# OpenRouter alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 170 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where OpenRouter holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/openrouter/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Portkey: 35
- LiteLLM: 26
- Bifrost: 14
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: 5
- Helicone: 5
- Kong AI Gateway: 3

## LLM gateways and observability

**Small business**: 39 of 84 answers did not name OpenRouter (OpenRouter is #3 of 7 at 21%).

- Portkey: first choice in 9 of those 39
- LiteLLM: first choice in 6 of those 39
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: first choice in 3 of those 39
- Helicone: first choice in 2 of those 39
- Bifrost: first choice in 1 of those 39
- LangSmith: first choice in 1 of those 39
- Vercel AI Gateway: first choice in 1 of those 39

**Mid-market**: 55 of 84 answers did not name OpenRouter (OpenRouter is #3 of 8 at 9%).

- Portkey: first choice in 13 of those 55
- LiteLLM: first choice in 5 of those 55
- Helicone: first choice in 3 of those 55
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: first choice in 2 of those 55
- Portkey AI Gateway: first choice in 2 of those 55
- Bifrost: first choice in 1 of those 55
- Kong AI Gateway: first choice in 1 of those 55
- LiteLLM OSS: first choice in 1 of those 55

**Enterprise**: 76 of 84 answers did not name OpenRouter (OpenRouter is #8 of 8 at 0%).

- LiteLLM: first choice in 15 of those 76
- Portkey: first choice in 13 of those 76
- Bifrost: first choice in 12 of those 76
- Arize AX: first choice in 2 of those 76
- Kong AI Gateway: first choice in 2 of those 76
- LLM Gateway: first choice in 2 of those 76
- LangSmith: first choice in 2 of those 76
- Apache APISIX: first choice in 1 of those 76

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.