Routers and gateways
OpenRouter alternatives: router and gateway pricing
LLM routers and gateways sit between your app and model providers. They charge in different ways: a fee on credits, a markup, a per-token routing fee, or a flat plan. This page lists what each vendor's own pricing page shows as of 21 October 2026. Where a figure is not on the vendor page, we write 'not published'. Token prices of the models themselves are separate; see /prices.
Router and gateway pricing (USD, vendor pricing pages, checked 21 Oct 2026)
| Vendor | Fee model | Free tier | Cheapest paid plan | Self-host option | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | Platform fee on credit purchases; inference billed at provider list price. Standard 5.5%, Business 8%, Enterprise by contract. BYOK: first $25,000 of list-price inference per month has no fee on Standard and Business, then 5% | Free plan: 25+ free models, 50 requests/day (free models 20 requests/min) | Standard, pay-as-you-go, 5.5% fee on credit purchases (no monthly price published) | not published | openrouter.ai |
| LiteLLM | Enterprise is annual, "sized to your usage", "never per token" | Open Source plan $0, free forever, self-hosted | Enterprise: price not published ("Talk to sales") | Yes, Open Source plan | www.litellm.ai |
| Helicone | Usage-based pricing applies on Pro and Team; per-request or per-log rate not published | Hobby $0: 10,000 requests, 1 GB storage, 1 seat | Pro $79 per month | Enterprise lists on-prem deployment; other plans not published | www.helicone.ai |
| Requesty | Markup: "You pay for what your application spends, plus 5%" | Free $0: all free models, 200 requests per day | Pay as you go, 5% markup | not published | www.requesty.ai |
| Respan (formerly Keywords AI) | Plans by logs and scores; extra logs $8 per 100k, extra scores $1 per 1k | Free $0: 100k logs, 1k scores | Team $199 per month, billed yearly | Enterprise lists Cloud and Self-hosted | www.respan.ai |
| Not Diamond | $0.05 per million tokens routed (pay-as-you-go); volume discounts on Enterprise | not published | Pay-as-you-go $0.05 per million tokens routed | not published | www.notdiamond.ai |
| Portkey (now Prisma AIRS AI Gateway, Palo Alto Networks; enterprise-oriented) | Tiered plans; Production overage $9 per extra 100K requests | Developer: free, 10k recorded logs per month | Production $49 per month (includes 100k recorded logs) | Yes, Open Source plan, "Host it Yourself" | portkey.ai |
Fees and plans are not like for like (credit fee vs markup vs per-token vs per-log), so compare against your own volume. Features differ and are not compared here.
Get an email when router and gateway pricing's price changes. One short email, sources included.
FAQ
How much does OpenRouter cost?
OpenRouter bills inference at each provider's list price and charges a platform fee when you buy credits: 5.5% on Standard and 8% on Business, per OpenRouter's pricing page on 21 October 2026.
Is there a free or open-source OpenRouter alternative?
LiteLLM lists an Open Source plan at $0, self-hosted. Portkey lists an Open Source plan you host yourself. Requesty, OpenRouter, Helicone and Respan each list a free tier with limits.
How much does Not Diamond cost?
$0.05 per million tokens routed on pay-as-you-go, per its pricing page on 21 October 2026.
How much does Helicone cost?
Pro is $79 per month and Team is $799 per month; Hobby is free with 10,000 requests.
What is Portkey now?
Portkey's pricing page says it is now the Prisma AIRS AI Gateway, aimed at enterprises. It lists Production at $49 per month.
Sources: openrouter.ai · www.litellm.ai · www.helicone.ai · www.requesty.ai · www.respan.ai · www.notdiamond.ai · portkey.ai; checked 21 Oct 2026
See all model prices · Claude Code cost · Agent cost cheat sheet
Independent. Prices change; check sources. Checked 21 Oct 2026.