What it is
Portkey is a full-stack LLMOps platform centered on an AI gateway. Routing across 1,600+ models, automatic fallbacks and load balancing, built-in content moderation and output validation, virtual key management, and enterprise compliance certifications. The OSS gateway is open; the broader platform is commercial.
Free tier: 10K logs/month. Paid plans from $49/month. Enterprise pricing for SSO, data residency, custom compliance.
Where it shines
- Catalog + governance. Most gateways pick one. Portkey delivers both — broadest model coverage and the compliance controls procurement needs.
- Guardrails. Content moderation, output validation, schema enforcement built into the routing layer. You don't need a separate Lakera-shaped product for the basics.
- Compliance posture. SOC2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA. Real certifications, not "we're working on it."
- Deployment flexibility. Cloud, self-hosted, hybrid — works for most regulatory regimes.
Where it falls short
- Pricing complexity. Log-based billing means cost projections require modeling your traffic carefully. Surprises happen.
- Feature gating. A lot of governance lives on the Enterprise tier — including some features competitors include earlier in their pricing.
- Surface area. More platform than gateway, which means more to learn. Smaller teams may end up using a fraction of what's there.
Bottom line
The right pick if your gateway requirements come with a compliance checklist. If you don't have one — if "good enough" routing is what you need — OpenRouter or LiteLLM will move faster with less platform overhead.