LiteLLM
Top pickOne OpenAI-compatible API in front of 100+ providers, running on your own box.
LiteLLM is the de facto open gateway for this layer: a proxy that exposes an OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of 100+ providers, with virtual keys, per-team budgets, rate limits, fallbacks and logging. You run it, so prompts never leave your infrastructure and there is zero markup on token spend — you pay the model providers directly. At 55k GitHub stars with commits landing daily it is the most widely adopted option here. Licensing is worth reading precisely: the core is MIT, while everything under the repository's enterprise/ directory carries a separate commercial licence.
What it does well
- +Zero markup — provider tokens are billed to you at cost
- +Prompts and completions never leave your infrastructure
- +Virtual keys, per-team budgets and rate limits built in
- +100+ providers behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint; 55k stars, daily commits
Where it falls short
- −You run it: deployment, upgrades, monitoring and uptime are yours
- −Observability is basic out of the box — expect to pair it with a tracing tool
- −The MIT core stops at the enterprise/ directory; SSO and audit logging sit behind a commercial licence
- −A proxy you operate is another production dependency to keep healthy
LiteLLM as an alternative to
Where LiteLLM shows up in our comparisons, and how it ranked.
LiteLLM head-to-head
Straight comparisons against the tools people weigh it against.