What is an LLM gateway?
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An LLM gateway, sometimes called an LLM proxy, is a unified API layer that routes requests across multiple large language model providers. It handles authentication, rate limiting, fallbacks, cost optimization, and audit logging — so your application can switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others without rewriting code. Opper's LLM gateway is OpenAI SDK-compatible and routes across 700+ models, with EU-hosted regions on AWS Bedrock, Azure, GCP, and Berget AI.
Is an LLM gateway the same as an AI gateway?
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Closely related but not identical. LLM gateways focus on text models (chat, completions, embeddings). AI gateways extend the same architecture to multimodal workloads — image generation, voice, video, and other AI APIs. Most production AI gateways today are primarily LLM gateways with multimodal support added. Opper covers both: text, image, voice, and video models through one OpenAI-compatible API.
Is an LLM gateway the same as an LLM router?
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The terms overlap. An
LLM router decides which model serves each request, and an LLM gateway is the broader layer that includes routing plus authentication, fallbacks, observability, and audit logging. Opper's gateway includes the router: switch models with one line of code, configure fallbacks, and pin requests to EU-hosted regions when compliance requires it.
Is an LLM gateway the same as an MCP gateway?
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No. An MCP gateway sits between agents and MCP servers and governs tool calls: which tools an agent may use, and with whose credentials. An LLM gateway sits between your application and the model providers and governs model calls: routing, fallbacks, cost and where data is processed. Opper is an LLM gateway. It also runs an MCP server at api.opper.ai/mcp, so a coding agent can set Opper up for you.
How does Opper's gateway handle model fallbacks?
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Send backup models in the models field of a Chat Completions call, the same shape OpenRouter uses, and call a model by its bare name to fail over across every provider that serves it. If a model fails, the next one in the list answers, and only the successful attempt is billed. On Control Plane, a dynamic route keeps the chain in one place, with versions and rollback.
What does Opper's LLM gateway cost?
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There is no markup on provider prices: you pay each model's list price per token. Opper charges a 3% fee on credit purchases, or 5.5% with Control Plane, which adds tracing, spend limits, model access rules, checks and routing rules. Sign up needs no credit card: you get an API key straight away and the free models work in the playground and the API. Add a card to use premium models, pay-as-you-go with no minimum.
Is Opper's LLM gateway EU-hosted and GDPR-compliant?
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Yes. Opper's gateway runs in the EU by default, and the LLM gateway can pin every request to EU regions on AWS Bedrock, Azure, GCP, or providers like Berget AI. Every EU route is listed on
EU-hosted models with its provider, country, data retention and price, and a model access rule on the Control Plane plan keeps every LLM and embedding call in the organization on EU inference and storage locations. Logs and traces stay in EU storage. GDPR-compliant, with a DPA published, and certified against ISO/IEC 27001:2022, with the controls, policies and sub-processor register on the
trust center.
How is Opper's LLM gateway different from OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, or Cloudflare AI Gateway?
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OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway and Cloudflare AI Gateway all route requests across models. Opper does that from the EU, with EU routes on every plan, a log of every call, and pay-as-you-go pricing with no subscription. Control Plane adds the layers production teams ask for: tracing with inputs and outputs, checks that redact PII or block a call, score checks that grade answers, spend limits, and rules that keep calls on EU routes.
Which LLM gateway is best?
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It depends on what you optimize for. Self-hosted gateways like LiteLLM give you full infrastructure control if you have the team to run them, and OpenRouter is a popular hosted router with a large catalog. Opper is built for production teams that want European hosting: 700+ models behind one OpenAI-compatible API, automatic fallbacks, a GDPR-compliant audit trail, and pay-as-you-go pricing with no subscription, with tracing and rules on Control Plane.
Should I use an open-source or a hosted LLM gateway?
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Open-source gateways fit when traffic must stay inside your own VPC and you can operate the infrastructure yourself. A hosted gateway gives you fallbacks, observability, and compliance out of the box, with nothing to run or patch. Opper is hosted in the EU and supports bring your own key (BYOK), so you keep your own provider keys and relationships without running gateway infrastructure.