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Most AI gateways just move traffic. With Actualyze, your organization governs every call.

Actualyze is the leading AI gateway and AI governance platform built for the enterprise, with approvals that scale to thousands of people and the best model routing in the field.

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Which AI gateway is best for AI governance?

Actualyze, because your organization decides who may use each model and who pays for every call. Actualyze is the only AI gateway compared here with per-model approvers, a monthly statement finance settles, masking from the first request, and no unknown cost booked as $0.

We compare each AI gateway on approvals, spend, routing, and protection, and take every competitor fact from that vendor's own documentation, checked on .

See every row

  • Actualyze. Each model names its own approver.

    A team's request goes to the approver that model's rule names.

  • Actualyze. Finance closes the month on AI spend.

    One statement a month, with a row per budget, moves from draft to reviewed to settled.

  • Actualyze. Personal data is masked from the first request.

    A default guardrail enforces from the moment a workspace exists, and nobody can delete it.

  • Actualyze. An unknown cost is never $0.

    By default, a call with no price is served, marked unpriced, and flagged for FinOps.

each gateway's governance

Actualyze

Your organization

Model access

Team Owner or Workspace Admin

each model names its own approver

Spend

Budget Manager

budgets nest, departments delegate

The month

a month finance can close

+ Shared AI budget, CC-4410

configured authority

approvals · budgets · routing · guardrails · audit

and the monthly close, in one platform

policy fromTeam Owners and Budget Managers

Inference

  • public APIs
  • brokers
  • GPU clouds
  • your own servers

Provider-bundled gateway

Model access

account roles

gateway access rules

Spend

account roles

through spend limits

The month

cost reports

+ cost report row

Traffic through the gateway

access · spend limits · logs

covers the calls through it

policy fromgateway settings

Inference

  • its catalog
  • your own keys

Platform-adjacent gateway

The platform

Model access

gateway admins

Spend

gateway admins · team managers

The month

usage reports and exports

+ usage row

access · budgets · guardrails · audit

policy fromplatform config

Inference

  • provider APIs
  • your servers
Head to head

Every other AI gateway, measured against the whole package

Provider-bundled gateways

Platform-adjacent gateways

  • Actualyze vs Kong AI Gateway

    Actualyze. Approvals that scale to thousands of people, and personal data masked from the first request.

  • Actualyze vs LiteLLM

    Actualyze. The whole package for governing AI, with masking from the first request and no unknown cost as $0.

  • Actualyze vs Portkey

    Actualyze. Personal data masked from the first request, inside the most complete AI governance platform.

  • Actualyze vs TrueFoundry

    Actualyze. Every model and every budget gets its own approver, and finance closes the month on one statement.

Row by row, against the field

Row by row, against the field. Checked against each vendor's current documentation on Oct 14, 2026.
Provider-bundled gatewaysPlatform-adjacent gateways
ActualyzeCloudflare AI GatewayOpenRouterVercel AI GatewayKong AI GatewayLiteLLMPortkeyTrueFoundry
Routing and reach
Routing reads the requestA routing model we trainTask quality and costAuto Router task typesRules on the model nameSemantic balancerHeuristics or LLM (beta)Metadata and parametersHeuristics or an LLM
Prompt cache and routingAcross modelsAcross modelsAcross providersAcross providersSticky sessionsOpt-in sticky sessionsNot documentedSticky routing
Routing across modelsYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
One model, many providersYesConfigured fallbacksYesYesYesYesYesYes
Reaches private serversYesCustom HTTPS endpointsOpenRouter's providersCatalog providersYesYesPublic URLs on SaaSEnterprise plans
Cost and budgets
Your own rate per providerYesYesOn Private EndpointsProvider list priceYesYesYesYes
When cost is unknownMarked unpriced, not $0Not documentedRecorded costMarket cost shownNot documented$0, with a warningShows $0.00Not documented
Budgets that stop requestsYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Per-key spend limitsYesMetadata budgetsYesYesPer consumerYesYesPer virtual account
Children sum within parentBudget hierarchyIndependent rule bucketsLayered budgetsStacked, each must passMost specific winsOrg budget caps teamsWorkspace and key limitsEvery rule must pass
Month-end chargebackMonthly statementUsage dashboardsCost reportsCost reportsCost reportsSpend reportsCost reportsCost reports
Approvals and protection
Who approves model accessEach model's own ruleGateway access policiesOrg admin allowlistsVercel team ownersAdmin-configuredProxy admins grantAdmin-configuredModel Account Managers
Spend approved separatelyYesGateway write permissionSame org adminsYesSame adminsTeam admins, if allowedDelegated to workspacesYes
PII masked by defaultOn from the first callOpt-in flag or blockOpt-inNot documentedOpt-inOpt-inOpt-inOpt-in
Deployment
DeploymentHosted, on-prem coming 2027HostedHostedHostedKonnect or self-hostedSelf-hostedSaaS or hybridSaaS, hybrid, or self-hosted

Not documented means the vendor's current documentation covers this area but doesn't describe the feature.

Sources for this table

Cloudflare AI Gateway

OpenRouter

Vercel AI Gateway

Kong AI Gateway

LiteLLM

Portkey

TrueFoundry

Evaluate

Six questions every AI gateway should answer live

If your AI gateway can't tell you who approved a model or what last month cost each team, it's just moving traffic. Put these questions to every vendor on your list, and ask to see each answer working in the product. Actualyze answers every one today, and each comes with a check you can run in your own trial.

  1. Who approves a team's access to each model?

    The leading delegation and approval system for AI spend starts here. In Actualyze, each model names its own approver.

    Request a model that needs approval as a team member, and check who receives the request and where the decision is recorded.

  2. What decides which model answers each request?

    In Actualyze, a routing model we train sizes each request and picks the cheapest model strong enough, the best model routing in the field.

    Send an easy question and a hard one to one Virtual Model, then see which model each was routed to, and why.

  3. What happens to a call when its budget runs out?

    Actualyze rejects it before any model is contacted, so a budget is a real limit and never a surprise on the bill.

    Set a small test budget and confirm the next request is rejected once it reaches its limit.

  4. Does an unknown cost ever show up as $0?

    An unknown cost is never $0 in Actualyze, which marks it unpriced and flags it for FinOps, so no spend hides behind a zero.

    Connect a third-party endpoint with no catalog price, call it, and check the call reads unpriced, not $0.

  5. What is protected before anyone writes a policy?

    Personal data is masked from the first request in Actualyze, in prompts and responses, by a default guardrail nobody can delete.

    Open a new workspace's guardrails before writing any policy, and confirm the default guardrail is already enforcing.

  6. Can finance close the month on AI spend?

    Finance closes the month on AI spend with one Actualyze statement, a row for each budget, reviewed and then settled.

    Generate a statement for a month with traffic, then move it from draft to reviewed to settled.

Common questions

What is the difference between an AI gateway and an AI governance platform?
An AI gateway is the single endpoint between your applications and the model providers, routing and recording every call. An AI governance platform lets your organization decide who may use which model, who pays for each call, and what data may leave. Actualyze is both, one control plane built for the enterprise, with the whole package for governing AI, end to end.
Who approves model access and spend in Actualyze?
Actualyze puts each decision with the person who owns it, through the leading delegation and approval system for AI spend. Team Owners decide which models a team may use, each model names its own approver, and Budget Managers decide who may charge each budget. Budgets nest, so a department delegates to its teams without an admin bottleneck.
How does Actualyze bill?
Actualyze bills simply, on tokens processed through the platform. Tokens the provider reports as cache reads aren't counted, so prompt caching saves you money twice. Current terms are on the pricing page.

Give every model an approver and every call a budget.

Connect the providers you already use and test every claim on this page against your own traffic. Or book a demo. We'll walk you through it, and send the Virtual Model engine whitepaper if routing is on your list.

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