# Braintrust API + MCP vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP

> Braintrust API + MCP has a score of 61.3 (C) against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47.1 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 19 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Braintrust API + MCP has a score of 61.3 (C) against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47.1 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 19 points.

- Braintrust API + MCP: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #229 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/braintrust.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/braintrust.json
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP: grade D, 47.1/100, rank #387 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/helicone.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/helicone.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Braintrust API + MCP for reliability (+11), schema & documentation (+16), security & auth (+8), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+19).

Pick Helicone AI Gateway + MCP for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Braintrust API + MCP | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 50 | Braintrust API + MCP +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 69 | Braintrust API + MCP +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 70 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 50 | Braintrust API + MCP +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Braintrust API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 66 | Braintrust API + MCP +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 71 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -10 | |
| **Total** | | **61.3 · C** | **47.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Braintrust API + MCP | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Braintrust | Helicone (Mintlify) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.braintrust.dev/v1` | `https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 42 | 3 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.braintrustdata/braintrust` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-16 |
| Popularity | 2M npm/wk, 1.7M PyPI/wk | 6.2k stars, 4.3k npm/wk, 4.2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Braintrust API + MCP.** OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec with 75 paths, 429 and `Retry-After` declared on 154 operations. Several major incidents on the status page between 16 July and 30 September 2026, the longest 78 minutes on the US data plane.

**Helicone AI Gateway + MCP.** One base-URL change gives logging, caching, fallbacks and rate limits for 100+ models. Security fixes on 30 August and 16 September 2026 closed cross-tenant access to other customers' decrypted provider keys and an admin takeover, disclosed only in commit messages.

## Before you call either

### Braintrust API + MCP

1. Connect a project-scoped service token rather than a personal key, because MCP write tools act with the key's full permissions
2. Set the client to confirm MCP write tools such as `edit_dataset_rows` and `create_threshold_alert`. The server has no read-only mode
3. Cache `sql_query` results. Starter and Pro allow about 20 queries a minute and return 429
4. Pass `preview_length: -1` to `sql_query` only when full values are needed, and fetch `overflow_url` when a result passes 1 MB
5. Upgrade to Python `braintrust` 0.28.0 or TypeScript 3.23.1 or later and rotate any provider keys traced before July 2026

### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP

1. Bring your own provider keys. Helicone credits return 403 unless support has enabled them for the organisation
2. Rotate any provider keys stored in Helicone before 30 August 2026
3. Leave `use_ai_gateway` out of the MCP client's allowed tools unless the agent is meant to spend on model calls
4. Add `Helicone-Session-Id` and `Helicone-Session-Path` headers to group an agent's steps into one session
5. Use the EU host (eu.helicone.ai) if the account was created there

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