Question 1

What is an AI gateway?

Accepted Answer

A proxy between your app and model providers that gives you one API for many models, with fallbacks when a provider fails, caching, logs, rate limits and spend controls.

Question 2

OpenRouter vs Vercel AI Gateway: which is cheaper?

Accepted Answer

Vercel AI Gateway states no markup and no platform fee on tokens. OpenRouter passes provider prices through but charges a fee when you buy credits (5.5% by card). With your own keys, OpenRouter's first allowance is free and then 5%.

Question 3

What is BYOK?

Accepted Answer

Bring your own key: you give the gateway your own provider API key, pay the provider directly, and the gateway charges nothing or a small fee for routing.

Question 4

Is Claude or GPT more expensive on Bedrock, Azure or Vertex AI?

Accepted Answer

Usually not in the default region: AWS Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry and Google Vertex AI mostly charge the lab's own list price, and some regional endpoints add about 10%. Each platform page lists every model it sells with the premium against the direct API.

Question 5

How do Snowflake Cortex and Databricks price LLM calls?

Accepted Answer

In their own units: Snowflake bills Cortex AI functions in credits per million tokens and Databricks bills Foundation Model APIs in DBUs per million tokens. Their pages here convert those to dollars and state the credit or DBU price assumed.

Question 6

Can I self-host an AI gateway?

Accepted Answer

Yes. LiteLLM, Portkey (gateway core) and Helicone publish open-source gateways you can run yourself; you pay only for hosting.

Gateway or platform	Fee on tokens	Pricing model	BYOK	Models
Independent gateways
Helicone 0% markup on credits; plans by requests and seats (Pro $79 a month) · BYOK 0% · 100+ modelsFallbacks, Caching, Guardrails, Observability, Rate limits	None	0% markup on credits; plans by requests and seats (Pro $79 a month)	Yes, 0%	100+
Kong AI Gateway $100 a month per model proxied (Konnect Plus); no token fee · BYOK no · See page modelsFallbacks, Caching, Guardrails, Observability, Rate limits	None	$100 a month per model proxied (Konnect Plus); no token fee	No	See page
LiteLLM Open source, self-hosted with your own keys; enterprise license by quote · BYOK 0% · 100+ modelsFallbacks, Caching, Guardrails, Observability, Rate limits	None	Open source, self-hosted with your own keys; enterprise license by quote	Yes, 0%	100+
Vercel AI Gateway Provider list prices, no markup or platform fee on tokens · BYOK 0% · See page modelsFallbacks, Caching, Observability, Rate limits	None	Provider list prices, no markup or platform fee on tokens	Yes, 0%	See page
Cloudflare AI Gateway Core features free; 5% fee on Unified Billing credits · BYOK yes · See page modelsFallbacks, Caching, Guardrails, Observability, Rate limits	5%	Core features free; 5% fee on Unified Billing credits	Yes	See page
Requesty 5% on top of model costs, pay as you go · BYOK yes · 600+ modelsFallbacks, Caching, Guardrails, Observability	5%	5% on top of model costs, pay as you go	Yes	600+
Eden AI Provider prices passed through; 5.5% fee on credit purchases · BYOK yes · 500+ modelsFallbacks, Observability	5.5%	Provider prices passed through; 5.5% fee on credit purchases	Yes	500+
OpenRouter Provider prices passed through; 5.5% fee on card credit purchases (5% crypto) · BYOK 5% · 500+ modelsFallbacks, Caching, Observability	5.5%	Provider prices passed through; 5.5% fee on card credit purchases (5% crypto)	Yes, 5%	500+
Martian GatewayUnverified No public pricing · BYOK no · 200+ modelsObservability	Not published	No public pricing	No	200+
Portkey Per logged request: free 10k logs a month, Production from $49 a month · BYOK yes · 250+ modelsFallbacks, Caching, Guardrails, Observability, Rate limits	$49/mo	Per logged request: free 10k logs a month, Production from $49 a month	Yes	250+
TrueFoundry AI GatewayUnverified Per user and per request ($25 per user a month on Pro) · BYOK no · 1,600+ modelsFallbacks, Guardrails, Observability, Rate limits	$25/mo	Per user and per request ($25 per user a month on Pro)	No	1,600+

Ways to buy model access

Claude Sonnet 5 through each

Questions