The State of LLM Gateways in 2026

2026 reshaped the LLM gateway market. Three of the best-known names changed hands and one had a security scare. Here's what happened and what it means for buyers.

Quick answer

In 2026 Stripe agreed to acquire OpenRouter, Palo Alto Networks announced it would acquire Portkey, Mintlify acquired Helicone, and LiteLLM had a brief supply-chain incident.

What happened

March 2026: Mintlify acquired Helicone, which moved to maintenance mode (report). See Helicone alternatives.
March 24, 2026: LiteLLM releases 1.82.7 and 1.82.8 on PyPI were malicious for about 40 minutes; the Docker image wasn't affected (LiteLLM's update). See LiteLLM alternatives.
April 30, 2026: Palo Alto Networks announced it would acquire Portkey for its Prisma AIRS platform (report). See Portkey alternatives.
August 2026: Stripe agreed to acquire OpenRouter (announcement). See OpenRouter alternatives.

What it means

Gateways are now strategic infrastructure for payments and security companies.
Startups should expect product focus and pricing to follow the new owners.
Supply-chain security matters for anything that sits in front of your keys.
OpenAI-compatible endpoints keep switching costs low, so keep your options open.

How gateways charge

Markups, fees on credits, subscriptions, per-token routing fees, discounted resale and share of savings. See every pricing model compared.

Frequently asked questions

Did Stripe buy OpenRouter?

Stripe agreed to acquire OpenRouter in August 2026. Terms were not disclosed by the companies.

Is Helicone still maintained?

Helicone moved to maintenance mode after Mintlify acquired it in March 2026: fixes and new-model support, but no new features. Its pricing page now says it is no longer part of Mintlify.

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