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CleeAI 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

Cheaper paid plan
Portkey — $49/mo vs $199/mo for CleeAI
Free plan
Both have one
Public API
Both have one
Best fit
CleeAI: Regulated enterprises (finance, healthcare, banking) needing an audit trail on AI outputs · Portkey: Teams calling several LLM providers who want a single API with fallbacks and caching
Trust score
About even — CleeAI 88, Portkey 91

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

CleeAIA routing and verification layer that sits between your apps and language models to cut cost and catch ungrounded answers.PortkeyAI gateway that routes requests to 1,600+ models through one API, with caching, fallbacks, guardrails and observability.

Side by side

FactCleeAIPortkey
CategoryAI Gateways & RoutingAI Gateways & Routing
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$199/mo$49/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score88 / 10091 / 100
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyCleeai LimitedPalo Alto Networks
Launched—2023
Last verifiedSep 1, 2026Oct 2, 2026

What our research says

CleeAI

CleeAI's pitch — a routing and verification layer for regulated AI use — addresses a real problem for banks and clinical teams that can't ship an ungrounded model answer. What's unverified from the outside is how the routing and verification actually perform in production, and the pricing page doesn't inspire confidence that the numbers are final.

Pros

  • Sits in front of multiple model providers (GPT, Claude, Gemini) rather than locking to one
  • Built-in audit trail generation for compliance teams
  • Query routing aims to cut cost by using cheaper models when accuracy allows it

Cons

  • Listed pricing tiers look like generic template numbers, not a finished price list
  • No independent benchmark of the verification layer's accuracy claims is available

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 CleeAI if you need

  • Regulated enterprises (finance, healthcare, banking) needing an audit trail on AI outputs
  • Teams wanting to cap model spend by routing easy queries to cheaper models

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

CleeAI vs Portkey: the questions people ask

Is CleeAI cheaper than Portkey?

On published entry prices, Portkey starts lower — $49/mo against $199/mo for CleeAI. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does CleeAI or Portkey have a free tier?

Both: CleeAI has a free tier, and Portkey has a free tier.

Which has a public API, CleeAI or Portkey?

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

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