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LiteLLM vs Portkey
LiteLLM and Portkey are tools for teams building on large language models, which sit between an app and model providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic and keep track of the requests. Our editors read both companies' own sites, then read what AI and platform engineers say about the two tools in public reviews, community boards and chat forums. The table below compares price, limits and features.
| What buyers compare | LiteLLM | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| Price per monthSources 3, 4 | Open-source gateway: free to self-host. Enterprise: quote | Developer free. Production $49. Enterprise: quote |
| Free plan or trialSources 3, 4 | Open source. 30-day Enterprise trial key | Developer plan free forever, for prototypes and proofs of concept |
| How usage is countedSources 3, 4 | Not published | Recorded logs per month: 10,000 free, 100,000 on Production then $9 per extra 100,000, 10 million+ on Enterprise. Requests past the limit still run |
| Integrations and featuresSources 3, 4 | One OpenAI-format API for 100+ LLMs. Virtual keys, budgets, rate limits and spend by key, user, team and org | AI gateway with one API, fallbacks, load balancing and retries. Logs, traces, prompt management and guardrails |
| Security and deploymentSources 3, 4 | Enterprise: SSO, SCIM, audit logs, air-gapped deployment, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 | Role-based access on Production. Enterprise: SSO, budgets, rate limits and multiple deployment options |
| Best forSources 1, 2 | Platform and AI engineering teams that want a self-hosted LLM gateway with budgets, routing, and one API across many providers | Platform teams that want a hosted gateway for routing, fallbacks, budgets and request logs across many LLM providers |
List prices in US dollars per month before tax, as published on each vendor's site on October 16, 2026, billed monthly unless the cell says otherwise. "Quote" means the vendor sets the price through its sales team. A green check marks a row where the published data shows a clear edge.
Which one fits
LiteLLM is open source and runs in your own infrastructure, while Portkey is mainly a hosted service with a free tier.
Choose LiteLLM if
- You want to run the gateway in your own infrastructure. LiteLLM is open source and self-hosted.
- You need budgets and rate limits per key, team or user across many model providers.
- You work offline or under strict data rules. Enterprise supports air-gapped deployment.
Choose Portkey if
- You want a hosted gateway with fallbacks, retries and load balancing across model providers.
- You want logs and traces next to the gateway. Production records 100,000 logs per month for $49.
- You need prompt templates and guardrails in the same place as routing.
What buyers say
“On LiteLLM's proxy we hit the same lag issues, switched to Portkey's free plan (I log separately). It's way faster; last I checked LiteLLM still had a 5K+ line Python file with the important code crammed in.”
treefarmer · HN · · source
“We were on LiteLLM (and sometimes Langfuse) and started looking for an alternative when the cost sat above our budget, Portkey is the option we decided to trial for prompt-template testing across models.”
Support Pan · PeerSpot · · source
“LiteLLM runs in our own infrastructure with budgets per team, and that mattered more than anything. Portkey's hosted gateway, with logs and traces beside the routing, was easier to start with, and the Production plan is $49 a month.”
Platform engineer, Series C analytics company
Representative buyer view
Verdict
LiteLLM (8.0 out of 10, Recommend) is the choice if you want to run the gateway yourself, since it is open source, sets budgets and rate limits per key, team or user, and supports air-gapped deployment on Enterprise. Portkey (7.9 out of 10, Recommend) is the choice if you want a hosted gateway with fallbacks, logs, traces, prompt templates and guardrails in one place, free to start and $49 per month for Production.
Methodology
We read the LiteLLM and Portkey pricing pages and product sites on October 16, 2026 and recorded every published price, limit and plan feature. A cell reads "Not published" when the vendor does not state that detail on its site, and rows where neither vendor publishes anything were left out.
Scores, best-fit notes and buyer quotes come from the AIR reviews of each product, which weight practitioner reviews at 40%, hands-on product checks at 35%, pricing at 15% and docs at 10%. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites are excluded. Quotes marked Representative buyer view are written by AIR to reflect buyer feedback and carry no source link.