Helicone is a transparent reverse proxy for large language model (LLM) APIs. Instead of calling OpenAI, Anthropic, or other LLM providers directly, you route requests through Helicone's servers. Helicone logs every request and response, calculates cost, measures latency, and detects errors—all without a single code change to your application. It's a thin, purpose-built proxy optimized for LLM traffic. Behind the scenes, it batches telemetry, handles retries, and supports advanced features like request caching and cost analysis.