The Gateway charges $49/month with 5 million tokens included. If you go over, it's a flat $3 per million extra tokens. No complicated input vs. output rates. Smart routing automatically picks cheaper AI models when possible, stretching your budget further. And budget caps mean you'll never wake up to a surprise bill.
Portkey charges $49/month for the platform, but you still pay OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google separately for every AI request. Those provider bills add up fast — typically $2.50+ per million tokens on top of the $49. There's no automatic cost optimization, so you pay full price for every request, even simple ones.
| Monthly Usage | Gateway Cost | Portkey Cost | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $49 | $49 + $2.50 = $51.50 | Gateway |
| 3M tokens | $49 | $49 + $7.50 = $56.50 | Gateway |
| 5M tokens | $49 | $49 + $12.50 = $61.50 | Gateway |
| 10M tokens | $49 + $15 = $64 | $49 + $25 = $74 | Gateway |
| 20M tokens | $49 + $45 = $94 | $49 + $50 = $99 | Gateway |
Verdict: The Gateway wins at every volume level. Same $49 base price as Portkey, but with 5M tokens included and $3/M overage vs paying providers separately. The math never favors Portkey on price alone.
| Feature | Gateway | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-provider routing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic failover | ✓ | ✓ |
| Budget caps & alerts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Per-client tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Intelligent routing | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Config required |
| Usage budget included | ✓ 5M tokens/month | ✗ Pay separately |
| Advanced analytics | Basic dashboard | ✓ Comprehensive |
| Prompt management | ✗ | ✓ |
| A/B testing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Setup complexity | 5 minutes | 15-30 minutes |
✓ You want the best price at any volume (Gateway wins at every tier)
✓ You want predictable, all-inclusive pricing ($49/mo with 5M included)
✓ You prioritize simplicity and fast setup (5 minutes)
✓ You're an agency billing clients and need clean invoicing
✓ You want to prevent bill shock with hard spending caps
✓ You need advanced observability and analytics
✓ You want prompt versioning and A/B testing
✓ You have an enterprise team that needs collaboration features
✓ You're okay paying more for platform features (Portkey is more expensive at every volume)
No -- both sit between your app and AI providers, so you can only use one at a time. You must choose one. However, you could use the Gateway for production traffic and Portkey for development/testing if needed.