About Helicone AI
Helicone is an open-source LLM observability platform designed for monitoring, debugging, and improving AI applications. It offers features like cost tracking, agent tracing, and prompt management through a 1-line integration. It helps developers ship AI apps with confidence by providing an all-in-one platform to monitor, debug, and improve production-ready LLM applications.
How to Use
Integrate Helicone with a single line of code to access cost tracking, agent tracing, prompt management, and more. Use the dashboard to monitor requests, segments, sessions, properties, and users. Improve prompts using the playground, experiments, and evaluators.
Key Features
- Cost tracking
- Agent tracing
- Prompt management
- Request and dashboard monitoring
- Experiments and evaluations
- Caching
- Rate limits
- LLM guardrails
- LLM moderation
- Gateway fallbacks
- Retries
Use Cases
- Monitor and debug LLM application performance
- Track costs associated with LLM usage
- Manage and optimize prompts
- Improve AI agent performance through tracing
- Run experiments to evaluate different prompt strategies
- Detect critical bugs and save agent runtime
Key Features
Cost tracking
Agent tracing
Prompt management
Request and dashboard monitoring
Experiments and evaluations
Caching
Rate limits
LLM guardrails
LLM moderation
Gateway fallbacks
Retries
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Open-source and community-driven
- One-line integration with existing LLM code
- Supports multiple LLM providers (flexible)
- Comprehensive observability including cost, tracing, and caching
- Intuitive dashboard with powerful query language (HQL)
- Scalable pricing with a generous free tier (10,000 requests/month)
- Active development and frequent updates
- Built-in experiments, evaluators, and prompt management
Cons
- Free tier has limited requests, storage, and seats
- Usage-based pricing can become expensive at high volume
- Some advanced features (e.g., HIPAA, SAML SSO) only on higher-tier plans
- Log ingestion limits on lower plans (10 logs/min on free)
- Data retention ranges from 7 days (free) to forever (Enterprise)
Best For
Monitor and debug LLM application performanceTrack costs associated with LLM usageManage and optimize promptsImprove AI agent performance through tracingRun experiments to evaluate different prompt strategiesDetect critical bugs and save agent runtime
Alternatives to Helicone AI
FAQ
What do I get with the free plan?
The free Hobby plan includes 10,000 free requests per month, 1 GB storage, 1 seat, and 1 organization. It also provides basic monitoring features like requests, sessions, and user analytics, with 7-day data retention and 10 logs/min ingestion.
How is Helicone's usage-based pricing calculated?
Usage-based pricing applies to requests, tokens, and storage beyond the free allowances. For example, the Pro plan includes 10K free requests per month and charges for additional usage. You can estimate costs using the pricing calculator on the website.
What happens if I exceed my limits?
If you exceed the limits of your current plan, you may be charged based on usage or prompted to upgrade. The free plan has a hard cap at 10,000 requests per month; exceeding it likely requires moving to a paid plan.
Can I switch plans or cancel anytime?
Yes, plans are flexible. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time. All paid plans offer a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel without penalty.
Does Helicone work with my LLM provider?
Yes, Helicone is designed to work with any LLM provider through its gateway and one-line integration. It supports common providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and others.
Is there a plan for teams or enterprise use?
Yes, the Team plan ($799/month) includes 5 organizations, SOC-2 and HIPAA compliance, dedicated Slack channel, and higher limits. Enterprise plans offer custom MSAs, SAML SSO, on-prem deployment, and dedicated support.
Do you offer discounts for startups, students, or open source projects?
Yes, Helicone offers a 50% discount for the first year for startups under 2 years old and under $5M in funding. Non-profits receive discounts based on organization size. Open-source companies get a $100 credit, and students get free access.