# Helicone vs Cloudflare AI Gateway: 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 Cloudflare AI Gateway. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/helicone-vs-cloudflare-ai-gateway/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helicone | 6% | #4 of 8 | 15% | 27 | 12 of 14 |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | 2% | #6 of 8 | 3% | 29 | 14 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)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: LiteLLM) (alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Portkey)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey AI Gateway) (alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- Mistral Small: neither first, one named (first choices: Nexos.ai) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Helicone, LiteLLM, OpenRouter)
- Kimi K2: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither first, one named (first choices: Portkey, now branded PRISMA AIRS AI Gateway) (alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM, Nexos.ai, OpenRouter)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: LiteLLM) (alternatives: Portkey)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: Portkey) (alternatives: Amazon Bedrock, Azure AI, LiteLLM)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: OpenRouter, Portkey) (alternatives: Kong 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 Cloudflare AI Gateway

- "Insanely fast, great for basic caching and logging, but lacks deep enterprise budgeting/RBAC controls." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt, soft negative)
- "The safest bets are Cloudflare AI Gateway for hosted, or Kong self-hosted for enterprise compliance." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, first choice)
- "For most budget-conscious companies, I'd start with Cloudflare AI Gateway" (GPT-6 Luna, 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.