FreeLLMAPI takes the opposite approach to a hosted gateway: the router is open source and runs on your own machine, so there is no seat, no request meter, and no tier that unlocks production. It routes across every provider's free tier at once — Google, Groq, Cerebras, NVIDIA, Cloudflare, Mistral, Cohere, Z.ai and more — behind one OpenAI-compatible key, and fails over when one runs dry.
| FreeLLMAPI | Portkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of the router | Free, open source, self-hosted | Free Developer tier; Production tier is paid |
| Paid plan | $19/year, or $49 once — optional, catalog only | $49/month, plus $9 per additional 100,000 requests |
| Free tier in production | Yes — routing is free forever | Developer tier is explicitly not for production use |
| Free-tier logging | Logs stay on your machine; no cap, no retention window | 10,000 logs/month, 3-day retention |
| Where your keys live | On your machine (self-hosted) | On Portkey's hosted gateway |
Why people switch
- No monthly gateway bill — routing is free forever; the optional Premium catalog is $19/year or $49 once, not $49 a month.
- No request meter — nothing charges per 100,000 requests, because nothing runs on someone else's infrastructure.
- Keys and logs stay private — self-hosted, so provider keys and request logs never leave your machine, with no 3-day retention window.
- Production from day one — there is no "not for production" tier to graduate out of.
- Live catalog — free-tier availability changes weekly; FreeLLMAPI tracks it for you.
Portkey was reported in 2026 to have been acquired by Palo Alto Networks, with the gateway announced as part of PRISMA AIRS AI Gateway. If that changes what you can rely on long-term, an open-source router you host yourself is the hedge.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free Portkey alternative?
An open-source gateway you run yourself. FreeLLMAPI routes across every provider with a genuine free tier behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, is free for production, and keeps your provider keys on your own machine.
Why not just stay on Portkey's free tier?
Because it is published as not for production: 10,000 logs a month with 3-day retention. The moment you ship, the answer is the $49/month Production tier plus $9 per additional 100,000 requests.