How Stav compares to the alternatives

Most teams end up in one of three places: too many AI vendors, keys, contracts and invoices; one gateway run by a US company; or a US cloud’s EU region. Here’s how Stav compares to each.

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Option A

Stav compared with a DIY multi-vendor setup

Wiring up OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, a hosting provider or two and your own router — and owning all of it.

	DIY multi-vendor	Stav
Integrations & keys	One SDK, key and rate-limit budget per provider.	One key for every model, through the OpenAI or Anthropic API you already use.
Contracts, DPAs & security reviews	A fresh procurement cycle for every vendor you add.	One contract, one DPA, one review — the whole catalogue.
Price	Each provider’s list price, plus the time it takes to run it all.	The providers’ own prices, no markup. A 5.5% fee when you buy credits.
Billing	Many invoices, credits, minimums and renewal dates to track.	One prepaid balance for every model; usage and cost in one place.
Choosing the right model	You build and maintain routing rules by hand.	With auto, the Smart Router picks the model that gives the best answer for the money, per request.
Reliability	You handle every provider outage yourself.	The Smart Router fails over to the next model. For a model you name, you choose the fallbacks.
Audit & compliance	Stitch logs together across providers yourself.	One request log with the model, the Inference Provider and the country for every request.
Sovereignty	Each vendor’s jurisdiction is your problem to verify.	You set the policy once. A request that would break it is refused, never quietly sent elsewhere.

Option B

Stav compared with a US-hosted gateway

A single-API gateway solves the sprawl — but if a US company runs it, it reopens the problem you were trying to avoid.

	A US-hosted gateway	Stav
One key, every model	Yes	Yes
Who runs the gateway	A US company. The CLOUD Act and FISA 702 reach everything that passes through it.	Stav.ai AS, a Norwegian company, running in Norway. The CLOUD Act does not apply to us.
Where open models run	Wherever the gateway prefers — often in the US.

Option C

Stav compared with a US cloud’s EU region

Azure, AWS Bedrock and Google Vertex all offer models in European data centres. The servers are in Europe; the company that owns them is not.

	A US cloud’s EU region	Stav
Contract	Often already in place.	One DPA with a Norwegian company.
Who can be compelled	A US parent company. The CLOUD Act applies wherever the servers are.	Stav is Norwegian, and your policy can require European-owned Inference Providers.
Where data is processed	An EU region, for the models the cloud offers there.

The gateway, without the trade-off

One key, every model, one balance — and a policy that decides where your data may go. Moving over takes three lines: the base URL, the key and the model name.

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