5 AI Gateways Developers Use to Run Claude Code with Non-Anthropic Models

Claude Code is built around Anthropic's native models by default, but developers increasingly need the flexibility to route requests through models from other providers whether for cost control, latency optimization, or compliance reasons. AI gateways solve this by acting as a unified proxy layer between Claude Code and any underlying model provider.

This article covers five AI gateways that developers use today to run Claude Code with non-Anthropic models, including their core features and where each one fits best.

What Is an AI Gateway and Why Does It Matter for Claude Code?

An AI gateway is an infrastructure layer that intercepts API calls from an AI tool or agent and routes them to one or more LLM providers. For Claude Code specifically, a gateway lets you swap out Anthropic's hosted models for alternatives on AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Azure OpenAI, or open-source providers without modifying the tool's core behavior.

This matters when teams need to:

• Route to cheaper or faster models for routine coding tasks
• Use region-locked or compliance-approved model deployments
• Implement fallback logic when a primary provider is unavailable
• Consolidate usage tracking and cost management across providers

1. Bifrost

Platform Overview

Bifrost is a high-performance, open-source AI gateway built by Maxim AI. It provides a single OpenAI-compatible API endpoint that routes to 12+ providers including AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Cohere, Groq, and Ollama. Bifrost is designed as a drop-in replacement for native provider SDKs, making it straightforward to integrate with Claude Code without any additional code changes.

Bifrost can be self-hosted with zero configuration overhead and is purpose-built for teams that want enterprise-grade infrastructure without vendor lock-in.

Features

• **Unified provider interface:** One OpenAI-compatible API for all supported providers, including Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and Google Vertex
• **Automatic fallbacks:** Seamless failover between providers and models with zero downtime
• **Semantic caching:** Reduces redundant LLM calls by caching responses based on semantic similarity, cutting both cost and latency
• **MCP gateway support:** Native support for the Model Context Protocol, allowing Claude Code to use external tools like web search, databases, and file systems across any connected provider
• **Budget management and governance:** Hierarchical cost controls with virtual keys, team-level budgets, and usage tracking
• **Custom plugins:** Extensible middleware for analytics, monitoring, and request transformation
• **Observability:** Native Prometheus metrics, distributed tracing, and structured logging out of the box

Best For

Bifrost is the right choice for engineering teams that need a self-hosted, zero-config gateway with strong enterprise controls. It is particularly well-suited for organizations running Claude Code in regulated environments, teams that want to consolidate multi-provider access with cost governance, and developers who need MCP gateway support alongside standard LLM routing. Book a Bifrost demo to see how it fits your infrastructure.

2. LiteLLM

Platform Overview

LiteLLM is an open-source proxy server and Python SDK that provides a unified interface to 100+ LLM providers. It is widely used for local development and self-hosted deployments.

Features

• OpenAI-compatible proxy with support for 100+ models
• Load balancing and fallback routing across providers
• Budget tracking and rate limiting per API key
• Logging integrations with tools like Langfuse and Helicone

Best For

LiteLLM is best for developers who want broad provider coverage and are comfortable with Python-based configuration. It is well-suited to smaller teams running self-managed infrastructure without strict enterprise governance requirements.

3. OpenRouter

Platform Overview

OpenRouter is a managed API aggregation service that provides a single API key for accessing dozens of models from providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral, and Meta.

Features

• Single API endpoint for 100+ models across multiple providers
• Automatic routing to the lowest-cost or lowest-latency model
• Pay-per-token pricing with no subscription required
• Model fallback configuration via request parameters

Best For

OpenRouter is best for individual developers and small teams that need quick multi-model access without managing any infrastructure. It is a good fit for prototyping and lightweight production use cases where simplicity outweighs the need for self-hosted control.

4. Cloudflare AI Gateway

Platform Overview

Cloudflare AI Gateway is a managed gateway service built into Cloudflare's global network that adds observability and caching to LLM API calls.

Features

• Caching and rate limiting for LLM requests at the edge
• Real-time request logs and usage analytics in the Cloudflare dashboard
• Support for providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and Hugging Face
• No self-hosting required; routes through Cloudflare's network by default

Best For

Cloudflare AI Gateway is best suited for teams already on Cloudflare's infrastructure who want to add lightweight observability and caching to their LLM calls with minimal setup. It works well for applications where edge performance and CDN-layer controls are priorities.

5. AWS Bedrock

Platform Overview

AWS Bedrock is a fully managed service from Amazon Web Services that provides access to foundation models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, and others through a unified AWS API.

Features

• Access to Claude, Llama, Mistral, Titan, and other models through a single AWS service
• Native integration with AWS IAM for access control and VPC for private networking
• Model evaluation, fine-tuning, and guardrails built into the service
• Supports enterprise compliance requirements including HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR

Best For

AWS Bedrock is best for enterprises already operating within the AWS ecosystem that need compliant, managed access to multiple foundation models. It is a strong fit for Claude Code deployments in regulated industries where data residency and network isolation are non-negotiable.

Choosing the Right Gateway for Claude Code

The right gateway depends primarily on where your team sits on the self-hosted versus managed spectrum, and how much governance and observability your production environment requires.

For teams that need a production-grade, self-hosted gateway with native MCP support, automatic fallbacks, and enterprise cost controls, Bifrost covers the full stack without requiring additional tooling.

Conclusion

Running Claude Code with non-Anthropic models is a practical need for engineering teams optimizing for cost, compliance, or provider flexibility. Each gateway covered here addresses a different part of that problem, from OpenRouter's simplicity to Bifrost's enterprise infrastructure depth.

To explore how Bifrost fits into your AI infrastructure, book a demo or get started with Maxim AI today.