{"ok":true,"engine":"aicost.router-compare","inputs":{"monthly_spend_usd":6000,"requires":[],"exclude":[],"eligible_for_cheaper_pct":40,"expected_saving_pct":60,"engineering_hours_month":4,"hourly_rate_usd":145},"result":{"ok":true,"verdict":"TWO-HORSE RACE","verdictReason":"LiteLLM and Vercel AI Gateway land within 15 percent of each other on net monthly saving. 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The lowest switching cost here, and the config is yours."},"buys":"OpenAI-compatible gateway, virtual keys, budgets, load balancing, fallbacks, guardrails, spend tracking","msp_flag":"Free to self-host, which means the real cost is YOUR engineering and operations time, not a line item. That cost is what the ROI model has to capture, and it is the one MSPs most often forget.","lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"Open source and self-hosted. The lowest switching cost here, and the config is yours.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Needs DLP or PII scanning","available_from":["Cloudflare AI Gateway"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs semantic caching","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs automatic model routing","available_from":["OpenRouter","Not Diamond"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must be buyable on an existing cloud agreement","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"}]},{"id":"vercel-ai-gateway","name":"Vercel AI Gateway","type":"gateway","fee_usd":0,"fee_basis":"no inference markup","fee_scales_with_spend":false,"net_usd":860,"capabilities":{"byok":true,"byok_note":"no markup or fee on BYOK","self_host":false,"providers":"catalogue","models":"catalogue","guardrails":false,"dlp":false,"semantic_caching":false,"prompt_caching":false,"failover":true,"auto_routing":false,"data_policy_routing":false,"sso":null,"rbac":null,"sla":"by Vercel plan","compliance":"by Vercel plan","on_prem":false,"marketplace":[],"lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"Zero markup and BYOK mean little economic lock-in, though it sits inside the Vercel account."},"buys":"Unified model endpoint, billing, failover, reporting, budgets, routing rules","msp_flag":"The only product captured with an explicit zero-markup guarantee that also covers bring-your-own-key. For a client who already holds vendor contracts, that removes the fee question entirely.","lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"Zero markup and BYOK mean little economic lock-in, though it sits inside the Vercel account.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Must be self-hostable","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs guardrails","available_from":["LiteLLM","Cloudflare AI Gateway","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs DLP or PII scanning","available_from":["Cloudflare AI Gateway"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs SSO","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey","Not Diamond"],"status":"not published"},{"capability":"Needs role-based access control","available_from":["OpenRouter","LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey","Not Diamond"],"status":"not published"},{"capability":"Needs on-premises deployment","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs semantic caching","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs automatic model routing","available_from":["OpenRouter","Not Diamond"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must be buyable on an existing cloud agreement","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"}]},{"id":"portkey","name":"Portkey","type":"gateway","fee_usd":49,"fee_basis":"subscription, Production. Enterprise is custom priced and cannot be modelled.","fee_scales_with_spend":false,"net_usd":811,"capabilities":{"byok":true,"self_host":true,"self_host_note":"private cloud and VPC hosting at Enterprise","providers":"broad","models":"broad","guardrails":true,"guardrails_note":"deterministic guardrails free, LLM and partner guardrails at $49, custom hooks at Enterprise","dlp":false,"semantic_caching":true,"prompt_caching":true,"failover":true,"auto_routing":false,"data_policy_routing":false,"sso":true,"sso_note":"Enterprise","rbac":true,"rbac_note":"from the $49 tier","sla":"Enterprise","compliance":"SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA and CUSTOM BAAs at Enterprise","on_prem":true,"marketplace":["AWS Marketplace","Azure","Google Cloud"],"lock_in":"medium","lock_in_note":"Prompt templates and guardrail config are Portkey-shaped. Marketplace availability offsets it by letting you buy on an existing cloud agreement."},"buys":"Enterprise gateway, governance, logging, guardrails, retries, load balancing, deployment options","msp_flag":"Guardrails at every tier, and CUSTOM BAAs plus SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA at Enterprise. Also sold through AWS Marketplace, Azure and Google Cloud, so it can go on an existing cloud agreement.","lock_in":"medium","lock_in_note":"Prompt templates and guardrail config are Portkey-shaped. Marketplace availability offsets it by letting you buy on an existing cloud agreement.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Needs DLP or PII scanning","available_from":["Cloudflare AI Gateway"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs automatic model routing","available_from":["OpenRouter","Not Diamond"],"status":"not offered"}]},{"id":"cloudflare-ai-gateway","name":"Cloudflare AI Gateway","type":"gateway","fee_usd":300,"fee_basis":"5 percent of spend","fee_scales_with_spend":true,"net_usd":560,"capabilities":{"byok":true,"byok_note":"inference passed through with no markup; a 5 percent fee applies to Unified Billing credits","self_host":false,"providers":"broad","models":"broad","guardrails":true,"guardrails_note":"DLP scanning free on all plans","dlp":true,"dlp_note":"two predefined profiles without Zero Trust: Financial Information, and Social/Insurance/National Identifier Numbers. Full profile set with a Zero Trust subscription.","semantic_caching":false,"prompt_caching":true,"failover":true,"auto_routing":false,"data_policy_routing":false,"sso":null,"rbac":null,"sla":"by Cloudflare plan","compliance":"by Cloudflare plan","on_prem":false,"marketplace":[],"lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"One line of code to start. Logs are the stickiest part."},"buys":"Analytics, caching, rate limiting, retries, fallbacks, DLP and guardrails","msp_flag":"One of only two options here that includes DLP and guardrails. LiteLLM has none.","lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"One line of code to start. Logs are the stickiest part.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Must be self-hostable","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs SSO","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey","Not Diamond"],"status":"not published"},{"capability":"Needs role-based access control","available_from":["OpenRouter","LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey","Not Diamond"],"status":"not published"},{"capability":"Needs on-premises deployment","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs semantic caching","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs automatic model routing","available_from":["OpenRouter","Not Diamond"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must be buyable on an existing cloud agreement","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"}]},{"id":"openrouter","name":"OpenRouter","type":"gateway_plus_router","fee_usd":330,"fee_basis":"5.5 percent of spend","fee_scales_with_spend":true,"net_usd":530,"capabilities":{"byok":true,"byok_note":"$25k/mo list-price inference free, then 5 percent","self_host":false,"providers":"70+","models":"400+","guardrails":false,"dlp":false,"semantic_caching":false,"prompt_caching":true,"failover":true,"auto_routing":true,"data_policy_routing":true,"sso":false,"sso_note":"Enterprise only","rbac":true,"sla":"Enterprise only","compliance":"not published on the pricing page","on_prem":false,"marketplace":[],"lock_in":"medium","lock_in_note":"Credits are prepaid and the fee is on purchase, so unspent credit is stranded if you leave."},"buys":"Unified access to 400+ models, centralised billing, provider selection, fallbacks, auto-routing","msp_flag":"The BYOK allowance is the detail worth knowing: up to $25,000 a month of list-price inference carries NO fee on pay-as-you-go. For a client already holding vendor keys, OpenRouter can be effectively free up to that ceiling.","lock_in":"medium","lock_in_note":"Credits are prepaid and the fee is on purchase, so unspent credit is stranded if you leave.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Must be self-hostable","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs guardrails","available_from":["LiteLLM","Cloudflare AI Gateway","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs DLP or PII scanning","available_from":["Cloudflare AI Gateway"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs SSO","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey","Not Diamond"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs on-premises deployment","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs semantic caching","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must be buyable on an existing cloud agreement","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"}]},{"id":"helicone","name":"Helicone","type":"gateway_plus_observability","fee_usd":799,"fee_basis":"flat subscription, Team","fee_scales_with_spend":false,"net_usd":61,"capabilities":{"byok":true,"self_host":true,"self_host_note":"on-prem at Enterprise only","providers":"broad","models":"broad","guardrails":false,"dlp":false,"semantic_caching":false,"prompt_caching":false,"failover":true,"auto_routing":false,"data_policy_routing":false,"sso":true,"sso_note":"SAML at Enterprise","rbac":true,"sla":"Enterprise","compliance":"SOC 2 and HIPAA at the Team tier, $799/mo","on_prem":true,"marketplace":[],"lock_in":"medium","lock_in_note":"The value is the observability history, which does not move with you."},"buys":"Gateway plus observability, request logs, debugging, cost attribution, reports","msp_flag":"SOC 2 AND HIPAA COMPLIANCE ARRIVE AT THE TEAM TIER, $799 a month. For a regulated client that is the entry price, not $79. The same plan-gating trap as Anthropic Team and Mistral Pro.","lock_in":"medium","lock_in_note":"The value is the observability history, which does not move with you.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Needs guardrails","available_from":["LiteLLM","Cloudflare AI Gateway","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs DLP or PII scanning","available_from":["Cloudflare AI Gateway"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs semantic caching","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs automatic model routing","available_from":["OpenRouter","Not Diamond"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must be buyable on an existing cloud agreement","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"}]},{"id":"notdiamond","name":"Not Diamond","type":"router_only","fee_usd":null,"fee_basis":"per routed token, needs token volume not spend. 0.05 per 1M routed.","fee_scales_with_spend":false,"net_usd":null,"capabilities":{"byok":null,"self_host":false,"self_host_note":"privacy-preserving deployment at Enterprise","providers":"multi-provider","models":"multi-provider","guardrails":false,"dlp":false,"semantic_caching":false,"prompt_caching":false,"failover":null,"auto_routing":true,"data_policy_routing":false,"sso":true,"sso_note":"SAML at Enterprise","rbac":true,"sla":"Enterprise","compliance":"not published","on_prem":false,"marketplace":[],"lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"It sits on top of a gateway, so removing it leaves the gateway intact. Access is by application, not self-serve."},"buys":"An intelligent routing decision engine that integrates with an existing gateway rather than replacing it","msp_flag":"Router only, and it is APPLY FOR ACCESS rather than self-serve. Its cost sits ON TOP of whatever gateway is already in place.","lock_in":"low","lock_in_note":"It sits on top of a gateway, so removing it leaves the gateway intact. Access is by application, not self-serve.","gives_up":[{"capability":"Must be self-hostable","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs guardrails","available_from":["LiteLLM","Cloudflare AI Gateway","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs DLP or PII scanning","available_from":["Cloudflare AI Gateway"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must support bring-your-own-key","available_from":["OpenRouter","LiteLLM","Vercel AI Gateway","Cloudflare AI Gateway","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not published"},{"capability":"Needs on-premises deployment","available_from":["LiteLLM","Helicone","Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Needs semantic caching","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"},{"capability":"Must be buyable on an existing cloud agreement","available_from":["Portkey"],"status":"not offered"}]}],"eliminated":[],"crossovers":[{"cheaper_below":"Cloudflare AI Gateway","cheaper_above":"Portkey","crossover_spend_usd":980,"note":"Below about $980 a month, Cloudflare AI Gateway costs less. Above it, Portkey does."},{"cheaper_below":"Cloudflare AI Gateway","cheaper_above":"Helicone","crossover_spend_usd":15980,"note":"Below about $15,980 a month, Cloudflare AI Gateway costs less. Above it, Helicone does."},{"cheaper_below":"OpenRouter","cheaper_above":"Portkey","crossover_spend_usd":891,"note":"Below about $891 a month, OpenRouter costs less. Above it, Portkey does."},{"cheaper_below":"OpenRouter","cheaper_above":"Helicone","crossover_spend_usd":14527,"note":"Below about $14,527 a month, OpenRouter costs less. Above it, Helicone does."}],"memo":"At $6,000 a month and no hard requirements, 7 of 7 captured products survive. LiteLLM leads on net monthly saving at $860, on a fee basis of no licence fee, self-hosted. Router pricing was captured 2026-07-26 and moves faster than model pricing, so re-check before any of this is quoted.","questions":["Which of these requirements is genuinely hard, and which is a preference someone wrote down?","If the winning product raised its fee 2 points, would it still win?","Who operates this layer day to day, and is that time billable to the client?","Does the client already hold a cloud agreement that one of these can be bought on?","What does the shortlisted product give up, and who provides that instead?"],"assumptions":["40 percent of traffic eligible for a cheaper model *","60 percent saving on that eligible traffic *","4 engineering hours a month to operate the layer *","Engineering time valued at $145 an hour *","Product pricing and capabilities captured 2026-07-26 from primary sources."],"caveat":"This shortlists, it does not rank. The cheapest product is not the right one if it lacks something the client needs, and the fee model matters as much as the fee: a percentage scales with spend and a subscription does not.","warning":"Router pricing changes faster than model pricing. Re-check before quoting.","inputs":{"monthly_spend_usd":6000,"requires":[],"exclude":[],"eligible_for_cheaper_pct":40,"expected_saving_pct":60,"engineering_hours_month":4,"hourly_rate_usd":145}}}