NEWJoin 2M+ software buyers|Get Weekly Insights, Trends & Expert PicksSubscribe free →

List of the Best AI Gateways Software in 2026

Rajat Gupta
Researched and Edited by Rajat Gupta
Rajat Gupta

Researched and Edited by Rajat Gupta

Last updated: October 18, 2026 · How we review

AI Gateways overview

Spotsaas tracks 22 products in AI Gateways, ranked by SpotScore — a blend of feature coverage, verified review ratings, and value. Most buyers here are Platform engineers putting one access and billing point in front of several model vendors.

22
products listed

Who gets the most from AI Gateways

  • 1Platform engineers putting one access and billing point in front of several model vendors
  • 2Teams that need provider failover so one vendor outage does not take the feature down
  • 3Security and finance owners who need per-team model budgets and an audit record
How to choose AI Gateways

Start with who you want billed by your model providers, because that splits this market in two and most other differences follow from it. If you already run Kong, Tyk, APISIX, WSO2 or Gravitee for ordinary APIs, the gateway from that vendor keeps model traffic under policy you already operate. If you want one invoice across many models and no contracts to negotiate, a hosted router does that at the cost of putting a reseller in the path. Check the fee shape before the feature list: a percentage of model spend and a flat monthly tier price very differently once volume grows. Several vendors in this category publish no price at all, and most of those are the networking incumbents.

Showing -13--260 out of 22

9.8

SpotScore

CloudFlare - Content Delivery Network (CDN) Software

CloudFlare

Fast, secure, and powerful website optimization.

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

What is CloudFlare?

CloudFlare is a easy way to add content delivery network (CDN) functionality to any website. CloudFlare speeds up and protects millions of websites, ranging from personal blogs to large online properties like TechCrunch, Wikipedia, ESPN, BBC News, Yelp, SourceForge , The Onion, Mashable, ...

Read more about CloudFlare

CloudFlare offers custom pricing plan

9.3

SpotScore

Kong - API Management Software

Kong

Streamlining API access for seamless integration.

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Start Free Trial

Add to compare

What is Kong?

Kong is API management software, that allows Web and Mobile applications to access data, content and functions published by 3rd party providers. Kong works with any Public or Private API as well as any type of data source including RESTful HTTP services, Web Services, databases, message ...

Read more about Kong
Free Trial·

Starts from $250/Month, also offers free forever plan

Spotsaas Ads

Want your product up here? Put it in front of buyers the moment they're comparing your category.

Reach AI Gateways buyersRank above rivals2M+ buyers a year

9.2

SpotScore

Helicone logo

Helicone

Open-source LLM proxy with automatic logging, cost tracking, and caching in two minutes

Best for: SMB teams

Try for Free

4.6

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Helicone?

Helicone is an open-source LLM observability platform that works as a proxy — developers route their LLM API calls through Helicone's gateway with a single URL change, and it automatically logs every request, tracks cost and latency, enables prompt caching, and provides rate limiting. ...

Read more about Helicone

Starts from Freefree, also offers free forever plan

Spotsaas advisor
Get a free pick of the best AI Gateways
  • Matched in minutes, not days
  • Matched to your business
  • Trusted by 2M+ software buyers every year

Step 1 of 4

How big is your team?

We tailor recommendations to companies your size.

Trusted by teams at

8.8

SpotScore

Tyk API Management Platform - API Management Software

Tyk API Management Platform

Effortlessly manage and maximize your API portfolio.

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Start Free Trial

Add to compare

What is Tyk API Management Platform?

Tyk's API Management Platform is a set of technologies, best practices and self-service portals that give companies the necessary tools to manage their API portfolios. The platform can manage all aspects of the API lifecycle for both internal and external APIs, offering greater flexibility for ...

Read more about Tyk API Management Platform
Free Trial·

Starts from $1,800/Month

7.4

SpotScore

Zuplo - API Management Software

Zuplo

Effortlessly secure your API with Zuplo.

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

What is Zuplo?

Zuplo is a one-stop-shop for developers to quickly add rate-limiting, authentication and other features to their API, with results delivered in record time. Why expend time and resources to build and maintain an authentication system from scratch when Zuplo offers a convenient and fully-managed ...

Read more about Zuplo

Starts from $100/Month, also offers free forever plan

0
Vercel AI Gateway logo

Vercel AI Gateway

Model routing inside Vercel with no token markup, add-ons billed per thousand

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Vercel AI Gateway?

Vercel AI Gateway routes requests from applications deployed on Vercel to many model providers through one endpoint and one bill, with failover when a provider is unavailable. The vendor states it applies no markup and no platform fee to model tokens; observability and policy add-ons such as ...

Read more about Vercel AI Gateway

Vercel AI Gateway offers custom pricing plan

What buyers evaluate in AI Gateways
Who holds the provider contract: your own keys behind an egress proxy, or the gateway reselling inference
Whether it can be self-hosted, which decides if prompts may leave your network
What the vendor charges on top of model cost: a flat percentage, a seat price, or a request tier
0
OpenRouter logo

OpenRouter

One API and one invoice across hundreds of hosted models, with automatic failover

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is OpenRouter?

OpenRouter is a hosted routing layer that exposes hundreds of models from many vendors through a single OpenAI-compatible endpoint and one account balance, so a team can switch models without opening a new vendor contract. Requests fall over to another provider when one is rate limited or down, ...

Read more about OpenRouter

OpenRouter offers custom pricing plan

0
LangDB logo

LangDB

Hosted AI gateway with routing, guardrails and per-request cost reporting

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is LangDB?

LangDB is a hosted AI gateway that routes application traffic across model providers through one endpoint and records every call for cost and latency reporting. It applies guardrails, virtual keys, budgets and fallback rules at the proxy rather than in application code, and exposes traces for ...

Read more about LangDB

Starts from $49/Month, also offers free forever plan

0
Higress logo

Higress

CNCF Sandbox AI gateway built on Envoy, with a hosted Alibaba Cloud edition

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Higress?

Higress is an open-source gateway built on Envoy and Istio that routes traffic to model providers with token-based rate limiting, fallback, caching and request logging, and runs as an ingress controller in Kubernetes. It is a CNCF Sandbox project and the community edition is free to self-host. ...

Read more about Higress

Higress offers custom pricing plan

0
Requesty logo

Requesty

Model router billed as a flat percentage of model spend, with no seat charge

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Requesty?

Requesty is a hosted router that places many model providers behind one API key and bills a flat percentage on top of model cost, with no seat fee and no monthly minimum. It handles fallback when a provider errors, caches repeated requests, and reports spend by user, model and application. A ...

Read more about Requesty

Requesty offers custom pricing plan

0
Pydantic AI Gateway logo

Pydantic AI Gateway

Gateway from the Pydantic team, free on your own provider keys

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Pydantic AI Gateway?

Pydantic AI Gateway routes model calls through one endpoint with per-credential budgets, access rules and request records that feed Pydantic Logfire for tracing. Traffic on a team's own provider keys carries no fee on the personal tier; calls through Pydantic's built-in providers carry a ...

Read more about Pydantic AI Gateway

Starts from $49/Month, also offers free forever plan

0
WSO2 AI Gateway logo

WSO2 AI Gateway

AI gateway inside WSO2 API Manager, metered on gateway events and managed model APIs

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Start Free Trial

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is WSO2 AI Gateway?

WSO2 AI Gateway is part of WSO2's API platform and puts model providers behind managed API definitions with token-based rate limiting, failover, guardrails and subscription policies, governed with the same catalogue and developer portal as a team's ordinary APIs. Plans meter the number of ...

Read more about WSO2 AI Gateway
Free TrialTry Free →·

Starts from $119/Month

0
agentgateway logo

agentgateway

Apache-licensed data plane for LLM and MCP traffic, with Solo.io enterprise support

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is agentgateway?

agentgateway is an Apache-licensed proxy from Solo.io that sits in front of model providers and Model Context Protocol servers, applying identity, authorization, rate limits and traffic policy to agent calls the way a service mesh does for ordinary services. It runs standalone or inside ...

Read more about agentgateway

agentgateway offers custom pricing plan

0
Gravitee AI Gateway logo

Gravitee AI Gateway

Enterprise AI gateway sold on monthly request volume, from 50 million requests

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

See Plans & Pricing

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Gravitee AI Gateway?

Gravitee AI Gateway governs model and agent traffic inside Gravitee's API platform, applying prompt policy, token quotas, routing and audit records across providers, and exposing the same catalogue and portal used for REST, event and async APIs. It requires Gravitee's agent management module ...

Read more about Gravitee AI Gateway

Starts from $2,500/Month

0
Bifrost logo

Bifrost

Open-source AI gateway from Maxim AI, with a quoted enterprise build

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Start Free Trial

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Bifrost?

Bifrost is an open-source gateway from Maxim AI that fronts model providers with one API and handles fallback, load balancing, key management and request logging, with Model Context Protocol support for agent calls. The core is free to self-host; the enterprise build adds governance, deployment ...

Read more about Bifrost
Free TrialTry Free →·

Bifrost offers custom pricing plan

0
LiteLLM logo

LiteLLM

Open-source proxy that puts 100-plus model providers behind one OpenAI-format API

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is LiteLLM?

LiteLLM is an open-source Python SDK and proxy server that accepts requests in OpenAI's format and forwards them to more than 100 model providers, so application code keeps one request shape when the underlying model changes. The proxy adds virtual API keys per team, spend budgets, rate limits, ...

Read more about LiteLLM

LiteLLM offers custom pricing plan

0
AISIX logo

AISIX

AI gateway from the API7 team behind Apache APISIX, priced on recorded requests

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Try for Free

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is AISIX?

AISIX is an AI gateway built by API7, the company behind Apache APISIX, that fronts model providers with one API and applies routing, retries, rate limits and per-token cost accounting at the proxy. It records request and response bodies for later inspection, which is how its plans are metered, ...

Read more about AISIX

Starts from $149/Month, also offers free forever plan

0
F5 AI Gateway logo

F5 AI Gateway

AI traffic governance from F5, deployed alongside existing application delivery estate

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Get Pricing Details

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is F5 AI Gateway?

F5 AI Gateway inspects and routes prompts and model responses in front of self-hosted and vendor-hosted models, applying rate limits, request and response filtering, and policy for sensitive data before traffic reaches a provider. It is sold into organisations already running F5 for application ...

Read more about F5 AI Gateway

F5 AI Gateway offers custom pricing plan

Portkey - Logo

Portkey

AI gateway with routing, caching, guardrails and observability

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Get Pricing Details

Add to compare

What is Portkey?

Portkey is a gateway that sits between an application and model providers, adding routing and automatic fallback across models, semantic caching, rate limiting, guardrails and cost tracking, with observability over every request. Because it sits in the request path it captures traces without ...

Read more about Portkey

Portkey offers custom pricing plan

Keywords AI

Keywords AI

Seamless LLM Monitoring and Optimization for AI Startups.

Best for: SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise

Start Free Trial

Add to compare

watch-demo

Watch Demo

What is Keywords AI?

Keywords AI is an LLM monitoring and observability platform for AI development teams. It supports integration of over 200 LLMs into existing codebases with a single line of code, and provides tools for monitoring performance, running tests, and tracking user analytics across AI applications.

Read more about Keywords AI
Free TrialTry Free →·

Starts from $0/user/month

Used one of these ai gateways tools? Your review helps the next buyer choose.

Write a Review

Frequently Asked Questions About AI Gateways

Stuck on something? We're here to help with all the questions and answers in one place.

AI Gateways pricing varies widely, from free plans to enterprise contracts. 2 products on Spotsaas offer a free plan or trial, including Bifrost, WSO2 AI Gateway. Paid plans typically start around $10–$50/month per user. Check individual product pages for current pricing.

The top rated AI Gateways based on verified user reviews and SpotScore are LiteLLM, OpenRouter, AISIX. These consistently score highest on ease of use, feature depth, and customer support quality. Ratings are updated monthly based on real buyer feedback.

To choose the right AI Gateways, define your must-have features, set a budget range, and compare 3–5 options. Use free trials to test real workflows before buying. Spotsaas SpotScore combines feature depth, user ratings, and pricing to help you compare objectively.

Yes. 2 AI Gateways on Spotsaas offer a free plan or free trial. Popular free options include Bifrost, WSO2 AI Gateway. Free plans typically cover core features for small teams; paid upgrades unlock advanced reporting, integrations, and support.

The best AI Gateways for small businesses are affordable, quick to set up, and scale without complexity. Top picks for small teams are LiteLLM, OpenRouter, AISIX. Look for per-user pricing, no long-term contracts, and strong onboarding support to minimize ramp-up time.

Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].