Portkey vs Cloudflare AI Gateway
Product engineer: One vendor for models and tools: Portkey; separate products: Cloudflare. Developer-platform lead: Cloudflare portals cap at 80 servers each. Agent builder: Both log tool calls; Cloudflare via Access, Portkey per user. Portkey fronts MCP servers through its MCP Gateway with credential injection; Cloudflare AI Gateway fronts model APIs while MCP servers go through MCP server portals.
The sourced difference
Portkey fronts MCP servers through its MCP Gateway with credential injection; Cloudflare AI Gateway fronts model APIs while MCP servers go through MCP server portals. (Portkey: Portkey MCP Gateway docs, read 5 November 2026; Cloudflare AI Gateway: Cloudflare MCP server portals docs, read 5 November 2026)
Verdicts by reader
| Reader | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Product engineer | One vendor for models and tools: Portkey; separate products: Cloudflare. |
| Developer-platform lead | Cloudflare portals cap at 80 servers each. |
| Agent builder | Both log tool calls; Cloudflare via Access, Portkey per user. |
Side by side on the rubric
| Dimension | Portkey | Cloudflare AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Protocols fronted | model APIs and MCP | model APIs; MCP goes through portals |
| Auth passthrough | credential injection | BYOK or Unified Billing |
| Caching | simple cache, 1-day TTL on Developer | yes, free |
| Pricing | free / 49 USD / custom | free core, 5 percent on credits |
| Observability | per tool call logs | analytics and logs |
Evidence for every cell is on the profiles: Portkey and Cloudflare AI Gateway.