Braintrust
← Back to All AI Tools1. Should you try Braintrust? Overview
| What it is | ai-productivity-data / Dev (eval/obs sublane) |
| Country / HQ | San Francisco, USA |
| Best for | Eng-led LLM/agent teams running CI eval gates |
| Check before buying | Watch out: PM-only prompt-editing shops (→ PromptLayer/Humanloop) |
| Pricing signal | Free tier + paid from $100/mo |
2. Features What it does
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tracing | Per-step agent traces (prompt/tool/retrieval/latency/cost), SDK Py/TS/Go/Ruby/C#/Java, OTel-compatible — Backed by Brainstore, 80× faster query vs PG |
| Evals | Dataset + task + scorer model, batch run vs prompts/models, CI gates (GitHub Action posts PR comment + blocks merge) — LLM-as-judge / code / human scorers; one-click prod trace → eval case |
| Prompt registry | Env-labeled versions (prod/staging/dev), playground side-by-side, no-deploy promote — Fetch by env name at runtime |
| Loop | AI agent: draft better prompts, build/refine scorers, synthesize eval datasets from NL — Uses model-credit quota (Topics-grade tokens) |
| Topics | Auto pattern discovery across traces (issues/sentiment/tasks) — Metered separately, 0.06/0.40 per MTok overage |
| Gateway | Multi-provider routing, caching, cost tracking, built-in obs — Optional proxy |
| MCP | MCP server → pull traces/evals into Cursor/Claude Code/Cline — IDE-native debugging |
| Deploy | SaaS, BYOC, self-hosted data plane (Ent) — Control plane managed |
| No | No agent runtime/deploy (≠ LangSmith Deploy), no APM for non-LLM services, no OSS community edition (SDKs MIT/Apache, platform closed) — Scope = AI apps only |
3. Pricing Pricing (2026-10, USD)
| Plan | Price / mo | Key limits & who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0 | 1 GB processed data/mo, 10k scores/mo, $10 Topics/model credits, 14-day retention, unlimited users/projects/datasets/playgrounds Data 4/GB,scores2.50/1k, Topics 0.06in/0.40 out per MTok |
| Pro | **249/mo∗∗(promo249 credit till 2026-09-01, then $100/mo credit from 2026-09-01) | 5 GB data, 50k scores, 30-day retention ($0.50/GB/mo beyond), custom charts, env, RBAC basic, priority email Data 3/GB,scores1.50/1k, lower token rates |
| Enterprise | Custom (annual invoice) | Custom limits, SAML/OIDC SSO, SCIM, audit log, BAA, BYOC/self-host, S3 export, Slack channel, SLA Early-stage startups (≤Series A, ≥$100K raised) get 6–12 mo free Pro |
4. Integration Access & integrations
| Access type | Details |
|---|---|
| SDK | Python, TypeScript, Go, Ruby, C#, Java |
| Framework | OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, OpenTelemetry |
| Gateway | Braintrust Gateway proxy (multi-provider, cache, cost) |
| MCP | MCP server → Cursor / Claude Code / Cline |
| CI | GitHub Actions eval gates (braintrustdata/eval-action) |
| Deploy | SaaS / BYOC / self-hosted data plane (Ent) |
| No | No REST “score my text” free endpoint for non-customers, no frontend analytics |
5. Reviews & Sources External reviews
| Source | Rating | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor benchmarks / Notion case study | Notion: 3→30 AI issues fixed/day after adopting Braintrust evals (10×) | |
| ToolRadar / Voiceflow / AITrendTool | Praised: trace→eval→CI gate loop, Brainstore speed, Loop autonomy, MCP IDE pull, seat-unlimited billing. Criticized: 0→249 jump steep, Topics/Loop token burn, compliance (SOC2/HIPAA/SSO) Enterprise-gated, closed-source platform (vs Langfuse) | |
| Aggregate | Best-in-class eval-first observability for eng-led LLM teams; less turnkey for non-LangChain PMs than Humanloop/PromptLayer |
6. Best for / Not for Fit
| ✔ Suitable | ✘ Not suitable |
|---|---|
| • Eng-led LLM/agent teams running CI eval gates • Notion/Stripe-scale trace volume (breaks PG) • Framework-agnostic stacks (OpenAI+Anthropic+Vercel) • Air-gap/BYOC regulated (Ent: HIPAA/SAML/self-host) • Cursor/Claude Code users wanting MCP trace pull |
• PM-only prompt-editing shops (→ PromptLayer/Humanloop) • LangChain-locked teams wanting agent runtime (→ LangSmith Deploy) • Tiny side-projects unwilling to watch data/score/Topics meter • Teams needing OSS self-host free (→ Langfuse/Phoenix) • Non-LLM APM needs (→ Datadog) |
7. Competitors How it compares
| Competitor | How it differs | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Eval-first platform | LangSmith | LangSmith deeper LangChain + agent runtime + seat pricing; Braintrust framework-agnostic + Brainstore + Loop + seat-unlimited |
| OSS observability | Langfuse, Arize Phoenix | OSS/self-host free; Braintrust managed Brainstore + Loop + MCP |
| Prompt mgmt | PromptLayer, Humanloop | Lighter prompt-registry; Braintrust broader eval/obs/trace-to-dataset |
| Gateway/obs | Portkey, Helicone | Routing focus; Braintrust eval/CI gates deeper |
| CI prompt test | Promptfoo | YAML/red-team OSS; Braintrust production-trace feedback loop |
| Runtime guardrails | Galileo, Guardrails | Galileo runtime safety; Braintrust release-control + evals |
| APM legacy | Datadog LLM Obs, Fiddler | General APM; Braintrust AI-trace-native |
| In-list overlap | Exa, Cody, JB AI, Continue, Aider, Cline, Mintlify, Q Dev(sunset), Phind(shutdown) | Dev lane adjacent (eval vs coding/docs) |
8. Summary Verdict
| Who should pick it | Eng-led LLM/agent teams running CI eval gates |
| Who should skip it | PM-only prompt-editing shops (→ PromptLayer/Humanloop) |