Common questions about running BitRouter — self-host vs Cloud, what Cloud adds, whether you need provider keys, and how BitRouter compares to OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey, Bifrost, and TensorZero.

Deployment

Do I need my own provider keys?

Only if you self-host with BYOK — you bring keys as environment variables and pay each provider directly. A BitRouter Cloud account needs no upstream keys: one sign-in covers the whole hosted network, billed per request, failed requests not charged. You can also attach Cloud to a self-hosted binary and use both.

Is Cloud a separate deployment or a different binary?

Neither — Cloud is an account you attach, not a fork. Both front doors run the same open-source core (Apache 2.0) with an identical routing engine. bitrouter cloud login enables the bitrouter managed provider alongside your BYOK keys; remove it any time. See Configuration.

Self-host or Cloud?

Every core capability works the same either way — Cloud only adds what needs a server you don't run.

Self-host if you already have provider keys, run local/private models, have data-residency rules, or are prototyping solo.
Cloud if you want no key management and per-request billing, discounted open models without provider signups, team workspaces, or an uptime SLA.

What does Cloud add on top of the open-source core?

Capability	Self-hosted (OSS)	Cloud
Universal API + cross-protocol routing	✅	✅
BYOK (bring your own provider keys)	✅	✅
Local / private model serving	✅	✅
Model fallback & provider selection	✅	✅
Model variants & presets	✅	✅
Guardrails	✅	✅
Observability (OTLP trace + metric export)	✅	✅
MCP & ACP gateways	✅	✅
Structured outputs	✅	✅
Namespace isolation primitive	✅	✅
Managed provider network (no upstream keys needed)	—	✅
Open-model pricing discounts	—	✅
Team seats & per-workspace access control	—	✅
Hosted observability console	—	✅
Managed billing (one wallet, per-request)	—	✅
SLA on the hosted endpoint	—	✅
Priority support	—	✅
Agentic payment marketplace	—	✅

In short, Cloud adds a managed provider network (Managed Models — no upstream keys, open models discounted), team workspaces with strictly scoped keys, a hosted observability console, managed per-request billing, and an uptime SLA. Everything else is in both.

Comparison

BitRouter and the gateways below all route LLM traffic. The difference is what they route and what they optimize — BitRouter is the only one that treats models, tools, and agents as a single routable surface and optimizes the whole production loop (cost today, multi-objective by design).

	BitRouter	OpenRouter	LiteLLM	TensorZero	Portkey	Bifrost
Routable primitives	Models + tools + agents (MCP + ACP)	Models	Models + tools (MCP)	Models	Models + tools (MCP)	Models + tools (MCP)
Optimizes	The loop, multi-objective (cost today)	Static routing	Static routing	The model	Static routing	Static routing

All but OpenRouter are open-source and self-hostable; BitRouter and TensorZero are Rust.

How is BitRouter different from OpenRouter?

OpenRouter is a closed-source, cloud-only marketplace for humans picking models. BitRouter is Apache-2.0 and self-hostable, permissionless (x402/Solana pay-per-request — no KYC or geo-restrictions), agent-first (firewall, MCP/ACP gateway, skills registry), and lower-latency (sub-10ms vs ~25–40ms).

How is BitRouter different from LiteLLM?

LiteLLM is an open-source Python proxy that's BYOK-only and infra-heavy (Postgres/Redis/K8s in production). BitRouter is one binary with no dependencies, Rust-native (flat tail latency where Python hits the GIL), supports autonomous agent payments, and adds in-line safety, KYA identity, and a skills registry.

How is BitRouter different from Portkey, Bifrost, and other generic gateways?

Generic gateways treat LLMs as just another upstream API — logging, caching, rate limiting, failover, BYOK billing. They lack agent identity and runtime model discovery, autonomous payment protocols (x402/MPP), MCP/ACP gateways, a skills registry, and sub-10ms native deployment — the agent surface BitRouter is built around.

How is BitRouter different from TensorZero?

TensorZero (Rust) optimizes the model itself — prompts, weights, selection. BitRouter optimizes the whole loop — across models, tools, and sub-agents (MCP + ACP) — cost today, with latency and accuracy next.

FAQs