Bifrost

Bifrost is a high-performance open-source AI gateway that unifies access to 20+ AI providers through a single OpenAI-compatible API. It supports 1,000+ models with adaptive load balancing, automatic failover, semantic caching, and enterprise observability features. Bifrost is open-source under Apache 2.0.

Bifrost publishes 2 APIs on the APIs.io network: Chat API and Health API. Tagged areas include AI Gateway, LLM, Load Balancing, Open Source, and OpenAI Compatible.

The Bifrost catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

Bifrost’s developer surface includes authentication, developer portal, documentation, getting-started guide, changelog, and 9 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

50.2/100 developing ▼ -8.3 Agent 44/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

AccessFreemiumSelf serveFree trial⚡ Free to try

4 APIs 8 Features 5 Use Cases

AI GatewayLLMLoad BalancingOpen SourceOpenAI CompatibleMCP

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 50.2/100 · developing

Contract Quality 12.6 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 8.7 / 20

Commercial Clarity 7.4 / 20

Operational Transparency 6.8 / 13

Governance 8.3 / 12

Discoverability 6.5 / 10

Agent readiness — 44/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/bifrost: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 4

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Bifrost Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Bifrost Finops

FINOPS

Features 8

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

OpenAI-Compatible API

Single API interface compatible with OpenAI SDK for all 20+ providers.

Adaptive Load Balancing

Distribute requests across providers and models based on availability and performance.

Automatic Failover

Automatically retry failed requests on alternative providers without client changes.

Semantic Caching

Cache semantically similar prompts to reduce latency and API costs.

MCP Gateway

Model Context Protocol gateway for AI agent tool discovery and execution.

Go SDK

Native Go library for embedding Bifrost gateway directly into applications.

Enterprise Observability

Built-in metrics, tracing, and logging for production AI gateway deployments.

Provider Key Management

Centralized API key management for all connected AI providers.

Scroll for all 8

JSON Schema 7

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Scroll for all 7

Examples 7

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Scroll for all 7

Use Cases 5

What developers build with this provider.

Multi-Provider AI Applications

Build applications that can seamlessly switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, and other providers.

Cost Optimization

Route requests to cheaper providers during peak costs or use caching to reduce API spend.

High Availability AI

Ensure AI features remain available by failing over across multiple provider accounts.

AI Agent Tooling

Enable AI agents to discover and execute tools through the MCP gateway protocol.

LLM Provider Evaluation

A/B test different models and providers without changing application code.

Integrations 6

Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.

OpenAI

Route to OpenAI GPT-4o, GPT-4, and other OpenAI models.

Anthropic

Route to Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, and other Anthropic models.

Cohere

Route to Cohere Command and other Cohere models.

AWS Bedrock

Route to models hosted on AWS Bedrock including Titan and Claude.

Azure OpenAI

Route to Azure-hosted OpenAI deployments.

Google Vertex AI

Route to Gemini and other models on Google Vertex AI.

Resources

Get Started 2

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Portal

Portal

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

LlmsText

LlmsText

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

SpectralRules

SpectralRules

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubRepository

GitHubRepository

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

TrustCenter

TrustCenter

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

ChangeLog

ChangeLog

Community

Community

Source (apis.yml)

aid: bifrost
name: Bifrost
description: Bifrost is a high-performance open-source AI gateway that unifies access to 20+ AI providers through a single
  OpenAI-compatible API. It supports 1,000+ models with adaptive load balancing, automatic failover, semantic caching, and
  enterprise observability features. Bifrost is open-source under Apache 2.0.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: true
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium (free trial) · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/bifrost.png
tags:
- AI Gateway
- LLM
- Load Balancing
- Open Source
- OpenAI Compatible
- MCP
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bifrost/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-03-16'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: bifrost:bifrost-go-sdk
  name: Bifrost Go SDK
  description: The Bifrost Go SDK provides a native Go client for embedding the Bifrost AI gateway directly into Go applications
    using the github.com/maximhq/bifrost/core package.
  humanURL: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/go-sdk/setting-up
  baseURL: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/maximhq/bifrost/core
  tags:
  - AI Gateway
  - Go
  - LLM
  - SDK
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/go-sdk/setting-up
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/go-sdk/setting-up
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost
- aid: bifrost:bifrost-mcp-gateway
  name: Bifrost MCP Gateway
  description: The Bifrost Model Context Protocol (MCP) Gateway enables AI agents to discover and execute external tools through
    a standardized protocol, with OAuth 2.0 authentication and tool approval controls.
  humanURL: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/features/mcp
  tags:
  - AI Agents
  - MCP
  - OAuth
  - Tool Execution
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/features/mcp
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost
- aid: bifrost:bifrost-chat-api
  name: Bifrost Chat API
  description: Chat completions compatible with OpenAI chat API
  humanURL: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/gateway/setting-up
  baseURL: http://localhost:8080
  tags:
  - Chat
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/bifrost-chat-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/gateway/setting-up
- aid: bifrost:bifrost-health-api
  name: Bifrost Health API
  description: Gateway health and status endpoints
  humanURL: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/gateway/setting-up
  baseURL: http://localhost:8080
  tags:
  - Health
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/bifrost-health-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/gateway/setting-up
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/bifrost-agentic-access.yml
- type: TrustCenter
  url: security/bifrost-trust-center.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/bifrost-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/bifrost-authentication.yml
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.getmaxim.ai/bifrost/enterprise
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/quickstart/gateway/setting-up
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/maximhq
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/releases
- type: Community
  url: https://discord.gg/exN5KAydbU
- type: SpectralRules
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bifrost/refs/heads/main/rules/bifrost-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bifrost/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/bifrost-vocabulary.yaml
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: OpenAI-Compatible API
    description: Single API interface compatible with OpenAI SDK for all 20+ providers.
  - name: Adaptive Load Balancing
    description: Distribute requests across providers and models based on availability and performance.
  - name: Automatic Failover
    description: Automatically retry failed requests on alternative providers without client changes.
  - name: Semantic Caching
    description: Cache semantically similar prompts to reduce latency and API costs.
  - name: MCP Gateway
    description: Model Context Protocol gateway for AI agent tool discovery and execution.
  - name: Go SDK
    description: Native Go library for embedding Bifrost gateway directly into applications.
  - name: Enterprise Observability
    description: Built-in metrics, tracing, and logging for production AI gateway deployments.
  - name: Provider Key Management
    description: Centralized API key management for all connected AI providers.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Multi-Provider AI Applications
    description: Build applications that can seamlessly switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, and other providers.
  - name: Cost Optimization
    description: Route requests to cheaper providers during peak costs or use caching to reduce API spend.
  - name: High Availability AI
    description: Ensure AI features remain available by failing over across multiple provider accounts.
  - name: AI Agent Tooling
    description: Enable AI agents to discover and execute tools through the MCP gateway protocol.
  - name: LLM Provider Evaluation
    description: A/B test different models and providers without changing application code.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: OpenAI
    description: Route to OpenAI GPT-4o, GPT-4, and other OpenAI models.
  - name: Anthropic
    description: Route to Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, and other Anthropic models.
  - name: Cohere
    description: Route to Cohere Command and other Cohere models.
  - name: AWS Bedrock
    description: Route to models hosted on AWS Bedrock including Titan and Claude.
  - name: Azure OpenAI
    description: Route to Azure-hosted OpenAI deployments.
  - name: Google Vertex AI
    description: Route to Gemini and other models on Google Vertex AI.
- type: LlmsText
  url: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/llms.txt
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com