Helicone

Helicone is an AI gateway and observability platform for developers who need model-provider routing, request debugging, and cost visibility in one place. It fits teams building multi-provider applications, especially those that value self-hosting; the maintenance-mode status makes it a more cautious choice for a brand-new long-term standard.

Overview

Helicone routes, debugs, and analyzes AI applications through an OpenAI SDK-compatible gateway. Changing the model name gives applications access to more than 100 models, which can reduce provider-specific integration work. Smart load balancing, automatic failovers, and response caching are aimed at keeping multi-provider traffic manageable rather than leaving each resilience feature to application code.

The strategic caveat is important. Helicone says Mintlify acquired it and that services remain live in maintenance mode. Security updates, new models, and bug and performance fixes continue, but teams selecting a platform for years of active product expansion should consider whether that status matches their roadmap.

Key features

Real-time request logging and visualizations of multi-step LLM interactions give engineers a way to follow an operation across calls and investigate root causes when errors occur. Cost and token tracking, LLM evaluations, prompt management, agent tracing, and retrieval tracing broaden the product beyond basic API logs. The result is most useful when an application’s behavior, quality, and spend need to be reviewed together.

Integrations listed for OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, LiteLLM, Anyscale, Together AI, and OpenRouter make Helicone relevant to stacks that mix hosted and gateway-based providers. LangGraph support adds LLM-call visibility, session tracking, performance metrics, and cost monitoring for graph-based workflows. An API cost calculator covering more than 300 models and providers is a practical planning aid before usage is moved into production.

Helicone describes the project as open source and invites community contributors. Cloud compliance claims cover SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR. Support on the pricing page is community-based through GitHub and Discord, so organizations expecting a formal service relationship should look at the higher-tier terms rather than assume enterprise support from the core product.

Pricing

Hobby — free. This tier includes 10,000 free requests, 1 GB of storage, one seat, one organization, seven days of retention, and ingestion capped at 10 logs per minute. It is a sensible way for an individual or small prototype to evaluate routing and observability, but the single seat, short retention, and low ingestion ceiling limit shared or high-volume work.

Pro — $79 a month, billed per month. Pro keeps 10,000 free requests and adds usage-based billing, unlimited seats, one organization, one month of retention, ingestion at 1,000 logs per minute, and 10 API calls per minute. It suits a growing team that needs collaboration and longer investigation windows. It still has one organization and a relatively modest API-call limit, so larger operational structures may outgrow it.

Team — $799 a month, billed per month. Team includes the same 10,000 free requests plus usage-based billing, unlimited seats, five organizations, three months of retention, 15,000 logs per minute, and 60 API calls per minute. SOC-2 and HIPAA compliance are included at this level. The price is aimed at organizations with materially higher throughput, multiple business units, or compliance requirements rather than casual users.

Enterprise — custom pricing. A custom MSA adds SAML SSO, on-premises deployment, bulk cloud discounts, unlimited seats and organizations, and forever retention. Choose it when identity controls, infrastructure placement, or indefinite data access are contractual requirements. Helicone also advertises a seven-day trial with no credit card required, which lowers the cost of an initial evaluation.

Platforms

Helicone is offered through an API and web interface, with self-hosted deployment as well. Customers can deploy into their own infrastructure with single-click deployment or a production-ready Helm chart. Cloud users get the stated SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance claims; self-hosting is the more relevant route for teams that need infrastructure control, provided they can operate it.

Who it's for

Choose Helicone if your application spans several model providers and you want routing, failover, request traces, and spend analysis around the same traffic. It is particularly suitable for engineering teams using LangGraph, agent workflows, or retrieval systems where multi-step visibility matters. Hobby is for individual evaluation, Pro for a shared team, and Team for higher-volume or compliance-oriented organizations.

It is less suitable as a default choice for a new strategic platform when ongoing product development is a deciding factor. Maintenance mode does not stop current service, but it makes future direction less certain than an actively expanding product.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Access to more than 100 models through the OpenAI SDK can simplify provider switching.
• Pro: Load balancing, failover, caching, tracing, and cost tools cover both reliability and analysis needs.
• Pro: Self-hosting, Helm deployment, and stated SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR cloud compliance support different governance models.
• Con: Hobby retention is only seven days, with one seat and 10 logs per minute, making it restrictive for shared production diagnostics.
• Con: The Pro tier remains limited to one organization and 10 API calls per minute.
• Con: Maintenance mode warrants caution for teams seeking an actively evolving long-term foundation.

Alternatives

Apirelio is worth considering when a web-based event analytics service with a 14-day trial and lower-priced Growth plan better matches a small team’s budget.

Revenium is an alternative for API-focused teams that can work within its free Observe allowance of 100,000 transactions per month and seven days of retention.

BetterMeter offers a simpler freemium API and web option with 30-day event retention on its Free plan.

Clavio is a web-based freemium alternative centered on analysis and charting.

KeepRouter is an option for testing and prototyping with no monthly fee on its free token tier and no free trial.

Langfuse is the closest alternative for teams wanting API, web, and self-hosted observability with a 50,000-unit monthly Hobby allowance and 30 days of data access.

Moesif provides API, web, and self-hosted deployment with a free tier applied after its 14-day trial.

AI Nazar is a free, open-source option across API, web, and self-hosted deployments.

Verdict

Helicone is a strong fit for teams that need one gateway for multi-provider access, routing resilience, detailed LLM traces, and cost control, especially when self-hosting matters. Its main reason to look elsewhere is maintenance mode: for a new, strategically important deployment, a more actively developed platform may offer greater confidence even if Helicone’s current feature coverage is attractive.