← TokmeterTokmeter vs Portkey
Both are AI gateways. Tokmeter is built for engineering organizations where finance, security, and platform all need to agree on AI spend.
| Feature | Tokmeter | Portkey |
|---|
| Hosted AI gateway | Yes | Yes |
| OpenAI + Anthropic passthrough | Yes (streaming) | Yes |
| BYOK provider cost reconciliation | Daily sync + forecasts | Limited |
| Per-engineer / per-tool budgets | First-class | Workspace-level |
| Leak detection (idle keys, runaway spend) | Built-in playbook | Manual |
| ROI dashboards (hours saved) | Yes | No |
| Append-only audit log + RLS | Default on | Add-on |
| Public status page + canary | /status | Status page only |
Substitution rationale
When Portkey is the right substitute — and when it isn't
- ·Semantic caching on the request path is a hard requirement to cut repeat-prompt cost.
- ·You need prompt versioning, prompt CI, and prompt-level guardrails inside the gateway.
- ·Portkey SDKs are already in production and you're not rewriting the request path.
- ·The buyer is finance / procurement and needs chargeback PDFs, GL codes, and budget sign-off.
- ·You can't modify application code right now — Tokmeter ingests billing keys read-only.
- ·Budgets must live at org / cost-center / team level rather than per virtual key.
- ·IDE-seat (Cursor, Copilot) and workflow-tool spend has to roll up in the same view.