Portkey vs OpenRouter
Enterprise AI gateway + observability + guardrails + prompt mgmt
vs. Unified API for 300+ LLMs across 60+ providers — 1 key, any model
Pricing tiers
Portkey
Developer (Free)
Free forever. 10k logs/month. Universal API + key management. 3 prompt templates. Basic observability.
Free
Gateway (OSS)
MIT-licensed gateway only (no observability UI). Self-host for routing/fallbacks.
$0 base (usage-based)
Production
$49/month. 100k logs ($9 per additional 100k). Fallbacks, load balancing, retries, semantic caching. Unlimited prompts. RBAC.
$49/mo
Enterprise
Custom. 10M+ logs/month. Custom guardrails, advanced evals, SSO, budget controls, VPC + on-prem, SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR.
Custom
OpenRouter
Free
25+ free models. 50 requests/day rate limit. 1M free requests/month base.
Free
Pay-as-you-go
5.5% platform fee on usage. Access to 300+ models, 60+ providers. High global rate limits.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Volume-based pricing, bulk discounts, SSO/SAML, dedicated rate limits. 5M free requests/month.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Portkey vs free on OpenRouter.
| Metric | Portkey | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Portkey · 18 features
- AI Gateway — Unified OpenAI-compatible API to 250+ LLMs.
- Alerts — Thresholds on latency, error rate, cost, usage.
- Budget Controls — Per-key + per-team spending limits.
- Evaluations — Built-in evaluator templates + custom.
- Fallbacks — Config-driven provider fallback chains.
- Guardrails — Pre/post processors for safety + compliance.
- Load Balancing — Round-robin, weighted, least-latency across providers.
- MCP Support — Use MCP servers as tools through gateway.
- Observability — Logs, traces, feedback, alerts, cost tracking.
- OSS Gateway — Open-source gateway (portkey-ai/gateway).
- Prompt Library — Shared prompt library + public marketplace.
- Prompt Templates — Version + test + collaborate on prompts.
- Retries — Configurable retry policies per route.
- Role-Based Access Control — Team permissions on prompts + keys.
- Semantic Caching — Vector-based cache on query meaning.
- Simple Caching — Exact-match cache.
- Virtual Keys — Per-app keys with budget + rate limits + permissions.
- VPC Deployment (Ent) — Deploy in your own VPC for compliance.
OpenRouter · 15 features
- 300+ Models — Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, Qwen, DeepSeek, Cohere, Grok + open-source.
- 60+ Providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Together, Fireworks, Groq, DeepInfra, Replicate, etc.
- Auto Fallback — Automatic retry to backup provider on failure.
- Bring Your Own Key — Use your own provider keys → pay providers directly + no platform fee.
- Credit System — Prepay credits via card, crypto, or bank.
- Data Retention Controls — Opt-out of training/retention per provider.
- Free Models Tier — 25+ models available at $0 (limited rate).
- Prompt Caching — Automatic cache for identical prefixes (provider-dependent).
- Provider Preferences — Pin preferred providers per request or default.
- Rankings & Stats — Public leaderboard of most-used models.
- Regional Routing — Route requests to specific geographic regions.
- Streaming — SSE + partial completions.
- Structured Outputs — JSON-mode + JSON schema across supporting models.
- Tool Use / Function Calling — Unified tool calling across providers.
- Unified OpenAI-Compat API — Same endpoint for every model + provider.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Portkey | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Portkey CLI | — |
| SDK | portkey-ai (Node), portkey-ai (Python) | Any OpenAI SDK |
| REST | Portkey API (OpenAI-compat) | OpenRouter API (OpenAI-compat) |
| MCP | Portkey MCP | OpenRouter MCP |
| OTHER | Portkey Dashboard | OpenRouter Dashboard |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Portkey and OpenRouter may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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