TokenZero vs TrueFoundry AI Gateway
TrueFoundry AI Gateway is an enterprise gateway with routing, rate limits, guardrails and observability, part of an ML platform. The matrix below says what each product is and how it bills; the only numbers are TokenZero's own measurements and prices.
TokenZero and TrueFoundry AI Gateway differ in kind: TrueFoundry AI Gateway is enterprise AI gateway and platform; TokenZero is a BYOK gateway whose engines reduce the provider bill and sign a receipt per call. Measured overhead is 1.52 ms p50; the cascade holds a 99.8% parity floor.
· Source: TrueFoundry AI Gateway documentation at https://www.truefoundry.com/ai-gateway read 2026-10-26; TokenZero overhead from /benchmarks; prices from table 2026-10-26
At a glance
- Compared with
- TrueFoundry AI Gateway (enterprise AI gateway and platform)
- TokenZero overhead
- 1.52 ms p50 / 3.42 ms p95 (measured, /benchmarks)
- BYOK
- TokenZero: always · TrueFoundry AI Gateway: yes
- Receipts
- TokenZero: signed per call · TrueFoundry AI Gateway: none
- Billing
- TokenZero: 15% of verified savings · TrueFoundry AI Gateway: enterprise plans
- Reference saving (gpt-6.1-sol, 100k calls)
- $285/month from prefix caching (computed)
- Net after 15% fee
- $242/month (computed)
- Parity floor
- 99.8%
- Free tier
- $500/month routed
- Vendor page read
- 2026-10-26
TokenZero vs TrueFoundry AI Gateway: what each one is (vendor page read 2026-10-26)
| Dimension | TokenZero | TrueFoundry AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Category | BYOK savings gateway | enterprise AI gateway and platform |
| Hosting | hosted | hosted or self-hosted |
| Bring your own key | always; keys pass through and are never stored | yes |
| Open source | CLI, MCP server, audit core and GitHub Action Apache-2.0; gateway hosted | closed |
| How it bills | free up to $500/month routed; then 15% of verified savings, 3x-ROI-or-$0, capped plans | enterprise plans |
| Caching | prompt-cache formatting + exact and semantic response cache | response cache |
| Routing | cascade to the cheaper sibling inside one provider, 99.8% parity floor, advisory by default | fallbacks and load balancing you configure |
| Savings receipts | Ed25519-signed per call, hash-chained, public key published | none |
| Gateway overhead | 1.52 ms p50 / 3.42 ms p95 (measured, /benchmarks) | not measured by TokenZero |
| Data retention | metadata only; ZDR mode available | see vendor docs |
| Net saving, 100k gpt-6.1-sol calls/month (prefix caching only) | $242 after fee | — |
What you keep when you move from TrueFoundry AI Gateway
your platform; point the model provider base URL at TokenZero where the gateway lets you.
- Free up to the monthly free tier, then a share of verified savings; no platform contract.
- Every saving is signed per call against the list-price baseline.
The change
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://tokenzero.sh/v1
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://tokenzero.sh
# keep your provider keys exactly as they areThen npx -y @tokenzero/cli doctor to confirm the gateway, signer and pricing table.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between TokenZero and TrueFoundry AI Gateway?
TrueFoundry AI Gateway is an enterprise gateway with routing, rate limits, guardrails and observability, part of an ML platform. TokenZero is a BYOK gateway: you keep your platform; point the model provider base URL at TokenZero where the gateway lets you, and every call comes back with a signed receipt. Free up to the monthly free tier, then a share of verified savings; no platform contract.
What does switching from TrueFoundry AI Gateway to TokenZero save?
It depends on your prompts; on the reference workload (100,000 calls of 2,000 input with a 1,500-token static prefix and 300 output on gpt-6.1-sol, table 2026-10-26) prefix caching alone cuts $700 to $415 a month, $285 saved and $242 net after the 15% fee; exact-cache hits and cascade routing add to that. The receipts show the real figure.
Can I keep TrueFoundry AI Gateway and add TokenZero?
Usually yes: chain them by pointing TrueFoundry AI Gateway's upstream at https://tokenzero.sh (or TokenZero's X-TokenZero-Upstream at TrueFoundry AI Gateway); the receipt still prices the request at list and records what the gateway did.
How is the 15% fee computed?
On verified savings only: list-price baseline minus provider-reported actual cost, per signed receipt. A cycle whose savings are below 3x the fee is billed $0; Pro Cap and Scale Cap add monthly ceilings. The first $500 of routed spend each month is free.