LiteLLM vs Vercel AI Gateway (2026)
Updated March 10, 2026
vs
Overview
Rating
10.0 / 10
Rating
10.0 / 10
Best For
Engineering teams who want a self-hosted, open-source LLM proxy for managing providers, keys, and budgets
Best For
Developers who want managed multi-provider model access and spend controls, especially teams already on Vercel or the AI SDK
Product Summary
LiteLLM is an open-source LLM gateway and Python SDK from BerriAI that puts 140+ providers behind one OpenAI-compatible API you host yourself.
Product Summary
Vercel AI Gateway routes hundreds of models through one API key with zero token markup. Compare its pricing, features, pros and cons, and alternatives.
Starting Price
Free
Starting Price
$5
Free Trial
No
Free Trial
Yes
Free Version
Yes
Free Version
No
Website
Website
Key features
Core capabilities each platform advertises.
- OpenAI-compatible proxy for 140+ providers
- Virtual keys scoped to users and teams
- Budgets, rate limits, and spend tracking
- Fallbacks, retries, and load balancing
- Guardrails for PII masking and prompt injection
- One API key for hundreds of models
- Provider and model fallbacks
- Request logs and spend dashboards
- Budgets by team, project, API key, or member
Strengths and tradeoffs
What each tool does well, and the limitations to keep in mind.
Pros
- MIT-licensed proxy, free at any volume
- 140+ providers behind one OpenAI-compatible API
- Virtual keys and budgets per user and team
- Runs inside your own infrastructure
Cons
- You run, scale, and secure the proxy yourself
- Two PyPI releases were compromised in a March 2026 supply chain attack
- SSO, RBAC, and audit logs require the Enterprise license
- Tracing and evals depend on separate tools
Pros
- No markup on tokens, including with BYOK
- Callable from any infrastructure, not only Vercel deployments
- Ordered provider and model fallbacks
Cons
- No output evaluation or quality scoring
- Free tier limited to a subset of models with lower rate limits
- Budgets don't cover BYOK spend, and failed BYOK requests fall back to billed system credentials
- Team-wide ZDR, custom reporting, and trace drains are paid add-ons
LiteLLM or Vercel AI — which should you choose?
Choose LiteLLM if you wantChoose if you want
- Self-hosted LLM gateway for data control
- Standardizing LLM access across teams
- Budget enforcement per team or project
- Switching providers without code changes
- Issuing scoped API keys to internal users
Choose Vercel AI if you wantChoose if you want
- Multi-provider model access for AI SDK apps
- Provider failover for production agents
- Capping AI spend by project or API key
- Routing coding agent spend through one account
Compare LiteLLM and Vercel AI Gateway on your own traffic
10KFree traces/mo
1,000+Models
5 minSetup
Respan lets you trace LLM and agent calls across any model or framework, A/B test prompts on production traffic, and route requests across 1,000+ models through one gateway.
Try Respan free