Top 5 AI Gateways to Use Claude Code with Non-Anthropic Models

Use these AI gateways to route Claude Code traffic through OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral, and other providers beyond Anthropic.

Claude Code has emerged as one of the strongest agentic coding tools on the market. It puts Claude's reasoning capabilities right in your terminal, enabling developers to hand off complex coding work, troubleshoot bugs, and design system architecture from the command line. The limitation: Claude Code is locked to Anthropic's models by default.

For production engineering teams, relying on a single provider introduces real operational constraints. You may want to send requests through GPT-5 for certain tasks, tap into Gemini for budget-friendly high-volume work, or switch to another provider during Anthropic API rate limit spikes. An AI gateway addresses this by intercepting Claude Code's requests, converting them into the target provider's format, and returning translated responses, all without the client knowing anything changed.

Here are five AI gateways that open up Claude Code to non-Anthropic models, each taking a distinct approach to multi-provider connectivity.

Why Claude Code Needs an AI Gateway

Claude Code communicates using Anthropic's native API protocol. There is no built-in mechanism to redirect requests to other providers, since the Anthropic message format is structurally different from the OpenAI-compatible standard most providers follow. An AI gateway bridges this gap by intercepting outbound requests, reformatting them for the destination provider, sending them through, and converting the responses back into Anthropic's expected format before Claude Code receives them.

Beyond protocol translation, gateways provide production-grade capabilities:

• Multi-model access: Send complex reasoning tasks to GPT-5, leverage Gemini's large context window for codebase analysis, and use Mistral for cost-conscious operations, all within one Claude Code session
• Provider failover: When one backend goes offline, traffic automatically shifts to an alternate provider
• Spend controls: Enforce per-team, per-project, or per-developer budgets with rate limits and usage caps
• Request visibility: Log, trace, and analyze every AI interaction in real time

1. Bifrost

Bifrost is an open-source AI gateway written in Go, developed by Maxim AI. It offers dedicated Claude Code support with native multi-provider routing out of the box.

Platform Overview

Bifrost operates as a translation layer between Claude Code and any LLM provider. It works with 20+ providers, spanning OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Azure, Mistral, Groq, Cohere, and more. On first launch, the gateway presents a web dashboard at localhost:8080 for configuring providers, managing API keys, and defining routing logic through a visual interface.

Pointing Claude Code at Bifrost takes two environment variables:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8080/anthropic"
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="dummy-key"

Since Bifrost manages provider credentials internally, the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY value is just a placeholder. You can then remap Claude Code's default model tiers to any model available through your gateway:

export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="openai/gpt-5"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="anthropic/claude-opus-4-5-20251101"

The Bifrost CLI removes even this manual step. It queries your gateway for available models, sets up base URLs and authentication automatically, and opens Claude Code in a tabbed terminal interface where you can switch between sessions and models without restarting anything.

Features

• Provider failover and load balancing: Distributes requests across API keys and providers automatically, ensuring continuous availability
• MCP gateway: Every Model Context Protocol tool configured in Bifrost is surfaced to Claude Code agents without additional setup
• Semantic caching: Cuts token costs and response times by serving cached answers for semantically similar prompts instead of requiring exact matches
• Virtual key governance: Assigns per-team or per-developer API keys with configurable budgets, rate limits, and model access restrictions
• CEL-based routing rules: Routes requests conditionally using Common Expression Language, enabling logic like sending premium-tier users to GPT-5 while directing budget-constrained teams to cheaper alternatives
• Native observability: Ships with Prometheus metrics, distributed tracing, and full request logging across all agent activity
• Enterprise capabilities: Includes guardrails, audit logs, vault integration, in-VPC deployment options, and clustering for production workloads

Best For

Engineering organizations that require production-grade governance, intelligent routing across providers, and MCP tool integration with Claude Code. Bifrost's Go runtime delivers the low-latency throughput needed for high-volume environments. The visual dashboard and zero-config startup make it approachable for solo developers, while virtual keys, budget enforcement, and routing rules support scaling across large teams.

2. LiteLLM Proxy

LiteLLM is a Python-based proxy server that converts between LLM provider API formats. It exposes an Anthropic Messages API-compatible endpoint for Claude Code to connect to.

Platform Overview

LiteLLM functions as middleware between Claude Code and upstream model providers. Configuration happens through a YAML file where you specify available providers, models, and credentials. Once the proxy is running, Claude Code connects via ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and LiteLLM translates each request into the correct format for providers like OpenAI, Google Gemini, Azure, or AWS Bedrock.

Features

• Compatible with 100+ LLM providers through a single proxy endpoint
• YAML-driven model configuration supporting per-model parameters
• Virtual key system for controlling team-level access
• Built-in dashboard for cost tracking and usage monitoring
• WebSearch interception that routes Claude Code's search tool through third-party search providers when using non-Anthropic backends

Best For

Teams with existing LiteLLM deployments looking to extend coverage to Claude Code. It suits Python-heavy environments where the proxy fits naturally into current infrastructure. Be aware that open issues exist around non-Anthropic model compatibility, especially with parameter handling for tool-calling operations.

3. OpenRouter

OpenRouter is a hosted API aggregation service providing access to 300+ models across 60+ providers through one unified endpoint. Its "Anthropic Skin" natively speaks the Anthropic API format.

Platform Overview

OpenRouter enables a direct connection where Claude Code sets ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL to https://openrouter.ai/api with no local proxy needed. The Anthropic Skin layer handles format mapping and supports advanced features like thinking blocks and native tool use. All billing flows through OpenRouter credits, with usage visible in its dashboard.

Features

• No local proxy or additional services required
• Catalog of 300+ models, including free and open-source options
• Pay-per-use billing via OpenRouter credits, removing the need for separate provider accounts
• Built-in failover across multiple backend providers serving the same model
• Mid-session model switching through Claude Code's /model command

Best For

Solo developers and small teams that want the quickest path to multi-model access from Claude Code. Setup involves only setting environment variables. Keep in mind that Anthropic's first-party provider is the only guaranteed-compatible option on OpenRouter; results with non-Anthropic models can vary.

4. Cloudflare AI Gateway

Cloudflare AI Gateway is a managed service running on Cloudflare's global edge network that adds observability, caching, and rate limiting to AI API traffic.

Platform Overview

Cloudflare AI Gateway exposes provider-specific endpoints at https://gateway.ai.cloudflare.com/v1/{account_id}/{gateway_id}/{provider} for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI Studio, AWS Bedrock, and Azure OpenAI. It also supports an OpenAI-compatible /chat/completions endpoint with dynamic routing. Claude Code can target the Anthropic endpoint to proxy its traffic through Cloudflare's infrastructure.

Features

• Edge-distributed network for low-latency request proxying worldwide
• Response caching to reduce costs and improve speed
• Configurable rate limiting, request retries, and model fallback chains
• Centralized billing across providers via Cloudflare credits (closed beta)
• API key management through Cloudflare Secrets Store
• Real-time analytics and request logging

Best For

Organizations already running on Cloudflare's platform that want to layer AI gateway functionality onto existing infrastructure. Cloudflare AI Gateway is a strong choice when edge caching, global rate limiting, and DDoS protection matter alongside AI provider routing.

5. Ollama

Ollama is a local model runner that serves open-source models through an API endpoint Claude Code can connect to, enabling fully offline AI inference.

Platform Overview

Ollama hosts open-source models on your local machine and exposes an Anthropic-compatible API. Claude Code connects by pointing ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL to http://localhost:11434 and selecting a locally available model. All processing stays on-device with no external API calls. Models like Devstral, Qwen Coder, and CodeLlama run directly on local hardware.

Features

• Completely local inference with no data transmitted externally
• Dozens of open-source coding models available
• Zero API keys, subscriptions, or per-token charges
• Straightforward model management through CLI commands (ollama pull, ollama run)

Best For

Developers in air-gapped environments, working on sensitive codebases, or looking to remove API expenses entirely. Hardware requirements are significant (32GB+ RAM recommended for usable coding models). Ollama handles straightforward tasks well, but complex multi-step agentic workflows typically demand more powerful cloud-hosted models.

Picking the Right Gateway for Your Team

Your ideal choice depends on what matters most:

• Production governance and MCP tools: Bifrost delivers the deepest feature set for teams at scale, combining virtual keys, budget controls, CEL routing, and native MCP tool access for Claude Code
• Python-native middleware: LiteLLM integrates naturally into existing Python infrastructure for provider translation
• Minimal setup: OpenRouter needs nothing beyond a few environment variables
• Edge-first infrastructure: Cloudflare AI Gateway fits teams already committed to the Cloudflare platform
• Offline and private: Ollama covers air-gapped and privacy-critical use cases

At scale, the combination of multi-provider routing, governance tooling, and operational visibility determines how efficiently your team uses AI. To explore how Bifrost can streamline your Claude Code setup with enterprise-grade multi-model routing, book a demo with the Bifrost team.