LiteLLM

LiteLLM is an open-source AI gateway and LLM proxy that places an organization's entire AI stack behind a single OpenAI-compatible API key. It is designed to help platform teams track and cap spending, route requests across multiple models and providers, and manage user access. Teams can self-host the gateway to support internal, fine-tuned, and external models.

• Connects one OpenAI-compatible API to more than 140 providers and over 1,800 models
• Provides virtual keys and single sign-on access scoped by team, project, or app
• Tracks spend and enforces budgets and rate limits across keys, users, teams, and tags
• Supports LLM fallbacks, request and response logging, and Prometheus metrics
• Enables access to MCP servers and agents alongside large language models
• Includes guardrails such as PII masking, prompt injection protection, and secret detection

Pros

• Unified access management allows developers to build using a single API key without navigating complex procurement cycles
• Granular spend tracking and budget caps help platform teams monitor and restrict costs by key, user, team, or organization
• Self-hosted and air-gapped deployment options ensure that data and keys remain within local infrastructure
• Day-zero support for new models ensures developers can utilize recently released LLMs quickly

Cons

• Exact pricing numbers and tiers for the paid Enterprise plan are not published on the page and require talking to sales
• Self-hosting requires internal infrastructure resources and technical setup by the deploying team
• Advanced governance, audit logs, and SCIM features require upgrading to the paid Enterprise plan

This product fits platform teams, software engineers, and organizations running AI applications at scale who need centralized governance, spend controls, and unified access to multiple LLM providers. It is a poor fit for solo developers or small teams who do not want to self-host their own gateway infrastructure or manage proxy deployments.

LiteLLM uses a freemium model featuring a free open-source tier and a paid Enterprise tier. The Open Source plan is free forever for self-hosting and includes virtual keys, spend tracking, budgets, rate limits, LLM fallbacks, and request logging. The Enterprise plan is billed annually and is priced according to annual gateway request capacity, deployment architecture, and support needs rather than per token. A 30-day Enterprise trial key is available without a credit card.

Unlike direct API integrations with individual providers, LiteLLM routes all traffic through a self-hosted gateway that standardizes requests behind a single OpenAI-compatible format. Instead of forcing code changes or security reviews every time a backend model changes, teams can swap models through simple configuration updates. It also extends gateway controls to agents and MCP servers rather than focusing exclusively on language models.