AI Gateway HQ vs. Bifrost
Run enterprise controls as a managed service while AI Gateway HQ operates the gateway software.
- Pre-dispatch control
- Operator-ready evidence
- Prompt storage off by default
Choose AI Gateway HQ when the business wants a supported, governed service with a clear control owner and no proxy platform to operate. Bifrost is suited to teams that deliberately want to own the software and infrastructure; that is a different cost and risk model, not free enterprise operation.
The hosted service combines controlled key custody, hard financial reservations, customer-authorized support, isolated staff identity, policy rollout modes, and hash-verified audit export without requiring a customer cluster.
Compare what each gateway does.
Our column describes the working product. The Bifrost column summarizes its linked documentation and pricing; it does not rely on anonymous review scores.
A compatible endpoint, encrypted BYOK pools, health-aware routing, shared cooldowns, and reason-coded fallback.
Open-source Go gateway across 20+ providers with fallback, load balancing, caching, MCP, OpenTelemetry, and a management UI.
Budget and capacity are reserved before forwarding. Settlement uses supported provider-reported usage, and promotional credit cannot fund server-paid models.
Virtual keys, hierarchical budgets, rate limits, and usage controls in the self-hosted gateway.
OIDC, required MFA, least-privilege roles, workload keys, signed context, staged enforcement, and local attack screening.
Enterprise lists SAML/OIDC, RBAC, audit, guardrails, secrets integration, and MCP controls.
AWS serverless deployment behind WAF, tenant-bound encryption, signed releases, metadata-only request records by default, tamper-evident exports, and approved support access.
Docker, Kubernetes, and Go embedding in the free edition; Enterprise lists VPC, on-premises, air-gapped, and clustered operation.
A free BYOK proving tier, then $0.10 per 1,000 successful Flex requests. Inference bought through customer-owned accounts has no percentage markup.
Open-source edition is free; Enterprise pricing is custom.
Consider Bifrost when embedding a Go gateway, running air-gapped infrastructure, or inspecting and modifying the source is mandatory.
We reviewed Bifrost's linked documentation and pricing on August 7, 2026. Vendors measure requests, logs, credits, infrastructure, and capacity differently, so compare the underlying units and recheck current terms before purchasing.