Portkey alternative

AIgateway: the best Portkey alternative in 2026

The best Portkey alternative in 2026 is AIgateway. Portkey specializes in governance and guardrails for ~40 text models; AIgateway ships the same observability with a 100+ model multi-modal catalog, a sub-account API for multi-tenant products, and flat 5% top-up pricing instead of Portkey's seat-based fees.

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Feature comparison

AIgateway vs Portkey

Side-by-side on the dimensions that move a production decision.

Feature

AIgateway

Portkey

Catalog size

100+ models, every modality

~40 text + image

Seat fees

None

Yes

Sub-account API

Yes — per-user spend caps

Virtual keys, no true sub-accounts

Cache billing

10% of uncached

Full rate

Eval-driven routing

Yes — upload dataset, pick cheapest passer

Limited

Free tier

Yes — 100 req/day Kimi K2.6

Limited free tier

OpenAI SDK compat

Yes — one-line swap

Yes

Feature comparison reflects public documentation as of 2026. Portkey pricing shape: Seat-based or request-based plus provider pass-through.. Catalog: ~40 models, mostly text + some image..

Migrate in 5 minutes

Three steps. One base URL.

If you're on Portkey through the OpenAI SDK, you're 90% of the way there. Change the base URL and the key.

STEP 01

Sign up for AIgateway

Create an account at aigateway.sh/signin and copy an sk-aig-... key from the dashboard.

STEP 02

Swap base URL + key

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.aigateway.sh/v1",
    api_key="sk-aig-...",
)

STEP 03

Ship

Request shape, response shape, streaming SSE — identical to OpenAI. Model slugs map 1:1 on shared providers. Portkey users typically migrate in under 5 minutes.

4 other alternatives

Other Portkey alternatives worth checking

Honest take: here are four other credible options. None ship the full multi-modal catalog + sub-accounts + evals under one key, but each has a legit wedge.

#2 — LLM router

OpenRouter

Text-LLM aggregator with ~300 model routes.

Closed source · ~300 text-only models.

Read the full OpenRouter comparison →

#3 — Observability proxy

Helicone

LLM observability proxy — strong at logging, not a routing layer.

Open source · Pass-through proxy — whatever providers you wire up.

Read the full Helicone comparison →

#4 — LLM router

Requesty

Cost-aware text-LLM router.

Closed source · ~50 text models.

Read the full Requesty comparison →

#5 — Eval platform

Braintrust

AI evaluation platform with a proxied inference layer.

Partially open source · Proxies upstream providers; no first-party multi-modal catalog.

Read the full Braintrust comparison →

FAQ

Common questions about Portkey alternatives

Is Portkey open source?

Portkey has an open-source AI gateway component. The managed SaaS platform with governance, logs, and prompt library is closed-source. AIgateway is fully managed and closed-source.

Does Portkey charge per seat?

Portkey's commercial tier uses seat-based or request-based pricing. AIgateway has no seat fees — one flat 5% platform fee at credit top-up.

Does Portkey support every modality?

Portkey focuses on text LLMs with partial image support. AIgateway routes text, image, video, voice, audio, music, and embeddings under one schema and one key.

Can I replace Portkey with AIgateway in one line?

Yes if you're using OpenAI-compatible wire format. Change base_url to https://api.aigateway.sh/v1 and swap the key. Portkey's Python SDK calls need a light refactor to the OpenAI SDK.

Does AIgateway have a free tier?

Yes — 100 requests/day on Kimi K2.6 with no card required.

How does AIgateway's sub-account API compare to Portkey virtual keys?

AIgateway sub-accounts are first-class: mint per-user keys with spend caps, isolated analytics, and full BYOK scoping. Portkey's virtual keys are a lighter abstraction over provider keys.