What an LLM gateway invoice can include
Most gateways use one or more pricing components: a fixed subscription, percentage of model spend, a fee per request, prepaid inference credits, metered logs or infrastructure costs. Some self-hosted gateways require staff time, compute, storage and ongoing operational support rather than a recurring SaaS subscription.
Bring-your-own-key (BYOK) means your organization has an upstream provider account. It does not guarantee that gateway access is free or that the provider's invoices disappear.
- Provider invoice: input tokens, output tokens, cache reads and provider-specific tools.
- Gateway invoice: subscription, overages, seats, requests, logs or usage fees where applicable.
- Operating expense: hosting, monitoring, configuration and incident response.
- Migration expense: integration tests, model-name mapping, provider credential rotation and rollback.
A cost comparison formula that prevents double-counting
Monthly total = provider inference + gateway platform fees + gateway-specific metering + operating costs. If a gateway resells inference, do not count the same provider tokens twice. Always calculate at your own volumes and model mix.
For example, a team whose provider inference totals $2,000/month and that chooses a $249.99/month flat subscription has a pre-operations total of $2,249.99/month, assuming no additional platform charges. The example does not demonstrate savings; any savings must be measured against an equivalent direct-provider workload.
What to ask before signing
Request pricing in writing for the workloads you actually run. Verify request rate ceilings, provider connection limits, included retention and how the agreement handles rate-limit failures, provider outages and cancellation.
AetherGate currently publishes Team at $249.99/month, Enterprise Growth at $999/month and Enterprise Scale at $2,499/month, plus provider usage. Validate current entitlements and trial terms on the pricing page before purchase.
- What happens if we exceed request or workspace limits?
- Does BYOK incur a percentage markup or request fee?
- Can we export routing rules, logs and model aliases before cancellation?
- Are security, audit and support commitments contractual or descriptive?