# 3 LiteLLM alternatives to prioritize evaluating in 2026 .avif) --- ## **Merge Gateway** [Merge Gateway](https://www.merge.dev/gateway) offers a single API and control plane for running AI in production. It sits between your application and LLM providers, giving you one layer to manage model access, reliability, cost, governance, and billing across providers. ### **Top features** - **Unified API across models:** Integrate once and call major LLM providers through a consistent interface, without SDK sprawl or provider lock-in - **Routing and automatic fallback:** Policy-based and intelligent routing with failover so AI features stay up through provider issues and rate limits - **Cost governance and optimization:** Set budget and spend controls by project, team, or customer tier, plus [LLM cost optimization features](https://www.merge.dev/blog/llm-cost-optimization) like context compression and semantic caching - **Holistic and granular cost analysis:** Track your spend across LLM providers, projects, custom tags, and more over time - **Observability:** Access request-level logs with details like routing decisions, cost, latency, and governance outcomes for debugging and audits ### **When to use Merge Gateway over LiteLLM** - Fully managed control plane - Unified billing and cost attribution across providers - Reliability as a production requirement - Audit-ready observability and governance controls --- ## **OpenRouter** OpenRouter is a unified, OpenAI-compatible API that gives you access to a large catalog of models across providers, with automatic provider selection and failover. ### **Top features** - **Model routing:** Access to a broad catalog of models (600+) as well as configurable provider ordering - **Caching support:** Cache prompts and responses and implement time limits on when prompts or responses stay valid - **Unified billing and usage tracking:** Use credit-based billing and see how your costs break down by model, time period, API key, project, or request ### **When to choose OpenRouter over LiteLLM** - OpenRouter manages provider selection and failover for you - Unified billing - Broad, out-of-the-box model access via one gateway - Built-in enterprise controls --- ## **Portkey** Portkey is an AI gateway that sits between your app and multiple LLM providers, giving you one integration point to route requests, enforce policies, and observe production traffic while you bring your own provider API keys. ### **Top features** - **Multi-provider routing and load balancing:** Put Portkey in front of multiple LLM backends based on rules you set - **Reliability controls:** Automatically retry failed requests and switch to a backup provider if needed - **Caching support:** Cache model responses to serve repeated prompts without calling the provider again ### **When to choose Portkey over LiteLLM** - Strong governance primitives - Deeper observability and tracing - More enterprise controls - A gateway that’s more production platform than proxy --- Jon Gitlin Senior Content Marketing Manager @Merge Jon Gitlin is the Managing Editor of Merge's blog. He has several years of experience in the integration and automation space. In his free time, he loves to watch soccer matches, go on long runs in parks, and explore local restaurants.