Claude Code is designed to work with Anthropic’s native models out of the box. However, many developers now require the ability to route requests through alternative providers to optimize costs, improve latency, or meet compliance requirements. AI gateways address this need by introducing a unified proxy layer between Claude Code and various model providers.
This article explores five AI gateways that enable developers to run Claude Code with non-Anthropic models, outlining their key capabilities and ideal use cases.
What Is an AI Gateway and Why Does It Matter for Claude Code?
An AI gateway acts as an intermediary layer that captures API requests from an AI system and directs them to one or more large language model providers. In the context of Claude Code, this allows teams to replace Anthropic-hosted models with alternatives from platforms such as AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI, or open-source ecosystems without altering the tool’s core functionality.
This becomes important when teams want to:
- Route workloads to more cost-effective or faster models for routine tasks
- Use region-specific or compliance-approved deployments
- Configure fallback mechanisms when a provider experiences downtime
- Centralize usage tracking and cost monitoring across multiple providers
1. Bifrost
Platform Overview
Bifrost is a high-performance, open-source AI gateway developed by Maxim AI. It offers a single OpenAI-compatible API endpoint that connects to more than 1000+ models. Designed as a drop-in replacement for native SDKs, Bifrost integrates seamlessly with Claude Code without requiring code modifications.
It can be self-hosted with minimal setup and is built for teams seeking robust infrastructure without vendor lock-in.
Features
- Unified provider interface: A single OpenAI-compatible API that supports providers such as Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and Google Vertex
- *Automatic fallbacks:** Built-in failover across providers and models with no service disruption
- *Semantic caching:** Reduces repeated LLM calls by caching semantically similar responses, lowering both cost and latency
- *MCP gateway support:** Native support for the Model Context Protocol with Code Mode, enabling Claude Code to interact with tools like web search, databases, and file systems across providers
- *Budget management and governance:** Hierarchical cost controls with virtual keys, team budgets, and detailed usage tracking
- *Custom plugins:** Extendable middleware for analytics, monitoring, and request transformation
- *Observability:** Built-in Prometheus metrics, distributed tracing, and structured logging
2. LiteLLM
Platform Overview
LiteLLM is an open-source proxy server and Python SDK that unifies access to more than 100 LLM providers. It is commonly used in local development environments and self-hosted setups.
Features
- OpenAI-compatible proxy supporting 100+ models
- Load balancing and fallback routing across providers
- Budget tracking and rate limiting at the API key level
- Logging integrations with platforms like Langfuse and Helicone
3. OpenRouter
Platform Overview
OpenRouter is a managed API aggregation platform that provides access to a wide range of models from providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral, and Meta through a single API key.
Features
- Unified API endpoint for 100+ models
- Automatic routing based on cost or latency preferences
- Pay-as-you-go pricing with no subscription requirement
- Configurable fallback behavior through request parameters
4. Cloudflare AI Gateway
Platform Overview
Cloudflare AI Gateway is a managed service integrated into Cloudflare’s global network, designed to add observability and caching to LLM API traffic.
Features
- Edge caching and rate limiting for LLM requests
- Real-time logs and analytics via the Cloudflare dashboard
- Support for providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and Hugging Face
- Fully managed with no self-hosting required
5. AWS Bedrock
Platform Overview
AWS Bedrock is a fully managed service from Amazon Web Services that provides unified access to foundation models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, and others.
Features
- Access to models such as Claude, Llama, Mistral, and Titan through a single API
- Integration with AWS IAM for access control and VPC for private networking
- Built-in tools for model evaluation, fine-tuning, and guardrails
- Compliance support for standards including HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR
Conclusion
Using Claude Code with non-Anthropic models is increasingly important for teams optimizing for cost, compliance, and flexibility. Each gateway discussed here addresses different needs, ranging from the simplicity of OpenRouter to the enterprise-grade capabilities of Bifrost.
To see how Bifrost can integrate into your AI infrastructure, book a demo.