Top 5 AI Gateways to Reduce LLM Cost in 2026

TL;DR: LLM costs are ballooning as AI usage scales. AI gateways are the fastest way to cut spend, without changing your application logic. This article breaks down the top 5 gateways in 2026, Bifrost, Cloudflare, Vercel, LiteLLM, and Kong AI, so you can pick the right one for your stack.

Why You Need an AI Gateway in 2026

Running LLMs in production is expensive. Without a control layer, teams overpay for redundant API calls, have no fallback when a provider goes down, and struggle to enforce cost budgets across teams.

An AI gateway sits between your application and LLM providers. It handles routing, caching, fallbacks, and cost controls, all behind a single API endpoint.

Your App → AI Gateway → [OpenAI / Anthropic / Bedrock / Vertex / ...]
                   ↑
        Caching | Fallbacks | Load Balancing | Budget Controls

Quick Comparison

1. Bifrost by Maxim AI

Bifrost is a high-performance, open-source LLM gateway built by Maxim AI. It offers a single OpenAI-compatible API endpoint across 12+ providers and is designed for teams that need enterprise-grade reliability without the configuration overhead.

Platform Overview

Bifrost deploys in seconds with zero configuration. It acts as a drop-in replacement for OpenAI or Anthropic SDKs, meaning migration is a one-line change. Beyond routing, Bifrost brings semantic caching, automatic fallbacks, load balancing, and full observability out of the box.

Features

• Semantic Caching - Caches responses based on meaning, not exact text. Semantically similar queries hit the cache, cutting repeat API costs significantly
• Automatic Fallbacks - Seamless failover across providers and models with zero downtime. If OpenAI is rate-limiting, Bifrost re-routes to Anthropic or Bedrock automatically
• Load Balancing - Distributes requests intelligently across multiple API keys and providers to avoid rate limit walls
• Budget Management - Set hierarchical cost controls by team, project, or virtual key. Prevent runaway spend before it happens
• MCP Support - Native Model Context Protocol integration for tool-enabled AI agents
• Observability - Native Prometheus metrics, distributed tracing, and structured logging. Pairs natively with Maxim's observability platform for end-to-end AI quality monitoring
• Unified Interface - One OpenAI-compatible API for OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Azure, Groq, Mistral, Ollama, Cohere, and more
• Drop-in Replacement - Swap your existing provider SDK with one line of code, no refactoring needed
• Vault Support - Secure API key management via HashiCorp Vault for enterprise security requirements
• SSO Integration - Google and GitHub authentication for team access control

Best For

Teams building production AI applications that need reliability, cost controls, and observability in a single layer. Bifrost is especially strong for engineering teams that also use Maxim for AI evaluation and agent observability, as the two integrate natively.

2. LiteLLM

Platform Overview

LiteLLM is a popular open-source proxy that standardizes calls to 100+ LLM providers behind a unified API. It is widely adopted in the developer community and self-hostable.

Features

• Supports 100+ providers including niche and open-weight models
• Semantic caching with Redis
• Spend tracking and budget limits per key
• OpenAI-compatible proxy

Best For

Developers and small teams who want maximum provider flexibility and are comfortable self-hosting and maintaining their own infrastructure.

3. Cloudflare AI Gateway

Platform Overview

Cloudflare AI Gateway is a managed gateway that sits on Cloudflare's global edge network. It requires no infrastructure management and offers real-time logging and analytics.

Features

• Response caching to reduce redundant API calls
• Rate limiting and request controls
• Real-time logs and usage analytics
• Supports major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Workers AI)

Best For

Teams already running workloads on Cloudflare who want quick cost visibility and basic caching with no additional infrastructure.

4. Vercel AI Gateway

Platform Overview

Vercel AI Gateway is integrated into the Vercel platform and works natively with the Vercel AI SDK. It is designed for frontend teams building AI-powered web applications.

Features

• Built-in caching for AI responses
• Provider switching via the AI SDK
• Usage monitoring within the Vercel dashboard
• Optimized for Next.js and edge deployments

Best For

Frontend and full-stack teams using Next.js who want AI gateway features without stepping outside the Vercel ecosystem.

5. Kong AI Gateway

Platform Overview

Kong AI Gateway extends Kong's enterprise API gateway with AI-specific plugins. It is suited for large organizations with existing Kong infrastructure.

Features

• AI rate limiting and request transformation plugins
• Provider routing via plugin configuration
• Integration with Kong's broader API management features
• Supports enterprise governance workflows

Best For

Enterprises with existing Kong deployments that want to layer AI governance controls on top of their current API infrastructure without adopting a new tool.

Final Thoughts

Every gateway on this list reduces LLM costs in some form. The real differentiator is what else you get alongside that routing layer.

Bifrost stands out because it combines cost optimization (semantic caching, fallbacks, budget controls) with deep observability and native integration with Maxim's evaluation platform. For teams serious about AI reliability and not just cost cutting, that full-stack connection matters.

If you are evaluating AI gateways, try Bifrost or book a demo with Maxim to see how gateway and observability work together in production.