The AI agent cost tracking space is maturing fast. Here are the five tools worth evaluating in 2025, compared across the dimensions that matter most.
1. AgentBurn — Best for Self-Hosted Cost Intelligence
Focus: Cost tracking and budget management for multi-provider agent stacks.
Pricing: Free (MIT self-hosted), Pro $39/mo, Enterprise custom.
Best for: Teams that want open-source, self-hosted cost visibility with per-agent granularity.
Limitation: No proxy mode — requires explicit instrumentation.
2. Helicone — Best for Zero-Setup LLM Logging
Focus: LLM proxy with automatic logging, caching, and cost tracking.
Pricing: Free (100K requests/mo), Growth $70/mo.
Best for: Teams that want instant visibility with no code changes.
Limitation: LLM-only — doesn't track compute, tool calls, or non-LLM costs.
3. Portkey — Best AI Gateway with Cost Visibility
Focus: Unified AI gateway with observability, reliability, and cost tracking.
Pricing: Free (10K requests/mo), paid plans from $49/mo.
Best for: Teams building new applications that want gateway + observability in one tool.
Limitation: Gateway dependency creates vendor lock-in.
4. LangSmith — Best for LangChain Teams
Focus: Observability, evaluation, and debugging for LLM applications.
Pricing: Free (5K traces/mo), Plus $39/mo.
Best for: Teams in the LangChain ecosystem that need debugging + basic cost tracking.
Limitation: Cost tracking is secondary; best with LangChain, less useful with other frameworks.
5. Vantage — Best for Infrastructure-Level Cloud Costs
Focus: Cloud cost management across AWS, GCP, Azure, and 30+ providers.
Pricing: Free tier, paid from $150/mo.
Best for: Finance teams managing overall cloud + AI API line items.
Limitation: No agent-level attribution — shows account totals, not per-agent costs.
Summary Matrix
| Self-hosted | Multi-provider agents | Zero-setup | Non-LLM costs | Free tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AgentBurn | ✅ MIT | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Unlimited |
| Helicone | ✅ Apache | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | 100K req |
| Portkey | Enterprise | Partial | ✅ | ❌ | 10K req |
| LangSmith | Enterprise | ❌ | LangChain | ❌ | 5K traces |
| Vantage | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | Cloud only | Yes |
If you're running multi-provider AI agents and want cost control without vendor lock-in, start with AgentBurn. Add Helicone or Portkey if you need proxy-level features. Add Vantage if cloud infrastructure is a separate cost center.