Mintive vs Portkey
Last updated: October 19, 2026.
Choose Mintive when MCP tool governance comes first: Virtual MCPs per role on your directory groups, per-user and shared credentials, Mint Guard screening on every tool call, and Agent Monitor for coding agents, with an LLM gateway (early access) on the same users and groups. Choose Portkey when a multi-provider LLM gateway comes first and you want MCP access on the same control plane.
Portkey's site states that Portkey is now Prisma AIRS AI Gateway, part of Palo Alto Networks.
MCP governance first vs LLM gateway first
Mintive started as an MCP gateway: admins approve MCP servers in an internal registry, package tools into Virtual MCPs per team, and govern every tool call with the same identities, policies and audit trail. Its LLM gateway (early access) extends that to model traffic, with budgets per group and per user, and allowed-model lists per group. Portkey started as an LLM gateway with a universal API across many models, fallbacks, load balancing and caching, and its MCP Gateway brings MCP servers onto the same control plane.
Mintive and Portkey side by side
| Mintive | Portkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Dedicated MCP gateway, plus LLM gateway and Agent Monitor | LLM gateway with a separate MCP gateway on the same control plane |
| Deployment | Managed cloud service in the US or EU; Private Networks reach internal services through a Helm or Docker agent (Enterprise); on-premise or self-hosted by arrangement | Managed SaaS, hybrid with the data plane in your VPC, private cloud or fully self-hosted |
| License | Paid plans (mintive.com/pricing) | Open-source gateway is MIT; enterprise features on the Enterprise plan |
| Client authentication | OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and dynamic client registration on every Virtual MCP; API keys, M2M tokens or workload identity federation (on request) for agents | OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, API keys, external IdP tokens |
| SSO and SCIM | SSO and SCIM with Okta, Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, OneLogin, JumpCloud, Auth0, PingFederate and other SAML/OIDC providers | OIDC or SAML SSO; SCIM on Enterprise |
| Per-user credentials to tools | Per-user OAuth with automatic refresh, shared service credentials, or cross app access; user identity forwarding to MCP servers | Per-user OAuth tokens for upstream services with refresh; identity forwarding |
| Access is granted to | A Virtual MCP per role with curated tools, for users, directory groups and agent identities (RBAC); per-tool enable and disable and approval | MCP servers and tools, by organization, workspace, team or user |
| Audit and export | Tool calls, prompts and access changes over OTLP, Splunk HEC or batched files to S3 (SIEM export); usage through the Admin API and Admin MCP | Every MCP tool call logged; OpenTelemetry export; admin audit logs on Enterprise |
| Prompt injection and sensitive data | Mint Guard (enabled on request), Mintive's managed guardrail, screens tool arguments and results out of the box; plus rules and middleware that block or mask, with PII and DLP templates | MCP guardrails on tool inputs and outputs, approval workflows; PII redaction on LLM traffic |
| LLM routing and budgets | LLM gateway (early access): budgets per group and per user, allowed models per group | Universal API across many models with fallbacks and load balancing; budgets and rate limits |
| Connectors and registry | Pre-vetted catalog, hosted connectors from container images, the hosted CLI or private npm packages, remote MCPs, custom registry; tool change alerts | MCP registry and registry API (beta) |
| Compliance stated | SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA, with a BAA available (details) | SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and HIPAA |
| Pricing | Plans on mintive.com/pricing; Mint Guard and ZDR are on the Enterprise plan | Developer free; Production $49/month; Enterprise custom |
Identity and per-user auth
Both gateways handle OAuth for MCP clients and store per-user OAuth tokens for upstream services. In Mintive, SSO covers both the web app and the OAuth flow a client runs when it connects to a Virtual MCP, so your IdP's MFA and conditional access apply, and SCIM keeps users and groups in sync. Connectors can also use a shared service credential or cross app access. See authentication models. Portkey supports OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, API keys and external IdP tokens for MCP clients, and refreshes per-user tokens for services such as GitHub and Slack.
Tool access and guardrails
Mintive grants each Virtual MCP to directory groups, so a user only sees the tools for their role, and Mint Guard (enabled on request) screens the arguments and results of every tool call for prompt injection, credentials and secrets, PII and harmful content. See RBAC and Mint Guard. Portkey provisions MCP servers and tools by organization, workspace, team or user, and applies MCP guardrails and approval workflows to tool inputs and outputs.
Audit and coding agents
Mintive streams tool calls, prompts and access changes to your SIEM over OTLP or Splunk HEC, or as batched files to S3, and Agent Monitor adds file reads, commands and MCP tool calls from Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Cursor, Codex and GitHub Copilot. See SIEM export. Portkey logs every MCP tool call and exports analytics and logs over OpenTelemetry.
FAQ
Is Portkey now Prisma AIRS AI Gateway?
Portkey's site states that Portkey is now Prisma AIRS AI Gateway, part of Palo Alto Networks. Its documentation is titled Portkey (Prisma AIRS AI Gateway) Docs.
Does Mintive have an LLM gateway like Portkey?
Yes. The Mintive LLM gateway (early access) connects to OpenAI, Anthropic, Fireworks and Amazon Bedrock and assigns spend budgets to groups, teams and individual users, and allowed-model lists to groups and teams, using the same users and groups as the MCP gateway.
Do both handle per-user OAuth to MCP servers?
Yes. Mintive stores each user's OAuth tokens per connector and refreshes them automatically, and also supports shared service credentials and cross app access through Okta. Portkey injects per-user OAuth tokens for upstream services and refreshes them.
Does Mintive offer zero data retention?
Yes. On the Enterprise plan, Mintive can be configured not to store prompts, model responses or tool-call content across the MCP gateway, the LLM gateway and Agent Monitor, keeping only metadata. See zero data retention.
How is pricing different?
Mintive plans are listed on mintive.com/pricing, with Mint Guard and zero data retention on the Enterprise plan. Portkey publishes a free Developer tier, a Production tier at $49 per month, and custom Enterprise pricing.
Related
- MCP gateway comparison: 13 gateways side by side
- Mintive vs Portkey on the blog
- LLM gateway: govern model traffic alongside tool traffic
Sources
Portkey facts on this page come from Portkey's public documentation and pricing pages, checked on October 19, 2026.