Selecting the right platform is crucial for the success of enterprise AI applications. While both LiteLLM and Portkey AI offer solutions to streamline AI model integration, they differ significantly in their approach, capabilities, and enterprise readiness.
This comparison explains why leading enterprises choose Portkey AI for building scalable, reliable, and efficient AI solutions.
At a Glance
Portkey
LiteLLM
Best For
Enterprise & Production Teams
Quick Prototyping & Development
Key Strength
Full-stack Gen AI Platform
Model Routing Library
Scalability
100k rpm on 2 vCPUs
4800 rpm on 2 vCPUs
Community
Enterprise Support & Community
Discord Community
Security
SOC 2 & ISO 27001 Certified
In progress
Deployment
Cloud, Managed and Self-hosted
Self-hosted
Overview of LiteLLM
LiteLLM is designed to simplify interactions with multiple Large Language Models (LLMs) by providing a unified API. It supports various providers, including OpenAI, Azure, Cohere, Anthropic, and Huggingface, allowing developers to switch between models without dealing with individual APIs. Key features include load balancing, cost tracking, and support for over 100 LLMs.

Overview of Portkey AI
Portkey AI is a comprehensive platform tailored for Generative AI applications, offering advanced features such as:
Gen AI Gateway: A unified API to interact with 200+ LLM providers
Observability: Robust monitoring capabilities, logging, tracing, metrics, feedback and metadata
Guardrails: 50+ guardrails, in-built and partner support
Prompt Management: Comprehensive prompt management, including versioning, testing, and governance
Cost Optimization: Track usage, forecast costs, and optimize resource allocation.
Enterprise Readiness: Designed for large-scale deployments with robust scalability and security features.
WITH PORTKEY
Advanced Observability
You get realtime monitoring, detailed usage analytics, cost tracking, performance metrics and custom alert configurations.
Prompt Management
Version control, collaborative prompt editing, A/B testing, template management, and performance analytics through UI and APIs.
Wide Guardrail Ecosystem
50+ in-built security checks like content moderation, prompt injections, PII and also connects with third-party guardrail providers.
Batch Completions
Run batch completions across providers, even if there's no official batch API available. Decrease processing time at your end while maintaining full cost attribution
Fine-tuning
Fine-tune over 100 models through UI or APIs and build proprietary models using your private data. Create checkpoints and experiment across versions.
Connect to Vector Databases
Connect to any vector database through the AI gateway and build ambitious RAG applications on knowledge bases or AI Agents with custom tools and API calls.
Advanced Security
Portkey offers end-to-end encryption, private cloud deployments, custom security policies, and role-based access control
High Availability Infrastructure
99.95% and above uptime guarantees, global load balancing, automatic failovers and real-time performance optimization.
Industry Leading Certifications
ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA certifications available. Portkey also provides SLAs for uptime and latency.
Detailed Feature Comparison
Category
Feature
Portkey
LiteLLM
Security
SOC 2 Type II
✅
❌
ISO 27001
✅
❌
GDPR Compliance
✅
❌
Infrastructure
High Availability
✅
❌
Auto-scaling
✅
DIY
Private Cloud
AWS, Azure, GCP, F5, On-Prem
DIY
Advanced Features
Prompt Management
✅
❌
Fine-tuning
✅
❌
Observability
✅
❌
Guardrails
✅
❌
Integration
Model Coverage
200+ LLMs
200+ LLMs
Enterprise Tools
✅
Limited
Export to Data Lakes
✅
DIY
Why Portkey AI Outperforms LiteLLM
1. Superior Enterprise Architecture
Portkey AI's architecture is built from the ground up for enterprise needs, offering high availability, automatic scaling, and robust security features. Unlike LiteLLM's basic routing approach, Portkey provides a complete infrastructure solution that enterprises can trust.
2. Comprehensive Observability & Control
While LiteLLM offers basic monitoring, Portkey AI provides deep insights into your AI operations with advanced analytics, detailed logging, and real-time monitoring capabilities. This level of visibility is crucial for maintaining control and optimizing performance at scale.
3. Enterprise-Grade Security & Compliance
Portkey AI's security features go far beyond basic implementations, with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications, comprehensive access controls, and advanced encryption. This ensures your AI infrastructure meets the strictest enterprise security requirements.
4. Advanced Prompt Management & Governance
Unlike LiteLLM's basic templating, Portkey AI offers a complete prompt management system with version control, collaboration features, and governance capabilities. This ensures consistent, high-quality outputs across your organization.
5. Cost Optimization Without Compromise
Portkey AI's intelligent routing and optimization features ensure you get the best performance while managing costs effectively. Our platform provides detailed cost analytics and optimization recommendations that go beyond simple usage tracking.
For organizations serious about deploying AI in production, Portkey AI offers enterprise-grade capabilities that transform how you build and scale AI applications:
Production-Ready Infrastructure: Built for enterprise scale with guaranteed reliability
Comprehensive Platform: Everything you need in one secure, integrated solution
Enterprise Support: 24/7 priority support with dedicated success teams
Future-Proof Investment: Continuous innovation and feature development backed by enterprise stability
Connected to 250+ LLMs &
20+ Auth Mechanisms


Handle authentication universally
Set up provider authentication once, share one API key with your team, and let us handle complex auth services for secure access.
Get started instantly
Save weeks of development with built-in support for OAuth, API keys, SSO integration, and token management for external services.
Monitor model access, usage, and costs in real-time
Track costs and usage in real-time across all providers. Set spending limits and quotas and see detailed metrics in our observability stack.
Control access with RBAC and usage policies
Define granular roles and permissions, set usage limits, and prevent budget overruns with automated cost controls.