Honest comparison · Updated quarterly

Tokmeter vs LiteLLM.

LiteLLM is the de-facto open-source unifying proxy — 100+ providers, one API. Tokmeter is the managed FinOps layer your finance team actually opens.

tokmeter.ai
Managed AI FinOps

No proxy to run. Paste a billing key, get spend in 5 minutes, hand a chargeback PDF to finance.

  • No infra to operate — we run it
  • Chargeback, GL codes, budget approvals
  • Per-model and per-team $ caps with replay simulation
  • IDE-tool spend (Cursor, Copilot, n8n) included
LiteLLM
OSS unifying proxy

Excellent if you want one SDK across every provider and you're happy operating a proxy + Postgres + Redis.

  • You deploy, monitor, scale, patch
  • Engineer-led — not built for CFO
  • 100+ providers via one OpenAI-shaped API
  • Strong for prompt routing & fallbacks
Pick LiteLLM if…
  • · You want one unified API across 100+ providers.
  • · You have platform engineers to run a stateful proxy.
  • · Self-hosting and OSS licensing are hard requirements.
Pick Tokmeter if…
  • · You don't want to operate a proxy and an SLA on top of it.
  • · Finance wants chargeback by team / cost center now.
  • · You need IDE seats + API spend in one view.
Use both: point LiteLLM at our gateway endpoint (or vice-versa) and Tokmeter sees every call for billing while LiteLLM handles routing.

Feature-by-feature

Updated June 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

Install & ops burden
CapabilityTokmeterLiteLLM
Install without engineers
paste a billing key
deploy + maintain proxy
Managed (no infra to run)
LiteLLM Cloud, paid
Self-host option
MIT-licensed
Upgrades + uptime SLA
99.9% on paid
you operate it
FinOps & procurement
CapabilityTokmeterLiteLLM
Chargeback report (PDF/CSV by team, cost center, GL)
Budget approvals & email sign-off
Per-model / per-team / per-provider $ caps
per virtual key
IDE seats (Cursor, Copilot) alongside API spend
Anonymized industry benchmarks (Spend Index)
Outcome KPIs (cost per PR, per ticket, per seat)
Gateway features
CapabilityTokmeterLiteLLM
100+ provider proxy with unified API
OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini live
Automatic fallback / retry
Sliding-window RPM/TPM rate limits per key
Semantic caching
Virtual API keys
Governance & audit
CapabilityTokmeterLiteLLM
BYOK with AES-256-GCM at rest
your DB, your encryption
Exportable audit log for sensitive actions
DB-level logging
GDPR / CCPA DSR portal
self-implement
PII / secret redaction
via guardrails
Pricing & TCO
CapabilityTokmeterLiteLLM
Software cost
from $0; $49/mo Starter
free OSS; Cloud $99+/mo
Infra cost (you run it)
none
DB, Redis, hosting, on-call
Engineering time to maintain
near zero
ongoing
Available Partial / on roadmap Not available
Other honest comparisons
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