Leanroute vs Cloudflare AI Gateway
Cloudflare AI Gateway alternative: Leanroute compared.
Cloudflare AI Gateway is a strong, mostly free gateway on Cloudflare's edge network. It caches, logs and routes LLM traffic, and it now includes guardrails, stored provider keys and spend limits. For a lot of teams it is the right answer. Leanroute differs in a few specific places: we run MCP tools on any model, price as a flat subscription, carry APAC and India providers first-class, and host in Singapore.
Snapshot date: October 2026. Feature claims re-validated quarterly — check developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway before depending on a specific number.
TL;DR
Pick Cloudflare if your app already runs on Cloudflare, or you want the lowest-cost gateway with edge caching, DDoS protection, moderation guardrails and spend limits. Pick Leanroute if you need any of: (a) MCP tools executed at the gateway on any model, (b) guardrails that also cover prompt injection, secrets and data exfiltration, (c) a flat monthly price, or (d) APAC + India providers with Singapore hosting.
Where we differ
| Dimension | Leanroute | Cloudflare AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Base price | $15/mo BYOK subscription (or credits with a 2% top-up fee) | Free (with Workers plan usage) |
| Token markup | Zero — provider list price | Zero — you bring your own provider keys |
| MCP tool calling | Gateway runs the MCP tool loop on any model with function calling, via `mcp_servers` on chat completions, with a per-org server allowlist | Not documented as an AI Gateway feature at snapshot date |
| Guardrails | 7 rules: PII, secrets, prompt injection, moderation, exfiltration, profanity, language. Block or redact. | Content moderation on prompts and responses, plus DLP profiles in the gateway firewall |
| Bring your own keys | Per-org provider keys, AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest | Stored provider keys via Cloudflare Secrets Store |
| Spend caps | Daily and monthly caps per org and per key, checked before dispatch, plus per-key RPM/TPM | Spend limits per gateway, scoped by model, provider or metadata (up to 20 rules), 429 when reached |
| APAC + India providers | First-class: Qwen, GLM, Doubao, Kimi, Sarvam, Krutrim | Check their supported-provider list for your mix |
| Data residency | Singapore | Global edge — pick a Data Region on paid plans |
| Network / edge presence | Fly.io sin region | 300+ PoPs worldwide, DDoS protection included |
Rust-tinted cell: Leanroute leads. Muted cell: Cloudflare leads. No tint: tie.
Where Cloudflare still wins
- Price. The core gateway, including caching, logging, guardrails and spend limits, costs little or nothing. If you don't need MCP execution or APAC providers, that is hard to beat.
- Network reach + DDoS. 300+ PoPs plus Cloudflare's standard DDoS shielding come free with your gateway traffic. We run a single Fly region.
- Bundled with Workers. If your app is already deployed on Cloudflare Workers, the AI Gateway is one binding away.
- Workers AI catalog. Small models hosted directly by Cloudflare (LLaMA, Whisper, embeddings) with no upstream provider needed.
See also: vs Vercel AI · vs OpenRouter · vs Portkey · MCP docs