# LLM gateways and observability: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "LLM gateway" and as "LLM observability and routing platform", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/index.md

**Standing:** Portkey leads with 33% of first choices; verdict contested. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Portkey](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/portkey/index.md) | 33% | 11% | 54 |
| 2 | [LiteLLM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/litellm/index.md) | 31% | 16% | 58 |
| 3 | [OpenRouter](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openrouter/index.md) | 9% | 17% | 42 |
| 4 | [Helicone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/helicone/index.md) | 6% | 15% | 27 |
| 5 | [Bifrost](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bifrost/index.md) | 4% | 8% | 24 |
| 7 | [Cloudflare AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-ai-gateway/index.md) | 2% | 3% | 29 |
| 14 | [Kong AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kong-ai-gateway/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 29 |
| 15 | [Langfuse](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/langfuse/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 68 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, LiteLLM, Nexos.ai, OpenRouter
- GPT-5.4 mini: LiteLLM; alternatives Portkey
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: LiteLLM; alternatives Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Portkey
- Perplexity Sonar: Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, LiteLLM
- Grok 4.20: Portkey AI Gateway; alternatives Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- Mistral Small: Nexos.ai; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Portkey; alternatives Helicone, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Portkey; alternatives Amazon Bedrock, Azure AI, LiteLLM
- Kimi K2: Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: OpenRouter, Portkey; alternatives Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- MiniMax M2.5: Helicone, Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway
- GPT-6 Luna: Portkey, now branded PRISMA AIRS AI Gateway; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Portkey; alternatives LiteLLM, OpenRouter

## Sources the answers cite

77 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- getmaxim.ai: 40 answers, 85 citations
- openrouter.ai: 39 answers, 54 citations
- dev.to: 29 answers, 41 citations
- respan.ai: 27 answers, 27 citations
- cloudzero.com: 25 answers, 25 citations
- truefoundry.com: 23 answers, 33 citations
- portkey.ai: 21 answers, 48 citations
- dataiku.com: 17 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://openrouter.ai/blog/insights/llm-gateway (36 answers)
- https://cloudzero.com/blog/llm-gateways (25 answers)
- https://respan.ai/articles/best-llm-gateways (25 answers)
- https://dataiku.com/blog/best-llm-gateways (16 answers)
- https://orq.ai/blog/best-llm-gateways (15 answers)
- https://arize.com/resources/best-llm-gateways-comparison (13 answers)
- https://contabo.com/blog/best-llm-gateways (13 answers)
- https://dupple.com/learn/best-llm-gateways (13 answers)
- https://getmaxim.ai/articles/top-5-llm-gateways-in-2026-a-production-ready-comparison (13 answers)
- https://cequence.ai/learn/ai-gateway/how-to-choose-ai-gateway-vendors (12 answers)

## Warned against

- LiteLLM: 9 of 58 labels negative. "High Caution/Avoid if Possible: LiteLLM (especially older/self-hosted versions): Suffered a major supply chain attack" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- OpenRouter: 7 of 42 labels negative. "It is considered a high-risk option for data residency as its default catalog includes Chinese-hosted models." (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Portkey: 6 of 54 labels negative. "avoid Portkey hosted due to CVEs and black-box concerns" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Helicone: 4 of 27 labels negative. "What I'd Avoid... Helicone | In maintenance mode since Mintlify acquisition" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: LiteLLM at 33%.

- Langfuse: 9% to 0%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 4 → 14 of 53.
- OpenRouter: 2% to 10%, +8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 7 → 3 of 53.
- LiteLLM: 38% to 33%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 1 of 53, unchanged.
- Bifrost: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 11 → 5 of 53.
- Braintrust Gateway: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 5 → 15 of 53.
- Helicone: 9% to 6%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 → 4 of 53.
- Portkey: 29% to 31%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 of 53, unchanged.
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 12 of 53.
- Kong AI Gateway: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 13 of 53.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.