Portkey vs Helicone
Default scenario: At $10,000 model spend / month, estimated bills are $588/yr for Portkey and $948/yr for Helicone. That’s a $360 difference before accounting for different features or operating costs.
The services may differ in features, performance, support and the work you need to do yourself. Read the notes and test what matters to your setup.
Your selected usage
$10,000 model spend / month
- Portkey: $588/yr estimated
- Helicone: $948/yr estimated
Estimated costs at different usage levels
Excludes the model spend itself. Self-hosted options cost the compute you run them on. Try your own numbers against all llm gateways providers.
Side by side
| Portkey | Helicone | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI gateway with observability, guardrails and prompt management; open-source gateway plus hosted plans billed by logged requests. | Open-source LLM observability platform and AI gateway with request logging, caching and routing; US or EU cloud regions. |
| Headquarters | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Parent jurisdiction | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| EU self-serve plan | No / not documented | Available; check eligible plans and regions |
| GDPR DPA | No / not documented | No / not documented |
| Billing | subscription | subscription |
| Free tier | Developer plan free with 10K logs/month and 3-day retention; OSS gateway free to self-host. | Hobby plan free with 10,000 requests/month and 1 GB storage. |
| Open source | Yes · self-hostable | Yes · self-hostable |
| Source last checked | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Pricing evidence | Modeled rates | Modeled rates |
Which should you choose?
Portkey has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from $1,000 model spend / month to $1,000,000 model spend / month.
Choose Portkey if…
Our data shows no advantage on price, residency, jurisdiction or licensing. Compare features in the notes below.
Choose Helicone if…
- you need EU data residency on a self-serve plan
Based on estimated list-price bills and the facts above. Features, performance and support aren’t scored.
Portkey pricing
Published rates converted using workload assumptions. Read the notes. Shows the base Production fee only; logged-request overages are not modeled by the model-spend input.
| Base fee / month |
|---|
| $49 |
Production plan $49/month includes 100K logs; overage $9 per additional 100K requests up to 3M. No markup on model spend: you bring your own provider keys (virtual keys). Enterprise (custom pricing) adds data residency and hybrid deployment with the data plane in your own cloud. The gateway itself is open source and can be self-hosted for free.
Portkey plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Helicone pricing
Published rates converted using workload assumptions. Read the notes. Shows the subscription fee; request, storage and other usage-dependent extras are not modeled by the model-spend input.
| Base fee / month |
|---|
| $79 |
Pro $79/month and Team $799/month, plus usage-based request/storage charges. AI Gateway credits are passed through at 0% markup; BYOK supported. EU region (eu.helicone.ai) selectable for data residency. Open source and self-hostable (Enterprise adds on-prem support).
Helicone plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Frequently asked questions
Is Portkey cheaper than Helicone?
Portkey has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from $1,000 model spend / month to $1,000,000 model spend / month. At $10,000 model spend / month, the estimates are $588/yr for Portkey and $948/yr for Helicone. Estimates use list prices and leave out features, support and operating costs.
Do Portkey and Helicone offer EU data residency?
Helicone offers EU data residency on a self-serve plan. Portkey doesn’t document it on a self-serve plan.
Do Portkey and Helicone have a free tier or trial?
Portkey: Developer plan free with 10K logs/month and 3-day retention; OSS gateway free to self-host. Helicone: Hobby plan free with 10,000 requests/month and 1 GB storage.
Where are Portkey and Helicone based?
Portkey is headquartered in the United States. Helicone is headquartered in the United States.