Comparison
LiteLLM vs. Helicone vs. Langfuse vs. Portkey
All four help you see and control LLM spend, but they don't do the same job. Two are gateways that sit in the request path and can enforce budgets; the others are observability platforms that record cost next to quality. Pick the wrong category and you'll either fail to stop a runaway key or drown in traces you don't need.
On this page
At a glance
| Tool | Category | Best at | Enforces budgets? | Self-host |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LiteLLM | Gateway / proxy | Unified API across 100+ providers, per-key budgets | Yes | Yes (OSS) |
| Helicone | Proxy | 1-line setup, fast logging, generous free tier | Partial | Yes (OSS) |
| Langfuse | Observability | Per-step traces for agents & RAG | No (records only) | Yes (OSS) |
| Portkey | Gateway | Routing, caching, guardrails | Yes | Enterprise |
LiteLLM — the universal proxy
LiteLLM gives you one OpenAI-compatible interface in front of 100+ providers. On cost, it tracks spend per API key, per user, and per team, with daily breakdowns of prompt, completion, and total tokens. Metadata tags let you categorize spend by application, environment, or business unit, and you can set a maximum budget per key or user with automatic enforcement when the limit is reached.
Choose it when: you're multi-provider, want hard budget caps, and are happy to self-host the proxy.
Helicone — fastest to first value
Helicone is a one-line proxy: change your base URL and it starts logging per-request cost, tokens, and latency the same afternoon. It's known for one of the most generous free tiers, which makes it a great "just get visibility today" choice.
Choose it when: your first goal is visibility with near-zero engineering effort.
Langfuse — cost with quality, for agents
Langfuse is open-source observability: tracing, prompt management, and cost tracking. It captures every call as a trace with token counts, model, and latency — the per-step granularity that matters for agent and RAG workflows where a single user action triggers a chain of calls. The trade-off: your app has to emit traces via the SDK, and it's an observability tool, not a FinOps platform, so it lacks allocation, chargeback, and budgeting.
Choose it when: you run agents/RAG and need to see cost and quality per step. Pair it with a gateway if you also need enforcement.
Portkey — gateway with guardrails
Portkey is a multi-provider gateway focused on routing, caching, rate limiting, and guardrails, with budget controls in the request path. It overlaps with LiteLLM; the choice often comes down to whether you want fully open-source and self-hosted (LiteLLM) or a managed gateway with a richer guardrails layer (Portkey).
See these in the directory
Verdict by use case
- "Just show me the cost, today" → Helicone.
- "Multi-provider + hard budget caps" → LiteLLM.
- "Agents/RAG, cost per step + quality" → Langfuse (+ a gateway for enforcement).
- "Managed gateway with routing & guardrails" → Portkey.
None of these is a finance platform. If your real question is "which team owns the AI bill," you also want a FinOps platform — see the Vantage vs. CloudZero vs. Finout comparison.
FAQ
Is LiteLLM or Helicone better for cost tracking?
Helicone is the fastest way to start — a one-line proxy that logs per-request cost, tokens, and latency, with a generous free tier. LiteLLM is better when you need a unified interface across 100+ providers and hard budget enforcement per key, user, or team. Many teams log with Helicone early and adopt LiteLLM as the routing and budget layer as they scale.
What is Langfuse best for?
Agentic and RAG workflows. Langfuse captures every LLM call as a trace with per-step cost and token detail that request-level proxies miss when one user action triggers many calls. It's observability-first, so it needs SDK instrumentation and lacks finance chargeback workflows.
Can these tools enforce a budget and stop spend?
Gateways can. LiteLLM and Portkey sit in the request path and can cap or reject requests when a key or user exceeds its budget. Langfuse is an observability tool — it records cost but doesn't reject requests.
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