Telluvian vs LiteLLM: LLM gateway and router compared
Telluvian is a hosted API that chooses the model for each prompt and can score answers for hallucinations. LiteLLM is an open-source gateway that you deploy and operate yourself; its router balances traffic across deployments by load, latency, cost or usage, with a beta auto router for rule-based prompt classification. The main difference is which decision is made for you: Telluvian picks the model, while LiteLLM picks the deployment of a model you have chosen.
Last reviewed
At a glance
| Telluvian | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| Model selection method | Prompt-aware. Model Select predicts each model’s performance on the specific prompt and picks the cheapest one that clears your xPerf quality bar. | You choose the model; the router balances across its deployments by shuffle (the default), least busy, latency, cost or usage. A beta auto router classifies prompts with heuristics, keyword rules or an LLM classifier. |
| Models and providers | 190+ models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Qwen, DeepSeek, xAI, Z-AI, Moonshot and Meta, behind one OpenAI-compatible API. | 100+ LLMs across providers, plus your own deployments. |
| Pricing model | Prepaid, pay as you go. Provider list price for tokens, plus $0.05 per 1M input tokens for Model Select and $1.00 per 1M completion tokens for hallucination scores (optional). | Open source (MIT) and free to self-host. Enterprise is custom priced, with a 30-day trial. You pay providers directly. |
| Hallucination detection | Built in. Per-token hallucination scores from probes reading an open-weight proxy model, including for closed models. Off by default. | Guardrail integrations cover prompt injection, PII and moderation. No hallucination detection documented. |
Key differences
Model choice
Telluvian predicts each model's performance on the prompt; LiteLLM's standard strategies balance across deployments of a model you choose.
Operation
Telluvian is hosted; LiteLLM is software you deploy, scale and upgrade yourself, including in air-gapped networks.
Hallucination detection
Telluvian can score every generated token; LiteLLM's guardrail integrations focus on prompt injection, PII and moderation.
Pricing
LiteLLM is open source (MIT), with a custom-priced Enterprise tier; Telluvian is pay as you go with no subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Can LiteLLM route by prompt difficulty?
Partly. LiteLLM has a beta auto router that classifies prompts with heuristics, keyword rules or an LLM classifier you configure; its standard strategies balance traffic across deployments of a model you have already chosen. Telluvian's Model Select predicts how well each candidate model will answer each prompt and picks the cheapest one above your quality bar.
Is LiteLLM free?
The software is free under the MIT licence; you pay for the infrastructure and engineering time to run it, plus model tokens. LiteLLM Enterprise is custom priced. Telluvian has no subscription and nothing to host: provider list price for tokens plus per-token fees for Model Select and, if you want it, hallucination detection.
Does LiteLLM detect hallucinations?
Not among its documented guardrail integrations, which focus on prompt injection, PII and moderation. Telluvian returns a hallucination score for every generated token when you set include_scores to true.
Does Telluvian support tool calling?
Tool calling is coming soon. Today Telluvian serves chat through Chat Completions and the Responses API.
Try it on your own prompts
Point an OpenAI SDK at Telluvian, send telluvian/gallery-1 as the model, and see which model answers each request. Questions about your use case go straight to the team.
Sources
Competitor details come from their own public docs and pricing pages, checked on . Where a page did not say, neither do we. Spotted something out of date? Tell us at hello@telluvian.ai.