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Infrastructure & Model Routing
One API for many models: routing, fallbacks, caching, guardrails, and cost control between your applications and every LLM provider.
Unified API
One OpenAI-compatible endpoint for many providers
Routing
Cost, latency, and semantic model selection
Resilience
Fallbacks, retries, and load balancing
Controls
Caching, guardrails, and spend tracking
Self-Hosted or Managed
LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Portkey, Cloudflare, and Kong compared in plain terms
2026
LiteLLM Security Disclosures
BerriAI published a run of GitHub security advisories for the LiteLLM proxy, alongside a separate supply-chain incident where two malicious package versions were published.
Security2026
Portkey Acquired by Palo Alto Networks
Portkey's own site states that Palo Alto Networks has completed the acquisition of the gateway and control-plane platform.
Corporate2026
OpenRouter Catalog Expands
OpenRouter's catalog spans hundreds of models across text, image, embeddings, video, transcription, and speech, with many available at no cost.
Catalog2026
Edge and Enterprise Options Mature
Cloudflare AI Gateway runs on the global edge in one line of code, while Kong AI Gateway adds plugin-based governance for platform teams.
LandscapeAn LLM gateway is a proxy and control layer that sits between your applications and many LLM provider APIs. It exposes a single unified endpoint, usually OpenAI-compatible, and adds AI-specific controls on top. It is also called an AI gateway or model router. Unlike a generic API gateway, it inspects the request body to add capabilities like semantic caching, prompt decoration, and guardrails.
Every provider ships its own SDK, authentication, request format, and error types, and the model landscape changes constantly. A gateway centralizes credentials, retries, and billing, smooths over those differences, and adds a layer for data security and observability so you are not rewriting integration code each time you switch providers.
Most gateways offer a unified API, routing by cost, latency, or semantics, fallbacks, and load balancing. On top of that sit exact and semantic caching, observability and logging, guardrails such as PII masking and content filtering, spend tracking, virtual keys, and rate limiting. Direct provider calls give you none of that middle intelligence layer.
LiteLLM and the Portkey gateway can be self-hosted, with managed and enterprise options also available. OpenRouter and Cloudflare AI Gateway are managed services. Kong AI Gateway supports both. Self-hosting keeps requests inside your own network, while managed services trade some control for less infrastructure to run.
Five tools anchor the gateway category, each aimed at a different kind of team. The breakdowns and comparison below go deeper, but here is how they line up at a glance.
Open Source
LiteLLM
An open-source AI gateway and Python SDK that gives a unified, OpenAI-compatible interface to many LLM providers. Aimed at developers and ML platform teams, with a self-host option and an enterprise tier.
Hosted Aggregator
OpenRouter
A hosted service exposing a single API to hundreds of models on pay-as-you-go credits, including free models. Built for developers who want instant catalog access without running infrastructure.
Control Plane
Portkey
A production-ready gateway and end-to-end control panel covering observability, guardrails, governance, and prompt management, routing across a large catalog of models and providers.
Edge
Cloudflare AI Gateway
A proxy on Cloudflare's global edge that adds caching, rate limiting, analytics, and model fallback with one line of code. A fit for edge and Workers AI builders.
Enterprise
Kong AI Gateway
A connectivity and governance layer built on Kong Gateway, with a plugin model for PII sanitization, RAG injection, and semantic routing. Aimed at platform teams and enterprises already in the Kong ecosystem.
Seven pieces covering the category from the ground up: what a gateway is, deep dives on the leading tools, a head-to-head comparison, a security breakdown, and a 2026 ranking. Start with the pillar if the concept is new to you.
The pillar: a proxy and control layer between your apps and many LLM APIs, exposing one unified endpoint with routing, caching, and guardrails on top.
An open-source Python SDK and self-hostable proxy that gives a unified, OpenAI-compatible interface to many providers, with virtual keys, spend tracking, and guardrails.
A proportionate look at the proxy's published security advisories and the separate supply-chain incident where two malicious package versions were released, plus mitigation steps.
A hosted aggregator exposing one API to hundreds of models on pay-as-you-go credits, with automatic fallbacks and cost-effective routing, and per-model privacy that varies.
Hosted aggregator versus open-source self-hostable gateway: how OpenRouter's managed catalog stacks up against LiteLLM's SDK and proxy for control, privacy, and operations.
The five-pillar control plane covering gateway, observability, guardrails, governance, and prompt management, with its free, production, and enterprise tiers laid out.
LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Portkey, Cloudflare AI Gateway, and Kong AI Gateway ranked by fit, with each scored on routing, controls, hosting model, and the team it suits.
More from the AI Tools Hub and across Tech Jacks Solutions.
AI Model Rankings
Data-driven leaderboards for open-weight models, coding, cost, and context.
AI Tools Hub
Breakdowns, comparisons, and guides across every major AI vendor.
DeepSeek Hub
Open-weight models and aggressive API pricing you can route to through a gateway.
AI Governance
Responsible AI, EU AI Act, and compliance frameworks.
Security News
Cybersecurity alerts, threat analysis, and defense strategies.
Prompt Library
Copy-paste prompt templates for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
Important context for responsible AI adoption
LLM gateways route your prompts to many different providers, each with its own data practices. Some process requests on servers outside your jurisdiction, some offer enterprise or self-hosted deployments with stronger controls, and free tiers often log inputs to improve their models. Retention also varies by model, not just by provider, so review each gateway's and each provider's privacy policy before sending sensitive data, and prefer enterprise or self-hosted options when data cannot leave your walls.
A gateway only changes how you reach a model, not what the model is safe to do. The tools covered here are built for information and technical tasks, and over-reliance on any model behind them carries real risk. If you are experiencing distress:
AI systems can produce plausible-sounding but incorrect guidance. For mental health, medical, legal, or financial decisions, always consult a qualified professional.
See the NIST AI Risk Management Framework for structured risk assessment guidance.
Under GDPR (EU) and CCPA (California), you have the right to access, correct, and delete your personal data. Enforcement of these rights may differ for services operated from outside your jurisdiction.
The EU AI Act classifies general-purpose AI models under specific transparency and risk obligations, which apply to many of the models reached through these gateways when deployed within the EU.
This publication is editorially independent. Coverage is based on independent research and testing. Where affiliate links are present, they are clearly disclosed and do not influence editorial conclusions.