TL;DR

Cloudflare AI Gateway works well for prototypes but hits hard limits at scale: 10M logs per gateway, 1M logs/month on paid plans, and no token-based budgets. When your AI app grows beyond early stage, you need alternatives with unlimited logging, hierarchical cost controls, and production-grade reliability. Bifrost leads with 50x faster performance and zero-config deployment. Portkey offers extensive governance features. LiteLLM provides open-source flexibility. This guide compares pricing, limits, and capabilities so you can choose the right gateway before hitting Cloudflare's scaling walls.

Why Teams Outgrow Cloudflare AI Gateway

Cloudflare AI Gateway ships free features that make it attractive for early-stage projects: caching, basic rate limiting, and analytics. But production workloads reveal critical limitations that force teams to migrate.

Hard Log Limits

The Problem: Cloudflare caps storage at 10 million logs per gateway and 1 million logs per month on paid plans. When you exceed these limits, logging stops completely with no overage option.

Real Impact: A customer support AI handling 500K conversations monthly hits the 1M log cap by day 2. You lose visibility into 40% of traffic, making cost tracking unreliable and debugging impossible.

What You Lose: Without logs, you can't track which users drive costs, identify error patterns, optimize cache hit rates, or debug production incidents.

Workers Pricing Complexity

Cloudflare AI Gateway runs on Workers, which means high-volume traffic triggers Workers billing beyond the gateway itself. At 15M requests/month, you pay $8+ just for compute usage on top of your LLM provider costs. This hidden cost surfaces only after deployment.

Limited Budget Controls

Cloudflare offers basic rate limiting (requests per minute) but lacks:

• Token-based budgets: Can't limit spending by actual LLM token usage
• Hierarchical controls: No team-level or customer-level budget separation
• Cost-based limits: Can't set "$500/month per customer" thresholds

No Provider Failover Intelligence

While Cloudflare supports fallbacks, it requires manual configuration and doesn't adapt to provider health. When OpenAI hits rate limits, requests fail instead of automatically routing to Anthropic or AWS Bedrock.

Top Cloudflare AI Gateway Alternatives

1. Bifrost (by Maxim AI)

Overview

Bifrost is a production-grade AI gateway delivering 50x faster performance than Python-based alternatives with <11µs overhead at 5,000 RPS. Built for teams scaling AI agents from prototype to production.

Why It's Better Than Cloudflare

• No Log Limits: Unlimited logging with native Prometheus metrics and distributed tracing. Never lose visibility as traffic grows.
• Hierarchical Budgets: Set cascading limits at virtual key, team, and customer levels. Example: $10K org budget → $2K per team → $500 per customer.
• Token + Cost-Based Limits: Control spending by actual token usage ($), not just request counts. Track cumulative spend across all providers in real-time.
• Zero-Config Deployment: Start in 30 seconds with npx @maximhq/bifrost. No Workers configuration, no hidden pricing tiers.
• Intelligent Failover: Automatic provider switching when rate limits hit. Routes GPT-4 → Claude → Gemini without code changes.

Unique Advantage

Bifrost integrates with Maxim's AI platform for end-to-end quality management: simulation, evaluation, and production observability in one workflow. Teams deploy agents 5x faster by connecting gateway metrics to pre-release testing.

Pricing: Open-source (Apache 2.0). Self-host free or use Maxim's managed platform.

Best For: Teams shipping production AI agents who need performance + comprehensive governance without log limits.

2. Portkey

Overview

Portkey is an enterprise-focused AI gateway with 1600+ model support and advanced governance features.

Key Strengths

• Extensive Provider Coverage: Access to 1600+ models across 60+ providers
• Advanced Guardrails: Built-in content moderation, PII redaction, and policy enforcement
• Detailed Observability: Request tracing, cost attribution, and performance analytics

Limitations vs Cloudflare

• Log-Based Pricing: Charges per recorded log. Pro plan caps at 3M logs/month ($500+), Enterprise starts at $5K-$10K/month
• Retention Limits: 30-day retention on Pro tier, longer requires Enterprise upgrade
• Complexity: More features means steeper learning curve than Cloudflare's simplicity

Best For: Enterprises needing extensive auditing and compliance features, willing to pay premium for managed service.

3. LiteLLM

Overview

LiteLLM is an open-source proxy supporting 100+ providers with strong community backing (33K+ GitHub stars).

Key Strengths

• Free & Open-Source: Self-host without licensing fees
• Flexible Configuration: Per-model rate limits, priority-based allocation
• Redis-Based Enforcement: Multi-instance rate limiting for distributed deployments

Limitations vs Cloudflare

• Performance: Python-based architecture struggles beyond 500 RPS (50x slower than Bifrost)
• Setup Overhead: Requires Redis, database configuration, and manual scaling
• Limited Governance: No hierarchical budgets or cost-based limits out of the box

Best For: Platform teams comfortable managing infrastructure who need maximum customization.

4. Kong AI Gateway

Overview

Kong AI extends Kong's enterprise API management to AI traffic.

Key Strengths

• Token-Based Limiting: Uses actual LLM response tokens for accurate cost control
• Enterprise Integration: Works with existing Kong deployments, WAFs, OAuth
• Provider-Specific Policies: Different limits per LLM provider (Azure vs Cohere)

Limitations vs Cloudflare

• Enterprise License Required: AI features need Kong Gateway Enterprise
• Not AI-Native: General API gateway extended to AI, not purpose-built
• Limited Routing Intelligence: No semantic caching or health-aware failover

Best For: Enterprises with existing Kong infrastructure extending to AI workloads.

5. Helicone

Overview

Helicone is a Rust-based AI gateway focused on performance and observability.

Key Strengths

• GCRA Rate Limiting: Sophisticated algorithm for smooth traffic shaping
• Rust Performance: Low-latency architecture built for speed
• Observability Integration: Native analytics platform for cost tracking

Limitations vs Cloudflare

• Self-Hosting Required: Need to manage deployment and scaling
• Observability-Focused: Less emphasis on governance features than Portkey
• Smaller Ecosystem: Newer platform with limited third-party integrations

Best For: Teams prioritizing performance and willing to self-host for observability benefits.

Comparison Table

Image suggestion: Bar chart comparing log limits across platforms (Cloudflare: 1M/month vs Bifrost/Others: Unlimited)

Migration Decision Framework

Choose Bifrost if:

• You're hitting Cloudflare's log limits and need unlimited observability
• Production performance matters (50x faster than LiteLLM)
• You want hierarchical budgets across teams/customers
• Zero-config deployment is a priority

Choose Portkey if:

• You need 1600+ model access through a single API
• Advanced guardrails (PII redaction, content moderation) are required
• Budget exists for managed service ($5K+/month)

Choose LiteLLM if:

• You have engineering resources for self-hosting
• Maximum provider customization is needed
• Budget is constrained (open-source)

Choose Kong if:

• You already run Kong Gateway in production
• AI is one part of broader API strategy

Choose Helicone if:

• Rust-based performance is a must
• Observability integration is the primary goal

Making the Switch from Cloudflare

Most teams migrate when they hit one of these triggers:

1. Log limit warnings appear in the Cloudflare dashboard
2. Workers' billing exceeds LLM provider costs
3. Budget overruns occur with no way to set team-level limits
4. Debugging failures happen because logs stopped saving

Migration is straightforward with Bifrost:

python

`# Before (Cloudflare) base_url = "https://gateway.ai.cloudflare.com/v1/{account}/{gateway}"

After (Bifrost)

base_url = "http://localhost:8080/openai" # Or your Bifrost endpoint`

All existing OpenAI/Anthropic SDK code works unchanged. Add virtual keys for budget controls, configure providers in the web UI, and you're running with unlimited logs and hierarchical governance.

Conclusion

Cloudflare AI Gateway serves early-stage apps well, but its hard log limits, Workers pricing complexity, and lack of hierarchical budgets force teams to migrate as they scale.

For production AI applications, Bifrost delivers the performance, unlimited observability, and governance features that growing teams need without Cloudflare's constraints. Get started in 30 seconds or book a demo to see how Maxim's platform handles gateway management, evaluation, and production monitoring end-to-end.