Portkey is an AI gateway — it sits in front of your provider calls to handle routing, fallbacks, caching, and guardrails, with observability and cost logs as part of the package. AI Control Center skips the gateway layer entirely: connect your provider keys directly and get a cost and provider health dashboard without changing how your app calls AI providers.
| Feature | AI Control Center | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| Integration method | Direct provider connection, no gateway to route through | Gateway/proxy — requests go through Portkey's routing layer |
| Primary focus | Cost tracking, provider health, cost optimization | Request routing, fallbacks, caching, and guardrails, with logging |
| Cost optimizer recommendations | Model-level swap suggestions with $ savings | Cost logs and budget alerts, not optimization suggestions |
| Log retention (entry tier) | Full history included | 3-day retention on the free tier, 30 days on the $49/mo Production tier |
| Pricing model | Flat plans based on usage | Priced per logged request — cost can scale quickly with volume |
| Best for | Teams that want a straightforward cost dashboard with no routing changes | Teams that need active request routing, fallback logic, and guardrails |
If your goal is knowing what you're spending and where, without adopting a gateway that changes how requests are routed, AI Control Center gets you there with less setup.
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