it on your own infrastructure or use the managed service.
How does LLM Gateway price against other AI gateways?
You pay providers their per-token rates plus a 5% platform fee on credits, or you bring your own provider keys and pay 0% markup. There are no per-seat licences and no request-volume tiers. Optional full request retention is billed at $0.01 per 1M tokens.
Do I have to rewrite my code to switch?
No. LLM Gateway exposes an OpenAI-compatible API, so switching is a base URL and API key change in whichever SDK you already use. Step-by-step migration guides cover OpenRouter, Portkey, LiteLLM, Vercel AI Gateway, and GitHub Copilot.
Can LLM Gateway sit in front of AWS Bedrock or Azure?
Yes. Bedrock and Azure are providers inside LLM Gateway rather than things it replaces. You can keep those contracts and route through them with your own keys at 0% markup, while gaining failover, caching, and cross-provider cost analytics.
Is LLM Gateway actually open source?
Yes. The core platform — gateway, dashboard, and worker — is licensed under AGPLv3 and free to self-host forever. Some enterprise features live under a separate commercial licence in the ee/ directory.

Try it against your own workload

Change the base URL and API key, send a request, and compare the numbers yourself.

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