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

Gane Index, November 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/2026-11

**Standing:** LiteLLM leads with 36% of first choices; verdict contested. 53 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [LiteLLM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/litellm/index.md) | 36% | 14% | 66 |
| 2 | [Portkey](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/portkey/index.md) | 32% | 9% | 53 |
| 3 | [Bifrost](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bifrost/index.md) | 6% | 3% | 33 |
| 4 | [Helicone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/helicone/index.md) | 4% | 6% | 16 |
| 5 | [Cloudflare AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-ai-gateway/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 33 |
| 6 | [OpenRouter](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openrouter/index.md) | 2% | 20% | 41 |
| 7 | [Langfuse](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/langfuse/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 16 |
| 17 | [Kong AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kong-ai-gateway/index.md) | 0% | 3% | 29 |
| 18 | [Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/vercel-ai-gateway/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 97 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: Nexos.ai, Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- GPT-5.4 mini: OpenRouter; alternatives Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM, Portkey
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: LiteLLM, Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway
- Perplexity Sonar: Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- Grok 4.20: Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- Mistral Small: LiteLLM, Portkey; alternatives OpenRouter, Requesty
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Bifrost, Portkey; alternatives Amazon Bedrock, Azure API Management, LiteLLM
- Llama 4 Maverick: FastRouter; alternatives Concentrate, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Portkey
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: LiteLLM, Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway, OpenRouter
- Kimi K2: Portkey; alternatives FastRouter, Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM, TrueFoundry AI Gateway
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: LiteLLM; alternatives Bifrost, Kong AI Gateway, Portkey
- MiniMax M2.5: LiteLLM; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, Helicone, OpenRouter, Portkey
- GPT-6 Luna: Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- Muse Glimmer 30B: LiteLLM, Portkey; alternatives Kong AI Gateway, TrueFoundry AI Gateway

## Sources the answers cite

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

- getmaxim.ai: 46 answers, 126 citations
- dev.to: 39 answers, 71 citations
- github.com: 23 answers, 59 citations
- llmgateway.io: 19 answers, 33 citations
- requesty.ai: 15 answers, 16 citations
- respan.ai: 15 answers, 16 citations
- openrouter.ai: 13 answers, 19 citations
- braintrust.dev: 11 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://requesty.ai/blog/best-managed-llm-gateway (11 answers)
- https://cloudzero.com/blog/llm-gateways (10 answers)
- https://arize.com/resources/best-llm-gateways-comparison (9 answers)
- https://dataiku.com/blog/best-llm-gateways (9 answers)
- https://dev.to/ericthompson21/when-is-a-managed-llm-gateway-worth-its-cost-5959 (9 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability (9 answers)
- https://respan.ai/articles/best-llm-gateways (9 answers)
- https://dev.to/devstackcommunity/i-compared-5-llm-gateway-tools-for-real-world-production-use-4n5p (8 answers)
- https://concentrate.ai/blog/the-9-best-llm-gateways-in-2026-grouped-by-the-job-they-do (7 answers)
- https://daily.dev/posts/wztc2x3ac (7 answers)

## Warned against

- LiteLLM: 9 of 66 labels negative. ""LiteLLM put a credential stealer on PyPI and Docker on the day of my test, its second compromised release this year." [6]" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- OpenRouter: 8 of 41 labels negative. "The one I would not recommend for a mid-market B2B company is OpenRouter" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt)
- Portkey: 5 of 53 labels negative. "Avoid percentage-fee gateways until your monthly model spend exceeds $10,000–$35,000, as the fees become cost-prohibitive" (MiniMax M2.5, budget prompt)
- Azure API Management: 1 of 9 labels negative. "Avoid Overkill: Skip pure enterprise tools like Azure APIM unless you're Microsoft-heavy." (Grok 4.20, direct prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Portkey (33%) to LiteLLM (36%). Margin 4 points, within noise.

- OpenRouter: 9% to 2%, −7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 3 → 6 of 97.
- LiteLLM: 31% to 36%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 → 1 of 97.
- Bifrost: 4% to 6%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 3 of 97.
- Helicone: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 of 97, unchanged.
- Langfuse: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 15 → 7 of 97.
- Portkey: 33% to 32%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 → 2 of 97.
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 5 of 97.
- Kong AI Gateway: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 14 → 17 of 97.
- Vercel AI Gateway: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 18 of 97, unchanged.

## Record

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