# Helicone vs Bifrost: which do AI models recommend for LLM gateways, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, LLM gateways and observability. One of fourteen models named Helicone first on the direct prompt; zero named Bifrost. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/helicone-vs-bifrost/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helicone | 6% | #4 of 8 | 15% | 27 | 12 of 14 |
| Bifrost | 4% | #5 of 8 | 8% | 24 | 11 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- MiniMax M2.5: helicone first (first choices: Helicone, Portkey.ai) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM, Nexos.ai, OpenRouter)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: LiteLLM) (alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Portkey)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey AI Gateway) (alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Helicone, LiteLLM, OpenRouter)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: LiteLLM) (alternatives: Portkey)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: Nexos.ai) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Amazon Bedrock, Azure AI, LiteLLM)
- Kimi K2: neither named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: OpenRouter, Portkey) (alternatives: Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither named (first choices: Portkey, now branded PRISMA AIRS AI Gateway) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: neither named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: LiteLLM, OpenRouter)

## What the models said about Helicone

- "What I'd Avoid... Helicone | In maintenance mode since Mintlify acquisition" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt, hard negative)
- "now in maintenance mode. Avoid for new builds." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt, hard negative)
- "now maintenance mode post-2026 acquisition—no new signups, but OSS viable ... Hosted future uncertain; basic evals." (Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase prompt, soft negative)
- "Choose Helicone if you need to debug why a specific LLM chain is failing, require the absolute lowest latency" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "Start with Helicone. It is the most "agile" tool for a mid-sized B2B company." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "I'd recommend starting with Portkey.ai or Helicone" (MiniMax M2.5, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Bifrost

- "Avoid or be cautious with Bifrost for high-scale or real-time use cases." (Mistral Small, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Trade-offs: Newer project; smaller community; more DIY" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt, soft negative)
- "Bifrost is an open-source, ultra-high-performance gateway... For maximum speed, Bifrost (Go-native with microsecond overhead) ... are superior." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "I'd recommend starting with LiteLLM or Bifrost as they offer the most functionality at zero licensing cost" (Kimi K2, budget prompt, first choice)
- "open-source gateway such as LiteLLM, Bifrost, or Apache APISIX, which are free to license" (Llama 4 Maverick, budget prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.