head to head · open source
gpt-load vs agent-router
gpt-load has 6,865 GitHub stars, 759 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped today. agent-router has 2,121 stars, 382 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped today. gpt-load leads on adoption by 224% (6,865 vs 2,121 stars). gpt-load is written in Go under MIT; agent-router is written in Go under Apache-2.0. gpt-load has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, agent-router 18%. gpt-load was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai-gateway, api-gateway, llm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| gpt-load | agent-router | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.9K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 759 | ⑂ 382 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gpt-load if
- You weight community size — 6.9K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agent-router if
- You want the agent-router feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and agent-router fits your workflow better
About gpt-load
GPT Load is a self hosted AI gateway written in Go and released under the MIT license. It gives applications a single entry point — one base URL and one AccessKey — for reaching many AI providers at once. Providers, accounts, credentials, models, and routing policy are configured in the bundled management UI rather than in application code.
read the full gpt-load overview →
About agent-router
Agent Router is an open source control plane for AI and agent traffic, built on Envoy and Envoy Gateway, that gives application teams one consistent OpenAI compatible API across hosted providers, self hosted inference, and MCP servers, and it is aimed at platform teams and application teams running generative AI workloads, especially on Kubernetes.
read the full agent-router overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gpt-load or agent-router more popular?
gpt-load has 6,865 GitHub stars and agent-router has 2,121. gpt-load has the larger community by that measure.
Are gpt-load and agent-router free?
Both are open source. gpt-load is licensed under MIT and agent-router under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gpt-load and agent-router?
gpt-load is written in Go and agent-router in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gpt-load or agent-router?
Choose gpt-load if you want the larger community (6,865 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose agent-router if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.