Envoy AI Gateway vs vLLM Semantic Router
Envoy AI Gateway
aigateway.envoyproxy.iovLLM Semantic Router
vllm-sr.aiSide by side
| Figure | Envoy AI Gateway | vLLM Semantic Router |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · LLM Gateway Software | 8.4 (#8) | 7.2 (#31) |
| Spec score · LLM gateways | 8.4 (#10) | 7.3 (#26) |
| Purpose | The open-source project routes and manages generative AI traffic between applications and AI services, with rate limiting and policy control. | vLLM Semantic Router is an open, programmable decision layer that selects or combines models for each call according to policy. |
| Support | The project directs users to its community Discord and GitHub issues for help. | The site links to GitHub Discussions as a community resource. |
Plans
In their own words
Envoy AI Gateway
Envoy AI Gateway, now named Agent Router, is an open-source control plane for managing AI and agent traffic through Envoy. It provides an OpenAI-compatible API for hosted and self-hosted models and MCP servers, with integrations for providers including OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Mistral, and Anthropic. Traffic controls include model virtualization, provider failover, token quotas, and usage-based rate limiting. Its MCP gateway supports server multiplexing, tool routing, OAuth authentication, and observability; InferencePool support adds routing and load balancing for inference endpoints. Credentials can be managed centrally, and supported short-lived credential flows include AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and GCP Vertex AI. The project describes metrics collection and monitoring for AI workloads. The free open-source project is listed at free. Its CLI supports local use on Linux and macOS; production Kubernetes deployment uses Envoy Gateway and requires compatible dependencies. The project uses the Apache 2.0 license and points users to Discord and GitHub issues for help.
vLLM Semantic Router
vLLM Semantic Router has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.