Portkey / Prisma AIRS
A control point for many AI providers and applications.
It gives teams a universal API plus routing, logs, traces, budgets, guardrails, fallbacks and operational controls.
Portkey AI alternative · comparison updated September 2026
Omev AI vs Portkey:Do you need an AI gateway—or the finished work?
Portkey helps platform teams control model traffic across providers. Omev takes a defined, repeated business task and runs it on its own models. One governs the road. The other delivers the load.
$5 free credit · 10 days · no card
By Di Reshtei, Co-founder of Omev AI · X
Portkey sources checked
Important current context: Portkey is now part of Palo Alto Networks.
Read the acquisition announcement ↗Quick answer
Is Omev a Portkey alternative?
Yes—for one defined workload. No—as a replacement for your company-wide AI control layer. Choose Omev when you need to produce a large volume of work that follows the same rules. Choose Portkey or Prisma AIRS when you need to control, secure and observe model calls across your company.
Omev AI
A production route for one repeatable business job.
It learns the task rules, routes between Omev's own models and checks the output before it returns to your workflow.
Portkey / Prisma AIRS · gateway & control
Omev AI · production workflow
Choose Portkey
You need shared routing, observability, guardrails and provider control across many AI products.
Choose Omev
You need one repeated task to follow client rules and stay economical as its volume grows.
Use both
Keep the gateway as your control layer and let Omev handle a workload after it earns the route.
Omev AI vs Portkey: gateway, routing and ownership
This is not a feature-count contest. It shows which layer each product takes responsibility for, using Portkey's published documentation and Omev's current offer.
| Decision | Omev AI | Portkey / Prisma AIRS |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | A direct API for repeatable business work, served by Omev's own models. | An AI gateway and control layer for model calls across providers, applications and agents. |
| The main job | Turn a known brief into an output that follows your client rules, format and acceptance criteria. | Connect, route, observe and govern the model traffic your products already generate. |
| Model choice | Omev routes tasks between its own models. You buy the result rather than a broad third-party model catalogue. | A universal API across hundreds of third-party models, plus custom and privately hosted endpoints. |
| Routing purpose | Choose the right internal model and workflow for the task, then check whether the output meets the agreed rules. | Apply provider fallbacks, conditional routes, retries, load balancing, canary tests, limits and caching. |
| Observability | Workload outcomes and economics are the focus. Omev is not a replacement for an enterprise-wide LLM telemetry layer. | Request logs, traces, analytics, feedback, metadata, filters, budgets and OpenTelemetry-based visibility. |
| Guardrails and security | Task-specific rules and validation are configured around the workload. It is not a company-wide security gateway. | Central guardrails, access controls, rate limits and enterprise deployment options are core parts of the offer. |
| Who operates what | Omev operates the models, task routing and configured checks. Your team owns integration and final approval. | Your team defines the providers, prompts, policies and routes; Portkey or Prisma AIRS provides the control plane. |
| How cost is measured | Published usage rates include Omev inference. Judge the pilot by cost per accepted output and review time. | Platform pricing is based on recorded logs or enterprise scope, while provider usage and operating work remain separate. |
| Best fit | A high-volume, repeatable workload with examples, rules and a clear pass line. | A platform or security team that needs one governed control point across a broad AI estate. |
Portkey pricing vs Omev pricing
A gateway bill and a workload bill measure different things.
Portkey's public pricing counts recorded logs and platform features. Omev's published rates include its own model inference. In both cases, the useful number is the total cost of a result your team can accept.
Omev AI
Usage pricing includes Omev inference.
- Omev Lite: $0.15 input / $1.25 output per 1M tokens.
- Omev Pro: $0.625 input / $5 output per 1M tokens.
- Judge the route by accepted outputs, retries and reviewer time.
Published Portkey pricing
The managed platform starts free, then charges for production capacity.
- Developer: free, 10,000 recorded logs, marked as not suitable for production.
- Production: $49/month, 100,000 recorded logs, then $9 per additional 100,000 requests.
- Enterprise: custom pricing, plus your underlying model-provider bills.
Those Portkey figures came from the public pricing page on September 21, 2026. The purchase path is changing as the product becomes part of Prisma AIRS, so verify the current commercial terms before budgeting.
Decision guide
Which should you choose?
Choose Portkey or Prisma AIRS when you need one control layer across your AI stack. Choose Omev when you want one repeated business job handled for you.
Choose Portkey or Prisma AIRS when control is the product.
- You need one gateway across many providers, applications or agents.
- Your security team needs central guardrails, access controls and auditability.
- Your platform team needs logs, traces, budgets, retries and provider fallbacks.
- You want to keep choosing and operating the underlying models and prompts.
Choose Omev when the repeated work is the problem.
- You already know the task, its inputs and what an acceptable output looks like.
- The work must follow a client voice, format, terminology or publishing rule.
- You want Omev to operate the models and task-specific routing behind that API.
- You measure margin, approval rate and cost per accepted deliverable.
If you searched for a Portkey alternative because you want another enterprise AI gateway, compare gateway vendors. If you searched because one expensive workflow still sits on top of that gateway, benchmark the workflow itself.
A practical combined setup
Keep Portkey for control. Let Omev earn one production route.
There is no reason to replace a useful gateway just to test a better way to run one workload. Keep the control plane, send a representative sample to Omev and move only what passes.
Company-wide AI traffic
Keep on Portkey / Prisma AIRS
Provider access, security policy, audit trails, budgets, observability and broad fallback logic.
A named repeated workload
Send to Omev after the pilot
The content, catalogue, localization or similar job with examples, client rules and a measurable approval standard.
The gateway controls the traffic. The workload API must prove the result.
Test Omev without changing your gateway first.
Registration is open to everyone. Start with one sample, keep the current route available and make the production decision from real approvals.
- 01
Pick one task
Choose repeated work with a clear business owner.
- 02
Share real examples
Use inputs and outputs your team has already approved.
- 03
Set the pass line
Define facts, voice, format and the checks that matter.
- 04
Run both routes
Leave Portkey connected while Omev processes the sample.
- 05
Compare the result
Measure accepted output, review time and total cost.
Portkey in 2026
Portkey's technology is becoming Prisma AIRS AI Gateway.
Palo Alto Networks completed its acquisition of Portkey on May 29, 2026. Prisma AIRS AI Gateway became generally available on July 16, 2026. Portkey's documentation now points visitors to Prisma AIRS, while its public docs and pricing remain available.
Sources used for this comparison
AI gateway products change quickly. We checked Portkey's official documentation, pricing, repository and Palo Alto Networks announcements on September 21, 2026. Verify the current product and commercial terms before making a production decision.
Portkey alternatives, pricing and Prisma AIRS: common questions
Is Omev AI a Portkey alternative?
Yes for a defined business workload that you want Omev to run. No as a drop-in replacement for Portkey's AI gateway, observability or enterprise guardrails. The products solve different layers of the stack.
What does Portkey AI do?
Portkey provides a universal API and an AI gateway for routing calls across model providers. Its published product also includes observability, retries, fallbacks, caching, budget controls, prompt management and guardrails.
Is Portkey now Prisma AIRS AI Gateway?
Yes. Palo Alto Networks completed its acquisition of Portkey in May 2026, and Prisma AIRS AI Gateway became generally available in July 2026. Public Portkey documentation and pricing pages were still available when this comparison was checked.
How does Portkey pricing work?
The public pricing page checked in September 2026 lists a free Developer plan for testing, a $49 per month Production plan with 100,000 recorded logs and $9 per additional 100,000 requests, and custom Enterprise pricing. Model-provider charges remain separate.
Is Portkey open source?
Its AI gateway is available as an MIT-licensed open-source project. Portkey's managed control panel, observability, guardrails and enterprise features are a broader commercial product.
Can Omev and Portkey work together?
Architecturally, yes. A company can keep Portkey or Prisma AIRS as its central gateway and security layer while calling Omev for one approved workload. Confirm the exact integration and logging requirements during your pilot.
Which is cheaper: Omev or Portkey?
There is no honest one-number answer. Portkey adds gateway pricing, provider bills and the work of running prompts and policies. Omev includes its own model inference in published usage rates. Compare total cost per accepted output for the task you actually run.
Does Omev replace Portkey observability and guardrails?
No. Omev applies rules and checks to the workload it runs, but it is not an enterprise-wide observability or AI security platform. Keep a gateway product when centralized telemetry, access control or security policy is a requirement.
How should we test Omev without removing Portkey?
Choose one repeated task, share representative examples and define the pass line. Run the Omev route beside your current Portkey setup, then compare accepted output, review time and total cost before moving any production traffic.
What does the Omev trial include?
$5 of credit for 10 days, with no card required. Keep your current gateway connected while you test one representative workload.
Benchmark one workload. Keep your gateway running.
Bring a repeated task, real samples and the rules your team uses to approve the work. Move nothing until the output and economics make sense.
Benchmark one workload →$5 free credit · 10 days · no card