Nemo Router vs Portkey
Same AI gateway capabilities, zero platform fee, more features included. Nemo Router is a managed LLM gateway with 0% platform fee for life for the first 100,000 customers — offer ends August 2026. Built-in guardrails, credit-based billing, full RBAC team management, and budget controls on every plan.
Portkey is a solid AI gateway with good observability and prompt management. But teams that need credit-based billing, granular budget enforcement, built-in safety guardrails, and enterprise compliance features on every plan — without premium tier requirements — choose Nemo Router. We manage all provider keys so you never have to. One key, one bill, every feature included.
Side-by-side comparison
Nemo Router and Portkey are both AI gateways with OpenAI-compatible APIs. The key differences are pricing, feature availability, and provider key management. Nemo Router includes every feature on every plan with zero platform fee.
| Feature | Nemo Router | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Fee | 0% for life | Usage-based pricing |
| Models Available | 200+ from 15+ providers | 200+ via virtual keys |
| Built-in Guardrails | PII, injection, content filtering | Guardrails (paid tier) |
| Credit-Based Billing | Stripe-integrated credits | Not available |
| Team Management (RBAC) | 4 roles, unlimited teams | Basic team features |
| Budget Controls | Per-key, per-team, per-org | Rate limits only |
| Observability | Built-in (free) | Built-in (tiered) |
| SSO / SAML | Included | Enterprise only |
| Audit Logs | Included | Enterprise only |
| API Compatibility | OpenAI-compatible | OpenAI-compatible |
| Feature Gating | All features, all plans | Features gated by tier |
| Provider Key Management | Fully managed (zero BYOK) | BYOK required |
| Prompt Management | Built-in templates + versioning | Prompt playground |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% | Enterprise only |
How much can you save?
Portkey charges usage-based fees for gateway requests and gates advanced features behind premium pricing tiers. Nemo Router is offering 0% platform fee for life to the first 100,000 customers — offer ends August 2026. Keep 100% of your credits with every feature included.
Savings estimates based on Portkey's published pricing tiers and usage-based gateway fees. Actual Portkey costs vary by plan and usage volume. Nemo Router is offering 0% platform fee for life to the first 100,000 customers — offer ends August 2026.
No feature gating. Guardrails, SSO, audit logs, budgets, RBAC — all included on Tier 1 through Enterprise.
We manage 100+ provider keys across 15+ providers. One Nemo Router key accesses every model.
Switch from Portkey in under 5 minutes
Nemo Router uses the same OpenAI-compatible API format as Portkey. Change your base URL and API key — no extra headers needed. Your existing application works without modification. With Nemo Router, you also drop the virtual key configuration and extra headers that Portkey requires.
Sign up at nemorouter.ai
Free account, no credit card required. Takes 30 seconds.
Replace base_url and api_key
Two lines of code. Same OpenAI-compatible SDK, same format.
Same models, zero platform fee
Your existing code works without modification. Start saving immediately.
# Before (Portkey)
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.portkey.ai/v1",
api_key="pk-...",
default_headers={"x-portkey-virtual-key": "..."},
)
# After (Nemo Router — zero platform fee)
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.nemorouter.com/v1",
api_key=os.environ["NEMOROUTER_API_KEY"],
# No extra headers needed — one key does it all
)Works with the OpenAI Python SDK, Node.js SDK, and any OpenAI-compatible client. No extra headers, no virtual key config — just base URL and API key.
Why teams switch from Portkey
Portkey is a capable AI gateway with solid observability. But teams that need credit-based billing, granular budget enforcement, and all enterprise features included from day one — without premium tier pricing — switch to Nemo Router.
Zero Platform Fee, All Features Included
Portkey charges usage-based fees and gates advanced features behind premium tiers. Nemo Router is offering 0% platform fee for life to the first 100,000 customers who sign up before August 2026. Every feature is included on every plan — guardrails, SSO, audit logs, team management, budget controls. No add-ons, no premium tiers, no surprises. On $10,000/month in API spend, the savings are significant.
Built-in Safety Guardrails at No Extra Cost
Nemo Router includes content filtering, PII detection, and prompt injection protection on every request at the proxy level with zero additional cost. These guardrails are configurable per organization, team, or individual key — with pre-call, during-call, and post-call enforcement modes. Portkey offers guardrails as a feature in higher-tier plans. With Nemo Router, safety is included from day one on every plan.
Credit-Based Billing with Stripe
Nemo Router has a built-in credit system powered by Stripe. Users buy credits, and every API call deducts from their balance in real time using an atomic reserve-and-settle pattern. No negative balances, no billing surprises. Set spending budgets per key, per team, or per organization with real-time enforcement. Portkey does not offer a built-in credit or billing system — teams must manage costs externally.
Full RBAC Team Management
Create unlimited teams with four roles: owner, admin, member, and viewer. Each role has granular permissions for key management, spend visibility, guardrail configuration, and team operations. Set per-team spending budgets and track usage per member. Invite teammates via email with automatic role assignment. Portkey offers basic team features, but Nemo Router provides enterprise-grade multi-tenancy with RLS-enforced tenant isolation.
Enterprise features, included on every plan
Every feature is unlocked for every plan. We differentiate on platform fee (4% / 2% / 0%) and RPM/TPM guarantees — not by locking features behind paywalls. This is the opposite of how Portkey and most competitors operate. 0% platform fee for life for the first 100,000 customers, offer ends August 2026.
Budget Controls That Actually Enforce
Set hard spending limits per API key, per team, and per organization. Nemo Router enforces budgets in real time — when a key hits its limit, requests are rejected before they reach the provider. No post-hoc reports showing you already overspent. Budget alerts notify you before limits are hit, and admins can adjust limits without key rotation. Portkey offers rate limiting but lacks granular spend-based budget enforcement at the key and team level.
Full Observability Stack Included Free
Every plan includes request logging with full request/response capture, cost tracking broken down by model, team, and key, latency percentiles (P50/P95/P99), error rate monitoring, and callback integrations with Langfuse, Datadog, S3, and Slack. Configure data retention policies and choose between zero logging, metadata-only, full capture, or PII-redacted modes. Portkey provides observability features, but advanced capabilities are gated behind higher tiers.
Enterprise Compliance from Day One
SOC 2 Type II certified with SSO/SAML support (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace), comprehensive audit logging, data residency controls, and GDPR compliance with consent tracking and data subject rights. Row-level security enforces tenant isolation at the database level — no cross-org data leakage is possible. All of these enterprise features are included on every plan at no extra cost. Portkey reserves SSO, audit logs, and compliance features for enterprise-tier customers.
Zero BYOK — We Manage All Provider Keys
With Nemo Router, users never touch a provider API key. We manage 100+ keys across 15+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Cohere, and more. Users get a single Nemo Router API key that works with every model. This eliminates the operational burden of provisioning, rotating, and securing credentials across multiple providers. Portkey requires users to bring their own keys (BYOK), shifting the credential management burden to the customer.
Understanding the differences between Nemo Router and Portkey
Both Nemo Router and Portkey serve as AI gateways that sit between your application and LLM providers. They both offer OpenAI-compatible APIs, support multiple providers, and provide observability into your AI workloads. However, the two platforms differ fundamentally in their approach to pricing, feature availability, and operational model.
Pricing philosophy
Portkey uses a tiered pricing model where advanced features like guardrails, custom metadata, advanced analytics, and compliance tools are reserved for higher-priced plans. This means smaller teams and early-stage startups often cannot access the safety and governance features they need without upgrading to enterprise pricing.
Nemo Router takes the opposite approach. Every feature — guardrails, SSO, audit logs, budget controls, RBAC, observability, prompt management — is included on every plan. Plans differ only in platform fee percentage (4% for Tier 1, 2% for Tier 2, 0% for Tier 3) and RPM/TPM guarantees. The first 100,000 customers receive 0% platform fee for life with all features included.
Provider key management
Portkey operates on a BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) model. Users must provision, configure, and rotate their own API keys for each provider they want to use. This creates operational overhead, especially for teams using multiple providers. Portkey provides virtual keys as an abstraction layer, but the underlying provider credentials are still the user's responsibility.
Nemo Router eliminates this entirely. We manage over 100 provider keys across 15+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Cohere, and more. Users receive a single Nemo Router API key (set as NEMOROUTER_API_KEY) that works with every model in our catalog. No provider accounts, no key rotation, no credential management.
Billing and cost control
Nemo Router has a built-in credit system powered by Stripe. Users purchase credits, and every API call deducts from their balance using an atomic reserve-and-settle pattern that guarantees no negative balances. Spending budgets can be set at the key, team, or organization level with real-time enforcement — when a budget is exhausted, requests are blocked before reaching the provider.
Portkey does not include a built-in billing or credit system. Teams must manage their own cost tracking and billing externally. While Portkey provides usage analytics, it does not offer the kind of granular, enforced spending controls that Nemo Router provides out of the box.
Open-source foundation
Nemo Router is built on the LiteLLM open-source proxy, which provides battle-tested routing, cost tracking, and provider compatibility for 200+ models. We add a managed enterprise layer on top — billing, team management, guardrails, and a production-ready dashboard — while contributing back to the open-source ecosystem. This gives teams confidence that the core routing layer is transparent and auditable.
Portkey is a proprietary platform. While it provides a solid product, teams that value open-source foundations and the ability to audit the routing layer prefer the transparency that Nemo Router's LiteLLM foundation provides.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about switching from Portkey to Nemo Router.
Yes. Portkey charges usage-based fees for gateway requests and adds premium pricing for advanced features. Nemo Router is offering 0% platform fee for life to the first 100,000 customers — offer ends August 2026. All features are included on every plan with no add-on charges. One key, one bill, every feature included.
Yes. Both Nemo Router and Portkey use the OpenAI-compatible API format. Change your base URL to https://api.nemorouter.com/v1 and swap your API key — your existing code works without modification. Migration takes under 5 minutes.
Yes. Nemo Router includes real-time request logging, cost tracking per model/team/key, latency percentiles, error rate monitoring, and callback integrations with Langfuse, Datadog, S3, and Slack. All observability features are included free on every plan.
Credit-based billing with Stripe integration, per-team and per-key spending budgets with real-time enforcement, built-in safety guardrails (PII detection, prompt injection protection, content filtering), full RBAC with four roles (owner, admin, member, viewer), SSO/SAML, SOC 2 Type II compliance, and 200+ models from 15+ providers — all included free for founding customers. First 100K customers get 0% platform fee and all features for life (offer ends August 2026).
Yes. Nemo Router provides virtual API keys (sk-nemo-xxx) that abstract away all provider credentials. Users never touch provider API keys — we manage 100+ keys across 15+ providers. Each virtual key has its own spend tracking, rate limits, and budget enforcement built in.
Ready to switch from Portkey?
Start with a free Tier 1 account. No credit card required. 0% platform fee for life, every feature included from day one — offer ends August 2026. One key, one bill, every feature included. Migration takes under 5 minutes.