A Vercel AI Gateway alternative with a budget on every key
Vercel AI Gateway charges no markup on tokens, and says payment processing fees may apply. Hopscotch also charges 0%, and adds a budget, fallbacks and guardrails on every key.
Vercel adds no platform fee, and payment processing fees may apply. Both bill tokens at provider list price. Checked Nov 6, 2026.
0% fee on every top-up.
Credit from $5, and every token at the provider's list price. Or pick a Pass: each seat gets twice its price in model use every month.
A budget, fallbacks and guardrails on every key.
Refused and blocked requests cost $0.
A 99.9% availability target, with service credits.
On every account, not only an enterprise tier.
- Anthropic
- OpenAI
- DeepSeek
- Qwen
- Meta
- Mistral AI
- Moonshot AI
- MiniMax
- Z.ai
- Cohere
Hopscotch vs Vercel AI Gateway
Hopscotch is an LLM gateway: one API key for 500+ models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and DeepSeek, with spend limits, fallbacks and request logs built in. It is a Vercel AI Gateway alternative for teams that want guardrails in the gateway itself.
Budgets and guardrails on every key
Every key, teammate and workspace gets its own cap. A request over it is refused before it reaches the provider, so it costs $0. Set them in the Hopscotch dashboard, with no Vercel team account needed.
Passes: 2x what you pay in model use
Each seat gets twice its price in model use, on every model, frontier included, at provider rates with no markup. Vercel AI Gateway bills tokens at provider list price, so $50 there buys $50 of model use.
Monthly, per seat.
Hopscotch vs Vercel AI Gateway: where the routes split
| Feature | Hopscotch | Vercel AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 0% on credit purchases | 0% on tokens (Vercel docs, Nov 6, 2026) |
| Free credit | None today. Credit from $5, or a Pass: $20 buys $40 of model use (limited time) | Monthly free credit on a subset of models, ends after first purchase |
| Your own provider keys | No fee at any volume | No gateway fee, paid tier; failed calls can retry on Vercel credentials and bill your credit |
| Spend controls | Budget on every key, refused requests cost $0 | Budgets per team, project, API key and user (Vercel docs, Nov 6, 2026) |
| Guardrails | Free, blocked requests cost $0 | None at the gateway, per Vercel's comparison page (Jul 26, 2026) |
| Fallbacks | Up to five models per routing profile, tried in the order you set, changed in the dashboard without a deploy | Provider fallback per Vercel docs |
| Uptime commitment | 99.9% monthly availability target with service credits, on every account | No uptime figure in its docs |
Three questions that decide it
Hopscotch is a Vercel AI Gateway alternative that works with any OpenAI-compatible tool, on any host, with no team account on another platform. Change the base URL in the SDK you already use and nothing else in your client changes.
See setup guidesEvery Hopscotch key carries its own budget, and a request over the limit is refused before it reaches the provider. The loop stops, and the refused requests cost nothing. Teammates and the whole workspace get ceilings too.
See spend controlsOn Hopscotch, requests on your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key are billed by that provider, with no Hopscotch fee at any volume.
See bring your own keyHow to switch from Vercel AI Gateway in four steps
- 01
Sign up, add credit from $5, and copy the key from the dashboard.
- 02
In the OpenAI SDK you already use, set base_url to https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1 and api_key to your Hopscotch key. Nothing else in your client changes.
- 03
Model IDs take the form provider/model, such as anthropic/claude-sonnet-5. A bare ID is refused with a 400 so nothing silently routes to a provider you did not pick. Pull the list from GET /v1/models or the models catalog.
- 04
Put backups in a routing profile and call it as profile/your-name. Set a routing profile as your default and it calls that profile in the order you set; until you do, it answers from Hopscotch's balanced shortlist for your workspace.
Your coding agent moves the same way. Setup guides exist for OpenCode, Cline, Codex CLI, Cursor, Aider, Continue and Zed. The quickstart walks through your first request.
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1", # was: your Vercel AI Gateway base URL
api_key="YOUR_HOPSCOTCH_KEY", # was: your Vercel AI Gateway key
)
# model ids gain a provider: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5
client.chat.completions.create(model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-5", messages=[...])How Hopscotch compares with other Vercel AI Gateway alternatives
Here is what each gateway costs you, in fees or in work.
More comparisons: OpenRouter alternative, Portkey alternative, LiteLLM alternative, OrcaRouter alternative and Cheaper Inference alternative.
| Gateway | What it is | What you take on |
|---|---|---|
| Hopscotch | Managed gateway: one key, provider list price, budgets and guardrails on every key | Nothing on top: 0% fee on credit |
| Vercel AI Gateway | Managed gateway that works from any server, with no markup or platform fee on tokens | A Vercel team account, and card processing fees where they apply |
| OpenRouter | Managed gateway with public usage rankings and a large app ecosystem | A 5.5% to 8% fee on every top-up |
| LiteLLM | Open-source proxy on your own provider keys | Hosting, scaling and patching the proxy yourself |
| Prisma AIRS AI Gateway (formerly Portkey) | Gateway built around enterprise governance and observability | A governance platform to set up before the first request |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | Proxy for caching, logging and rate limits | A 5% fee on Cloudflare credit, or a key and bill per provider |
| Direct provider APIs | Each provider's own API and key | No failover, and a key and bill per provider |
Vercel AI Gateway alternatives: questions people ask before switching
Vercel AI Gateway vs Hopscotch: does either charge a markup?
Hopscotch charges 0% when you buy credit. Vercel's docs say tokens bill at provider list price with no platform fee.
Does Hopscotch have monthly plans?
Yes, and they are optional. Hopscotch Passes are per-seat monthly plans where each seat gets twice its price in model use, on every model, frontier included, at provider rates with no markup: Starter is $20 a month for $40 of model use, Growth $50 for $100 and Pro $200 for $400. Limited time offer. Credit from $5 still works with no pass.
How does Vercel AI Gateway pricing compare?
Hopscotch's fee at purchase is $0.00. Vercel adds no platform fee and says you are responsible for any payment processing fees that may apply.
Does Vercel AI Gateway have free credit?
Hopscotch has no free credit today; credit starts at $5. Vercel gives free credit each month on a subset of models, which ends after your first purchase (Vercel docs, Nov 6, 2026).
What happens to my own keys on Vercel AI Gateway?
On Hopscotch, requests on your own key carry no fee at any volume. Vercel charges no gateway fee on your own keys on its paid tier, and failed calls can retry on Vercel credentials and bill your credit (Vercel docs, Nov 6, 2026).
Do I need to use Vercel to use their gateway?
Hopscotch works with any OpenAI-compatible tool on any host. Vercel AI Gateway also works from any server, with a Vercel team account, per its docs checked Nov 6, 2026.
Can I move from Vercel AI Gateway to Hopscotch?
Yes. Set the base URL to https://api.hopscotchlabs.ai/v1, paste your key, and use provider/model names.
Same models, one base URL change, a budget on every key
Connect your SDK to Hopscotch, add credit and send a request.