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Head to head · Obs traces · October 2026 research run

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Langfuse API + MCP

Langfuse API + MCP has a score of 72.8 (BB) against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47.1 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is reliability, 30 points.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCPHelicone (Mintlify) · HTTP API D47.1/100#387 of 452 Langfuse API + MCPLangfuse (ClickHouse) · HTTP API BB72.8/100#66 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Helicone AI Gateway + MCP for

No category where it leads by five points or more.

Pick Langfuse API + MCP for

  • reliability (+30)
  • schema & documentation (+24)
  • security & auth (+15)
  • payments & pricing (+10)
  • maintenance & community (+22)
  • transparency & trust (+16)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHelicone AI Gateway + MCPLangfuse API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%205080Langfuse API + MCP +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26993Langfuse API + MCP +24
Agent ergonomics13%16.27074Langfuse API + MCP +4
Security & auth14%17.55065Langfuse API + MCP +15
Payments & pricing10%12.53040Langfuse API + MCP +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86688Langfuse API + MCP +22
Transparency & trust7%8.87187Langfuse API + MCP +16
Negative events≤15-10-2
Total47.1 · D72.8 · BB

Facts side by side

FactHelicone AI Gateway + MCPLangfuse API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHelicone (Mintlify)Langfuse (ClickHouse)
Hosted endpointhttps://ai-gateway.helicone.aihttps://cloud.langfuse.com/api/public
TransportsHTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0MIT (core), commercial licence for the ee directories
Tools exposed389
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-162026-10-01
Popularity6.2k stars, 4.3k npm/wk, 4.2k PyPI/wk35k stars, 3M npm/wk, 5.9M PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2/5 (2)4/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

Langfuse API + MCP

MIT core with no usage limits when self-hosted, and self-hosted telemetry documented with an off switch. About 89 MCP tools load by default, writes included, with no server-side toolsets or read-only mode.

Before you call either

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

Langfuse API + MCP

  1. Allowlist only the tools the agent needs. All 89 load by default and the write tools are among them
  2. Ask listObservations for specific fields. Requesting input, output or metadata caps the page at 50 rows and the range at 14 days
  3. Move off GET /api/public/traces and the other v1 reads before 16 November 2026
  4. On 429, wait for Retry-After. MCP calls share the organisation's General API bucket
  5. Pick the regional host (cloud, us.cloud, jp.cloud, hipaa.cloud) that matches the project's keys

Other comparisons with Helicone AI Gateway + MCP or Langfuse API + MCP

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