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Head to head · Obs traces · October 2026 research run

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Respan API + MCP

Respan API + MCP has a score of 65.9 (B) against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47.1 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCPHelicone (Mintlify) · HTTP API D47.1/100#387 of 452 Respan API + MCPRespan (formerly Keywords AI) · HTTP API B65.9/100#165 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Helicone AI Gateway + MCP for

  • transparency & trust (+10)

Pick Respan API + MCP for

  • reliability (+23)
  • schema & documentation (+20)
  • security & auth (+16)
  • maintenance & community (+19)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHelicone AI Gateway + MCPRespan API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%205073Respan API + MCP +23
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26989Respan API + MCP +20
Agent ergonomics13%16.27066Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +4
Security & auth14%17.55066Respan API + MCP +16
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86685Respan API + MCP +19
Transparency & trust7%8.87161Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +10
Negative events≤15-10-2
Total47.1 · D65.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactHelicone AI Gateway + MCPRespan API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHelicone (Mintlify)Respan (formerly Keywords AI)
Hosted endpointhttps://ai-gateway.helicone.aihttps://api.respan.ai/api
TransportsHTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source)
Tools exposed367
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 release2026-09-162026-09-30
Popularity6.2k stars, 4.3k npm/wk, 4.2k PyPI/wk270 npm/wk, 13k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2/5 (2)2.5/5 (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.

Respan API + MCP

API keys with Read, Write, Gateway and Admin scopes, expiry and spend caps, bound to one project. 67 MCP tools load by default, with delete tools and no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations.

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

Respan API + MCP

  1. Create a key with only the Read scope for agents that analyse logs. New keys get Read, Write and Gateway by default
  2. Set Respan-Enabled-Tools to a short list such as list_traces,get_trace_tree,list_logs. All 67 tools load otherwise
  3. Pass filters to list_logs rather than paging through everything. The default window is the last hour
  4. Call list_organizations first when results look empty over OAuth. Every tool acts on the active organisation only
  5. Append .md to any docs URL for clean Markdown

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

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