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A Portkey alternative for cutting the cost of repeated LLM tasks

Portkey is a broad AI gateway: a universal API, logs and traces, guardrails, caching and routing. ModelGate covers fewer providers and fewer gateway features, and focuses on one question Portkey's reviewed documentation doesn't: can a task you pay for again and again run on a cheaper model, plain code or a small open model — tested against your own recorded answers and delivered as a pull request?

Where ModelGate is different

  • It works from your repository as well as your traffic: findings point at the file and line, and fixes open as pull requests you merge.
  • For rule-like tasks it proposes plain code, tested against your model’s own recorded answers; when code can’t match them, a small open model may.
  • Pricing is a base fee plus a share of realized savings — see pricing for the full terms.

We found none of the first two in Portkey’s reviewed documentation. That is not proof they don’t exist.

Where Portkey is stronger

  • Load balancing, retries and fallbacks, plus a semantic cache on select Enterprise plans — ModelGate has an exact cache only and no load balancing.
  • 20+ built-in deterministic and LLM-based guardrail checks, plus partner guardrails such as Aporia and Pillar.
  • An open-source gateway and private-cloud / VPC hosting on Enterprise — ModelGate is a hosted service.
  • A free developer tier (10k logs a month), and Production pricing based on logged requests.

Stay with Portkey if your priority is broad provider coverage, routing and load balancing, or self-hosting — ModelGate supports four providers.

CriterionModelGatePortkey
Request and cost observabilityAvailableEvery request logged, failed ones included, and priced against a versioned rate table. Four providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI.DetailsAvailableLogs, traces, custom metadata and cost attribution across a universal API.Source
Budgets and access controlsAvailablePer-project monthly spend cap (402), requests-per-minute per key (429), token ceilings (413); scoped API keys; agency roles and per-client caps. No SSO.DetailsHigher plans onlyRBAC and service-account keys on paid plans. Cost and token budget limits are listed for Enterprise and select Pro users.Source · Source
Security guardrailsLimitedBuilt-in heuristic detectors: prompt-injection scoring, 17 secret signatures plus an entropy pass, 6 personal-data types. Detect on every plan; enforce on paid plans. No content-moderation categories.DetailsNative + integrations20+ built-in deterministic checks and LLM-based checks (including prompt injection), plus partner guardrails such as Aporia and Pillar.Source
Caching and model routingLimitedExact cache only (temperature 0, no tools, 24 h). Routing moves small, simple calls to a fixed same-provider cheaper model; retry plus one secondary provider. No semantic cache or load balancing.DetailsAvailableSimple cache on all plans; semantic cache on select Enterprise plans. Load balancing, retries and fallbacks.Source · Source
Repository analysisLimitedGitHub only. Reads the repositories you choose in memory and maps LLM calls to file and line (JavaScript/TypeScript and Python). Source is not stored.DetailsNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNo mention found in the pages reviewed.
Integration and optimization pull requestsLimitedA setup PR that points OpenAI SDK clients at the gateway; one-line PRs for a model switch or a lower output limit; a PR that adds a verified code replacement. Always on a new branch.DetailsNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNo mention found in the pages reviewed.
Deterministic code replacementLimitedOnly for rule-like tasks (a few fixed labels, extraction, JSON reshaping, arithmetic, simple image checks) with 50+ recorded calls and prompt and response storage on.DetailsNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNo mention found in the pages reviewed.
Validation and customer approval of changesAvailableCode replacements must match 95% of 30+ held-out recorded answers. Model-switch PRs point to an optional replay eval. Every PR is merged by you; gateway optimizations are off until you switch them on.Details · DetailsNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNot applicable as reviewed: no code-change workflow found to validate.
Deployment optionsLimitedHosted service only. ModelGate OSS is a separate local-first gateway (v0.1) with a smaller feature set.DetailsAvailableCloud, open-source gateway, and private-cloud / VPC hosting on Enterprise.Source
Pricing structureAvailable$99/month (1 project, +$29 per extra) or $199/month for agencies (5 clients, +$29 per extra), plus 30% of realized savings and 30% of savings from changes made from suggestions for 3 months. 14-day trial.DetailsAvailableFree developer tier (10k logs/month); Production $49/month for 100k logs, $9 per extra 100k; Enterprise custom.Source

Request and cost observability

ModelGateAvailableEvery request logged, failed ones included, and priced against a versioned rate table. Four providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI.Details
PortkeyAvailableLogs, traces, custom metadata and cost attribution across a universal API.Source

Budgets and access controls

ModelGateAvailablePer-project monthly spend cap (402), requests-per-minute per key (429), token ceilings (413); scoped API keys; agency roles and per-client caps. No SSO.Details
PortkeyHigher plans onlyRBAC and service-account keys on paid plans. Cost and token budget limits are listed for Enterprise and select Pro users.Source · Source

Security guardrails

ModelGateLimitedBuilt-in heuristic detectors: prompt-injection scoring, 17 secret signatures plus an entropy pass, 6 personal-data types. Detect on every plan; enforce on paid plans. No content-moderation categories.Details
PortkeyNative + integrations20+ built-in deterministic checks and LLM-based checks (including prompt injection), plus partner guardrails such as Aporia and Pillar.Source

Caching and model routing

ModelGateLimitedExact cache only (temperature 0, no tools, 24 h). Routing moves small, simple calls to a fixed same-provider cheaper model; retry plus one secondary provider. No semantic cache or load balancing.Details
PortkeyAvailableSimple cache on all plans; semantic cache on select Enterprise plans. Load balancing, retries and fallbacks.Source · Source

Repository analysis

ModelGateLimitedGitHub only. Reads the repositories you choose in memory and maps LLM calls to file and line (JavaScript/TypeScript and Python). Source is not stored.Details
PortkeyNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNo mention found in the pages reviewed.

Integration and optimization pull requests

ModelGateLimitedA setup PR that points OpenAI SDK clients at the gateway; one-line PRs for a model switch or a lower output limit; a PR that adds a verified code replacement. Always on a new branch.Details
PortkeyNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNo mention found in the pages reviewed.

Deterministic code replacement

ModelGateLimitedOnly for rule-like tasks (a few fixed labels, extraction, JSON reshaping, arithmetic, simple image checks) with 50+ recorded calls and prompt and response storage on.Details
PortkeyNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNo mention found in the pages reviewed.

Validation and customer approval of changes

ModelGateAvailableCode replacements must match 95% of 30+ held-out recorded answers. Model-switch PRs point to an optional replay eval. Every PR is merged by you; gateway optimizations are off until you switch them on.Details · Details
PortkeyNot confirmed in reviewed documentationNot applicable as reviewed: no code-change workflow found to validate.

Deployment options

ModelGateLimitedHosted service only. ModelGate OSS is a separate local-first gateway (v0.1) with a smaller feature set.Details
PortkeyAvailableCloud, open-source gateway, and private-cloud / VPC hosting on Enterprise.Source

Pricing structure

ModelGateAvailable$99/month (1 project, +$29 per extra) or $199/month for agencies (5 clients, +$29 per extra), plus 30% of realized savings and 30% of savings from changes made from suggestions for 3 months. 14-day trial.Details
PortkeyAvailableFree developer tier (10k logs/month); Production $49/month for 100k logs, $9 per extra 100k; Enterprise custom.Source

“Not confirmed in reviewed documentation” means we found no mention — not that the feature is missing. ModelGate OSS, a separate local-first gateway with a smaller feature set, is not counted here.

Trying ModelGate from Portkey

ModelGate speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions API, streaming included. Remove Portkey-specific headers and config; ModelGate needs only its base URL and your ModelGate key. You see the cost per task first; nothing in your code changes until you merge a pull request.

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://gw.modelgatehq.com/v1",
    api_key="YOUR_MODELGATE_KEY",
)

Full setup, providers and limits are in the documentation. To see what a repeated task looks like as code, read replacing LLM calls with code.

Sources

Portkey’s own product pages and documentation, reviewed 7 October 2026. Vendors change quickly — check the source before deciding.

Spotted something out of date? Tell us at support@modelgatehq.com and we’ll correct it.

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