Is ModelBeat an alternative to Helicone?

For the gateway, yes. Helicone also sells a broad observability product with tiered plans. ModelBeat concentrates on routing, cost accounting and the audit log.

How much does Helicone cost?

According to its pricing page on the date above: free Hobby, Pro at $79 a month, Team at $799 a month and custom Enterprise. Included request volumes are 10,000 on Hobby and 10,000 plus usage-based on the paid tiers.

How is ModelBeat priced?

Starting at $1.44 per million input tokens and $7.20 per million output, a published floor that can run higher depending on which model served the request. Credits are prepaid and there are no seats or plans.

ModelBeat vs Helicone: LLM gateway and observability compared

ModelBeat and Helicone are both LLM gateways: one OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of many models, with failover and cost tracking. Helicone pairs its AI gateway with an observability product and sells tiered plans. ModelBeat is a managed gateway with published per-token rates that scores each request before it runs, and can be deployed hybrid or on-premises under licence.

Last checked 27 October 2026 against Helicone’s own docs and pricing pages.

The short answer

Helicone is a good fit if observability is the main job and you want a plan with seats, retention and alerts. ModelBeat is the better fit if the gateway itself, which model is chosen and why, is the main job.

Side by side

ModelBeat compared with Helicone, row by row.
Topic	ModelBeat	Helicone
What it is	A managed LLM gateway and model router, drop-in compatible with the OpenAI API.	A unified API for 100+ LLM providers through the OpenAI SDK format, with usage, cost and performance tracking.
Routing and failover	Scored on capability, cost and residency before inference, rather than after a failed attempt.	Intelligent routing and automatic failover across providers. Load balancing is not mentioned.
Which models are available	A vetted set. Elytra probes and bands every model before ModelBeat will route to it.	100+ providers. The docs do not describe a vetting step.
Open source	Not described on this page.	Marked as open source in Helicone's comparison table. The licence is not stated.
Compliance and SSO	See the security page for what is shipped and what is not.	SOC 2 and HIPAA are listed for the Team plan. SAML SSO and on-premises deployment are listed for Enterprise.
Price	Prepaid credit, no plan. Rates starting at $1.44 per million input tokens and $7.20 per million output, a published floor that can run higher depending on which model served the request.	Hobby: free, 10,000 requests. Pro: $79 a month. Team: $799 a month. Enterprise: custom. Helicone states a 0% markup on tokens.

Choose Helicone if

You want observability, alerts and seats in one product, with a free tier.
You want an open-source gateway and observability stack.
You need SOC 2 or HIPAA on a published plan.

Choose ModelBeat if

You want every request scored before it runs, from a vetted model set.
You want published per-token rates rather than a monthly plan.
You want the same product as managed cloud, hybrid or on-premises.

Questions

Sources, read 27 October 2026

Products change. If something here is out of date, tell us at hello@neuralarc.ai and we will correct it. Compare more on the comparison hub.