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Bifrost AI Gateway vs Portkey

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Free plan
Both have one
Public API
Both have one
Higher Trust score
Portkey — 91 vs 82 for Bifrost AI Gateway
Best fit
Bifrost AI Gateway: Platform teams that want one internal endpoint for many model providers · Portkey: Teams calling several LLM providers who want a single API with fallbacks and caching
Platforms
Bifrost AI Gateway: Linux, macOS, Windows · Portkey: Web

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

Bifrost AI GatewayOpen-source Go gateway that fronts many LLM providers with one OpenAI-compatible API, fallbacks, budgets and an MCP gateway.PortkeyAI gateway that routes requests to 1,600+ models through one API, with caching, fallbacks, guardrails and observability.

Side by side

FactBifrost AI GatewayPortkey
CategoryAI Gateways & RoutingAI Gateways & Routing
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at—$49/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score82 / 10091 / 100
PlatformsAPI, Linux, macOS, WindowsWeb, API
CompanyH3 Labs Inc (Maxim AI)Palo Alto Networks
Launched20252023
Last verifiedOct 2, 2026Oct 2, 2026

What our research says

Bifrost AI Gateway

Bifrost is a credible open-source option when you want to centralise provider keys, fallbacks and spend limits without writing your own proxy. The vendor's headline speed comparison with LiteLLM comes from its own benchmark, so test it on your own traffic before treating it as settled.

Pros

  • Drop-in: change the base URL of an existing SDK client
  • Automatic provider fallback, semantic caching and virtual-key budgets in the free edition
  • Includes an MCP gateway for agent tool access
  • Apache-2.0 licensed with active commits

Cons

  • Guardrails, cluster mode, adaptive load balancing and SSO are enterprise-only
  • Enterprise pricing is not published
  • The enterprise trial is by request access rather than self-serve signup

Portkey

Portkey is a mature way to put one gateway in front of many model providers, with failover, caching and logging included. It suits teams running LLM apps in production that want cost and reliability controls without writing them. The acquisition by a security vendor is likely to steer the roadmap toward enterprise governance, so small teams should watch pricing and packaging.

Pros

  • Open-source MIT-licensed gateway that can be self-hosted
  • Routing, fallbacks, load balancing and semantic caching in one place
  • Free developer tier and a $49 production tier with published overage pricing
  • Observability, guardrails and prompt management on the same platform

Cons

  • The free tier is limited to 10,000 logs and is not meant for production
  • Brand and packaging are shifting under Palo Alto Networks' Prisma AIRS
  • Advanced governance, SSO and VPC hosting need the Enterprise plan

Which one fits

Choose Bifrost AI Gateway if you need

  • Platform teams that want one internal endpoint for many model providers
  • Companies that need budgets and virtual keys per team or project
  • Self-hosted setups that must run inside a VPC or on-premise

Choose Portkey if you need

  • Teams calling several LLM providers who want a single API with fallbacks and caching
  • Platform teams that need guardrails, logs and access control around model usage

Bifrost AI Gateway vs Portkey: the questions people ask

Is Bifrost AI Gateway cheaper than Portkey?

Portkey starts at $49/mo. Bifrost AI Gateway has a free tier; what its paid plans cost is not confirmed by us yet.

Does Bifrost AI Gateway or Portkey have a free tier?

Both: Bifrost AI Gateway has a free tier, and Portkey has a free tier.

Which has a public API, Bifrost AI Gateway or Portkey?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.

More comparisons

All Bifrost AI Gateway alternatives →Browse all AI Gateways & Routing →