7 New AI API Gateways You Should Know in 2026

The AI API gateway market has exploded in 2026. What used to be a two-horse race between OpenRouter and a handful of open-source tools has turned into a crowded field with serious new contenders.

If you're still managing separate API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek, you're doing it the hard way. These gateways give you one API key, one billing dashboard, and access to dozens (or hundreds) of models.

But which one should you pick? I tested 7 newer gateways that are gaining traction this year, plus a couple of established players for context.

Why Use an AI API Gateway?

Before diving in, here's why developers are adopting gateways in the first place:

• One API key for GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama, and more
• Unified billing instead of juggling 5+ provider accounts
• Automatic failover when a provider goes down
• Cost savings through competitive pricing and smart routing
• OpenAI SDK compatibility so you don't rewrite your code

The 7 New Gateways

1. TrueFoundry

Website: truefoundry.com/ai-gateway
Focus: Enterprise governance and security

TrueFoundry positions itself as an enterprise AI gateway with heavy emphasis on governance. It's not just about routing API calls — it's about controlling who can access what, enforcing budgets, and maintaining compliance.

Key features:

• RBAC, OAuth 2.0, and API key authentication
• Rate limiting and token budgeting per team/project
• Built-in guardrails for content filtering
• Automatic failover and load balancing
• Full observability dashboard

Best for: Enterprise teams that need SOC 2 compliance, access controls, and audit trails. Overkill for solo developers or small teams.

Pricing: Enterprise pricing (contact sales). Free tier available for evaluation.

2. TensorZero

Website: tensorzero.com
Focus: Open-source LLMOps with optimization

TensorZero is the most technically ambitious project on this list. It's a fully open-source LLMOps platform (11.3K GitHub stars) that combines a gateway with observability, evaluation, and automated optimization.

Their "Autopilot" feature analyzes your LLM usage patterns and automatically optimizes prompts, recommends models, and runs A/B tests. Think of it as Claude Code for LLM engineering.

Key features:

• Open-source (Rust-based, high performance)
• Unified API for all major LLM providers
• Built-in observability and evaluation
• Automated prompt optimization and fine-tuning
• A/B testing framework
• Compatible with OpenAI SDK and OpenTelemetry

Best for: Teams that want deep optimization and are comfortable self-hosting. If you just need a simple API proxy, this is more than you need.

Pricing: Free and open-source. Managed cloud available.

3. ZenMux

Website: zenmux.ai
Focus: Simple unified API access

ZenMux takes a straightforward approach: one account, one API, direct access to leading AI models sourced from official providers or authorized cloud partners.

Key features:

• Unified API across multiple providers
• Studio Chat interface for testing
• Flow-based workflows
• Official provider sourcing (no gray-market keys)

Best for: Developers who want a clean, simple gateway without enterprise complexity.

Pricing: Free tier available. Paid plans from $20/month with API access and higher limits.

4. EvoLink (Evolink AI)

Website: evolink.ai
Focus: Budget-friendly API aggregation

EvoLink is a newer gateway targeting price-sensitive developers. Their pitch: access to GPT-5.2, Claude, Seedance2, and 100+ models at up to 70% less than direct pricing.

Key features:

• 50+ AI models for text, image, video, and audio
• Significant price discounts vs. direct providers
• Single API key access
• Support for multimodal tasks (not just text)

Best for: Developers and startups watching their budget who need multimodal capabilities.

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go with claimed 70% savings.

5. Maxim AI

Website: getmaxim.ai
Focus: AI evaluation and observability

Maxim isn't a traditional API gateway — it's an end-to-end evaluation and observability platform. But it shows up in gateway conversations because teams use it alongside their gateway to monitor quality.

Key features:

• Simulation and evaluation for AI agents
• Observability dashboards
• Quality regression detection
• Performance benchmarking across models

Best for: Teams that already have a gateway but need better evaluation and monitoring. Pairs well with any gateway on this list.

Pricing: Free tier available. Enterprise plans for larger teams.

6. WaveSpeed AI

Website: wavespeed.ai
Focus: Fast media generation API

WaveSpeed focuses on speed for image, video, and audio generation. Their unified REST API at /api/v3/{model_uuid} handles task submission, status checking, and result retrieval.

Key features:

• Optimized for media generation (image, video, audio)
• Unified REST endpoint
• Async task processing with status polling
• Speed-optimized inference

Best for: Developers building creative tools, media pipelines, or apps that need fast image/video generation. Not a general-purpose LLM gateway.

Pricing: Pay-per-task pricing.

7. Crazyrouter

Website: crazyrouter.com
Focus: Maximum model coverage at low prices

Crazyrouter has been around longer than most on this list, but it's worth including because it solves the core problem better than most: access to 300+ models through one OpenAI-compatible API at prices consistently below direct provider rates.

Key features:

• 300+ models (GPT-5, Claude 4.6, Gemini 3, DeepSeek R2, Llama 4, Qwen3, and more)
• OpenAI SDK compatible — zero code changes
• Pay-as-you-go, no monthly subscription
• Multi-region infrastructure (US, Japan, Korea, UK, Hong Kong, Philippines, Russia)
• Real-time usage dashboard and token tracking
• Built-in load balancing and automatic failover

Best for: Developers who want the widest model selection with the simplest integration. Especially strong for teams that need access to both Western and Asian AI models.

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go. Typically 30-50% below direct provider pricing. No minimum spend.

# Works with any OpenAI SDK client
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-crazyrouter-key",
    base_url="https://crazyrouter.com/v1"
)

# Switch models by changing one string
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-5",  # or claude-opus-4-6, gemini-3-pro, deepseek-r2...
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)

Comparison Table

How to Choose

Need enterprise compliance? → TrueFoundry
Want open-source and self-host? → TensorZero
Just want simple API access? → ZenMux or Crazyrouter
On a tight budget? → EvoLink or Crazyrouter
Need media generation speed? → WaveSpeed
Need evaluation/monitoring? → Maxim AI (add to any gateway)
Want the most models in one place? → Crazyrouter

FAQ

Q: Can I use multiple gateways at the same time?
Yes. Many teams use a primary gateway for routing and add Maxim AI or TensorZero for observability. There's no lock-in since most support the OpenAI SDK format.

Q: Are these gateways OpenAI SDK compatible?
Most are. TensorZero, ZenMux, Crazyrouter, and EvoLink all support the OpenAI chat completions format. TrueFoundry uses its own SDK but supports standard formats too.

Q: How do gateway prices compare to direct API access?
It varies. Some gateways (Crazyrouter, EvoLink) price below direct rates. Others (TrueFoundry, ZenMux) charge a platform fee on top. TensorZero is free if you self-host.

Q: What happens if a gateway goes down?
Most gateways have built-in failover between providers. For gateway-level redundancy, keep a backup provider key and use client-side fallback logic.

Q: Should I self-host or use a managed gateway?
Self-hosting (TensorZero, LiteLLM) gives you full control but requires DevOps effort. Managed gateways (Crazyrouter, ZenMux, TrueFoundry) handle infrastructure so you can focus on building. For most teams, managed is the better starting point.

The AI gateway space is moving fast. If I missed a gateway you're using, drop it in the comments.