LLM gateway: what each one costs
An LLM gateway is one endpoint in front of many model providers. Here is what the fees come to, layer by layer.
Scenario. $1,000 a month of list-price tokens, 100,000 logs, 3 seats, gateway credits. Ordered by total bill, lowest first. Not a quality ranking.
Vercel AI Gateway$0
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Vercel AI Gateway pricing docs OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Vercel AI Gateway pricing docs OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Platform: Gateway (no platform fee): $0
free tier or no platform fee
Vercel AI Gateway pricing docs OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
- Token markup: $0
LiteLLM$0
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08 - Platform: Self-host (infrastructure not included): $0
free tier or no platform fee
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08
Not in this total: Server, database and operations time are your cost and are not modelled.
- Token markup: $0
Bifrost (Maxim)$0
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08 - Platform: Self-host (infrastructure not included): $0
free tier or no platform fee
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08
Not in this total: Server and operations cost are yours.
- Token markup: $0
Continuum$0
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Continuum home page ("free, vendor-neutral app") OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Continuum home page ("free, vendor-neutral app") OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Platform: Free app: $0
free tier or no platform fee
Continuum home page ("free, vendor-neutral app") OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
Not in this total: Coding-agent workbench, not a proxy for app traffic.
- Token markup: $0
Kong AI Gateway (Konnect)$25
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Kong pricing page ("Plus from $25/month plus usage"; 1M requests included, $200 per additional 1M) OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Kong pricing page ("Plus from $25/month plus usage"; 1M requests included, $200 per additional 1M) OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Platform: Konnect Plus (from): $25
$25 a month
Kong pricing page ("Plus from $25/month plus usage"; 1M requests included, $200 per additional 1M) OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
Not in this total: Serverless AI gateway control plane is $25 a month; AI Gateway model proxies are $100 a month per model on top.
- Token markup: $0
Portkey$49
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Portkey pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Portkey pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Platform: Production: $49
$49 a month
Portkey pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
- Token markup: $0
Cloudflare AI Gateway$50
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Cloudflare AI Gateway pricing reference OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $50
Gateway credits: 5% of $1,000
Cloudflare AI Gateway pricing reference OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Platform: Workers Free logs (100,000 total): $0
free tier or no platform fee
Cloudflare AI Gateway pricing reference OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
Not in this total: Above 100,000 logs you need Workers paid logging; its price is not modelled. Since 2026-09-24 new gateways store logs in Workers Logs, not Legacy Logs (vendor docs, updated 2026-11-02).
- Token markup: $0
OpenRouter$55
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
OpenRouter pricing page (5.5% and 8%; BYOK $25,000 free then 5%) OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $55
Gateway credits: 5.5% of $1,000
OpenRouter pricing page (5.5% and 8%; BYOK $25,000 free then 5%) OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Platform: No separate log or platform fee found: $0
free tier or no platform fee
OpenRouter pricing page (5.5% and 8%; BYOK $25,000 free then 5%) OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
- Token markup: $0
Helicone$79
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
Continuum, "Best LLM gateways 2026: 9 compared and scored" (Continuum builds a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-08 - Platform: Pro: $79
$79 a month
Flatkey, "AI Gateway Pricing (October 2026)" (Flatkey sells a gateway) VENDOR-WRITTEN 2026-10-22
Not in this total: Pro $79 is from Flatkey reading the vendor page; the vendor page text we captured does not print a Pro base price. Usage-based charges above the free allowance are not itemised.
- Token markup: $0
TrueFoundry AI Gateway$95
- Token markup: $0
0% of $1,000 list-price spend
TrueFoundry pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Funding fee: $0
Gateway credits: 0% of $1,000
TrueFoundry pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Seats: Pro ($25 per user, 20K requests per user): $75
$25 × 3 seats
TrueFoundry pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10 - Log usage above allowance: $20
40,000 extra ÷ 100,000 × $20
TrueFoundry pricing page OFFICIAL 2026-11-10
- Token markup: $0
markupfundinglogs and platformseats
Not priced
- Flatkey: Prices vary per model; the calculator needs your model mix.