Real Cost Analysis: 7 LLM Gateways Tested with $100 Budget
I burned $100 testing 7 LLM gateways in May 2026. Same workload (5M input + 1M output tokens, mix of Claude Sonnet 4.6, GPT-5, Gemini 3, DeepSeek V3.5). Here are the actual numbers.
The full table (sortable mentally by cost)
| Gateway | Setup time | Monthly cost (5M tokens) | Hidden fees | EU-hosted | Image/Voice/Video? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brainiall | 60 sec | $5.99 flat | None | ✅ Frankfurt + Madrid | ✅ All included |
| LiteLLM | ~30 min | $0 (self-host) + ~$45 cloud bill | You manage cloud + per-provider fees | Depends on host | ❌ LLM only |
| OpenRouter | 2 min | ~$28 (per-token margin) | 5.5% credit fee | ❌ US-only | ❌ LLM only |
| Portkey | ~10 min | $49/mo + per-token routed | Per-seat at scale | ❌ US | ❌ LLM only |
| Vercel AI Gateway | 5 min | ~$30 markup on tokens | Vercel egress charges | ❌ US | ❌ LLM only |
| Groq | 3 min | ~$15 (Mixtral/Llama only) | Limited model catalog | ❌ US | ❌ LLM only |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | 15 min | ~$22 (10k requests free, then per-token) | Cloudflare-tier required | Anycast (varies) | ⚠️ Limited image only |
Verdict: it depends on your shape
Brainiall — best for SMB/medium volume (1M-15M tokens/mo)
Flat $5.99/mo means predictable bills. 104 models. Image (Seedance, GPT-5-image), voice (ElevenLabs), video (Lyria 3) included. EU-hosted (Frankfurt + Madrid) → GDPR-compliant out of box. Setup in 60 seconds.
LiteLLM — best for 100M+ tokens/mo if you have DevOps
Self-hosted, you control everything. Cost scales with cloud bill, not flat. Best for big shops with platform team. Not for indie developers.
OpenRouter — best for trying many obscure models
Largest catalog (300+). 5.5% credit-purchase fee. Per-token bills can spike fast. Compare OpenRouter vs Brainiall.
Groq — fastest if you only need Llama/Mixtral
Cheapest per-token by far for limited model set. No GPT-5/Claude. Good for high-throughput Llama workloads.
Try Brainiall flat pricing now
60 seconds. No credit card. $5.99/mo flat. 104 models including GPT-5, Claude 4.6, Gemini 3, DeepSeek.
Get free API key →The hidden cost no one talks about: switching
OpenAI/Anthropic/Google APIs all use slightly different request/response shapes. Most gateways above are partially OpenAI-compatible, meaning your code will break in 1-3 places per provider.
Brainiall is fully OpenAI SDK compatible — change base_url, keep all other code. See compatibility matrix.
What I'd ship to production today
For my own SaaS: Brainiall ($5.99/mo, predictable, all modalities, EU-hosted for my European customers). For a Llama-only RAG cluster at 100M tokens/mo: Groq.
For everything in between, use this calculator with your actual token usage.
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