---
id: blog-q2-2026-roundup
slug: q2-2026-roundup
date: 2026-06-30
title: "Q2 2026: Speech, Embeddings & Coding Plans"
summary: "Three months of updates: speech generation and Audio Studio, OpenAI-compatible embeddings, OCR, DevPass coding plans, chat subscription plans, enterprise IAM and master keys, SOC 2 Type II, 40+ new models, and much more."
categories: ["Announcements"]
draft: false
image:
  src: "/blog/q2-2026.png"
  alt: "Q2 2026 Feature Roundup"
  width: 1536
  height: 1024
---

Most teams want one API for everything they build with — text, speech, embeddings, images, video — without juggling a separate vendor and SDK for each. Q2 was about closing that gap. **LLM Gateway** added speech generation and embeddings as first-class OpenAI-compatible endpoints, shipped fixed-price coding plans and chat subscriptions, tightened enterprise access controls, earned SOC 2 Type II, and brought 40+ new models online. Here's everything that shipped from April through June.

## By the Numbers

The quarter in traffic, across every project on the platform:

- **27,038,440 requests** routed
- **207.9B tokens** processed — 195.8B input, 120B cached, 11.8B output

DeepSeek V4, Grok 4.1 Fast, and Gemini 3 Flash drove the most volume. But the bigger story is how much of it is no longer plain text: Gemini Embedding 2 ranks second by request count, and GPT Image 2 lands in the top ten — proof that embeddings, images, and audio now move serious traffic through the gateway.

### Top 10 models by tokens

| #   | Model                       | Tokens |
| --- | --------------------------- | ------ |
| 1   | deepseek-v4-pro             | 48.6B  |
| 2   | grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning | 29.2B  |
| 3   | gemini-3-flash-preview      | 27.0B  |
| 4   | deepseek-v4-flash           | 23.0B  |
| 5   | claude-sonnet-4-6           | 7.7B   |
| 6   | claude-opus-4-8             | 6.4B   |
| 7   | gemini-3-pro-image-preview  | 6.2B   |
| 8   | gemini-embedding-2          | 5.8B   |
| 9   | glm-5.2                     | 5.1B   |
| 10  | claude-opus-4-6             | 4.6B   |

### Top 10 models by requests

| #   | Model                          | Requests   |
| --- | ------------------------------ | ---------- |
| 1   | grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning    | 10,605,050 |
| 2   | gemini-embedding-2             | 5,887,455  |
| 3   | gemini-3-flash-preview         | 2,406,179  |
| 4   | gemini-3-pro-image-preview     | 2,122,872  |
| 5   | deepseek-v4-flash              | 1,158,043  |
| 6   | gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview | 668,547    |
| 7   | gpt-image-2                    | 543,958    |
| 8   | deepseek-v4-pro                | 540,795    |
| 9   | grok-4-1-fast                  | 300,313    |
| 10  | deepseek-v3.2                  | 289,820    |

## Speech & Audio

![Audio Studio in the LLM Gateway Playground with multi-track speech generation](/changelog/speech-generation-and-audio-studio.png)

Text-to-speech now runs through the same gateway as the rest of your stack:

- **`/v1/audio/speech`** — An OpenAI-compatible speech endpoint backed by ElevenLabs, Google Gemini, and more, so you switch voices and providers without changing your code.
- **ElevenLabs provider** — Native text-to-speech with per-character pricing tracked on every request.
- **Google audio** — Audio support for Google models, wired into the Playground.
- **Audio Studio** — A dedicated workspace in the Playground for generating and previewing speech.

[Read the speech docs](https://docs.llmgateway.io/features/speech-generation)

## Embeddings

![OpenAI-compatible embeddings turning text into vectors for semantic search and RAG](/changelog/embeddings-support.png)

**`/v1/embeddings`** is now OpenAI-compatible across providers, so retrieval and semantic search work without provider-specific glue:

- **Google embeddings** via `gemini-embedding-001`, plus **Google Vertex** embeddings
- **Same-provider key fallback** — Embedding requests fail over to your other keys on the same provider
- **Routing metadata and key health** included in embedding responses, just like chat completions

[Read the embeddings docs](https://docs.llmgateway.io/features/embeddings)

## OCR

- **`/v1/ocr`** — Extract structured text from documents and images with `mistral-ocr-latest`.
- **Chat OCR** — The Playground reads text out of uploaded images directly in a conversation.

[Read the OCR docs](https://docs.llmgateway.io/features/ocr)

## Video Generation

![ByteDance Seedance video generation models in the LLM Gateway model selector](/changelog/seedance-video-models.png)

We expanded video beyond Q1's launch with new models and input modes:

- **ByteDance Seedance 2.0, 2.0 Fast, and 1.5 Pro** — including reference-video input and first/last-frame control on Seedance 2.0
- **Alibaba Wan 2.6** — text-to-video
- **MiniMax Hailuo 2.3**
- **AtlasCloud Kling v3**
- **Grok Imagine Video 1.5** — promoted out of preview

## Image Generation

![Image Studio in the LLM Gateway Playground generating images with GPT Image 2](/screenshots/image-studio-dark.png)

- **gpt-image-2** — Added from OpenAI and via Azure OpenAI, with quality and size pass-through for accurate, resolution-based pricing.
- **Reve** — A new image-generation provider.

## Responses API

- **`/v1/responses`** — Full support for OpenAI's Responses API.
- **`/v1/responses/compact`** — A compact variant for smaller payloads.
- **`item_reference` resolution** — Input items referenced by ID are resolved server-side.

## DevPass: Coding Plans

**DevPass** gives you a fixed monthly price for coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, Cline, and Cursor — frontier models without metered per-token billing. Q2 turned it into a complete product:

- **Restricted to coding agents and root-model routing** — Plans cover inference for supported agents, keeping pricing predictable
- **Annual billing** alongside monthly
- **Invoices and shared billing details** across the dashboard
- **Public DevPass profiles** to show off what you've built
- **Social and passkey sign-in**
- **Cancellation feedback flow** and lifecycle notifications
- New integration guides for **Pi, Continue, Hermes, and Cursor plan mode**

[Get your DevPass](https://llmgateway.io/code)

## Chat Subscription Plans & Playground

![Chat subscription plans, service tiers, and the SDK sandbox](/changelog/chat-plans-service-tiers-product-roundup.png)

The chat Playground gained **Starter, Plus, and Pro subscription plans** plus a wave of workflow features:

- **Forking, message editing, and chat reset** — Branch a conversation or rewind it
- **Temporary chats** that leave no history, and **pinned chats** in the sidebar
- **Public share links** with a redesigned share dialog and OpenGraph images
- **Chat history search** across every conversation
- **Comparison mode persistence** — Your multi-model setup sticks between sessions
- **AI chat support** replacing Crisp, with suggested answers and one-click human escalation
- **Image, Video, and Audio Studios** plus a **Canvas** page for longer-form work

[Open the Playground](https://chat.llmgateway.io)

## Routing & Reliability

Routing got smarter about cost, latency, and stickiness:

- **Per-request and per-project routing strategy** — Choose how the gateway picks providers at either level
- **Sticky session routing** via the `x-session-id` header, so a conversation stays on one provider
- **Stable preferred-provider routing** for predictable provider selection
- **Image-aware token estimates** feed auto-routing for more accurate cost weighting
- **Provider service tiers** — Flex and priority tiers (including Vertex), gated to your own provider keys
- **Faster provider-downtime reaction** and **AWS Bedrock region routing** with a global default

[Read the routing docs](https://docs.llmgateway.io/features/routing)

## Enterprise & Security

![Integrated guardrails and custom rules for enterprise safety policies](/changelog/guardrails.png)

- **SOC 2 Type II** — LLM Gateway completed its SOC 2 Type II audit. [Read the announcement](/blog/soc2-type-ii)
- **IAM rules** — Restrict API keys by IP CIDR range (Enterprise)
- **Master keys** — Provision and manage keys programmatically, with dedicated IAM rule routes
- **Per-key custom model catalog** — Enterprise organizations expose a curated model list per key
- **Per-project routing overrides** — Pin providers and policies at the project level
- **Provider compliance policies** and legal metadata surfaced per provider
- **Guardrails redact action** — Mask sensitive content instead of blocking it outright
- **Enterprise trial** and lifted seat, project, and key limits for enterprise plans

[Explore Enterprise](/enterprise)

## API Key Lifecycle

- **TTL expiration** — Set an expiry on any API key
- **Roll secret** — Rotate a key's secret without changing its ID or breaking integrations
- See our [API key rotation guide](/blog/api-key-rotation) for the full pattern

## Embeddable Payments SDK

For platforms that resell or meter LLM usage to their own users:

- **Embeddable end-user wallets** — Give your users their own credit balances
- **SDK settings and sandbox test keys** for safe local development
- **Opt-in preview** behind a feature flag

[Read the payments SDK docs](https://docs.llmgateway.io/features/embeddable-payments)

## New Models

Q2 added more than 40 models across providers:

### Anthropic

- **Claude Opus 4.8** (Anthropic and AWS Bedrock)
- **Claude Opus 4.7** with adaptive thinking
- **Adaptive thinking for Opus 4.6**
- **Claude Sonnet 4.6** with a 1M-token context window
- **Claude Fable 5** (Anthropic and AWS Bedrock)

### OpenAI

- **GPT-5.5** family
- **gpt-image-2** (OpenAI and Azure OpenAI)

### xAI

- **Grok 4.3** and **Grok Build 0.1**, plus **grok-4.20** via Vertex AI
- **Grok Imagine Video 1.5**

### DeepSeek

- **DeepSeek V4 Pro** and **V4 Flash** across Alibaba, Novita, and CanopyWave
- **DeepSeek V4** in Alibaba's Singapore region
- Reasoning enabled for **DeepSeek V3.2** on Novita

### Open & Frontier Models

- **GLM-5.1 and GLM-5.2** across Z.ai, EmberCloud, Together AI, and Novita
- **Kimi K2.6, K2.7 Highspeed, and K2.7 Code** across Moonshot, CanopyWave, Novita, and Together AI
- **MiniMax M3** and tool calling on **MiniMax M2.7**
- **Qwen3.6** (Max Preview, Plus, 35B-A3B) and **Qwen3.7** (Max, Plus) across Alibaba and Novita
- **Gemma 4**, **Gemini 3.5 Flash**, and **Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite**
- **Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B**, **Xiaomi MiMo**, and **Sakana fugu-ultra**

[Explore all models](/models)

## New Providers

- **ElevenLabs** — Text-to-speech
- **Reve** — Image generation
- **DeepInfra** — Inference provider
- **Bluestone** and extended **Together AI** coverage
- **vertex-anthropic** and a discounted **anthropic-discount** provider
- **Azure AI Foundry** — Grok models, `gpt-oss-120b`, and custom Foundry deployment names
- **Vertex AI partner models** — 13 new OpenAI-compatible mappings

[Browse all providers](/providers)

## Analytics & Admin

![Usage analytics and cost breakdown in the LLM Gateway dashboard](/screenshots/dashboard-dark.png)

- **Organization analytics** — Member, API-key, and per-source usage breakdowns
- **Hourly history rollups** — Faster long-range charts, with hourly buckets beyond 24 hours in the admin dashboard
- **Model categorization** and weekly fair-use caps for premium-tier models
- A steady stream of admin dashboard improvements: cost-share views, sortable provider tables, error breakdowns by source, and custom date ranges

## Billing & Payments

- **Cache-write billing** for Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and Alibaba
- **International payment fee** handling
- **Credit top-up minimum** raised to $10

## Deployment

- **Helm chart** — Self-host LLM Gateway on Kubernetes with a maintained chart. See the [self-hosting guide](/blog/self-host-llm-gateway).

## Docs, SEO & Comparisons

- **Fumadocs upgrade with Ask AI** — Ask questions against the docs in natural language
- **Enriched `llms.txt`** and a sitemap page for AI crawlers
- **Refreshed comparison pages** with provider logos and OpenGraph images
- **Community model ratings** — Rate any model after 100 requests
- New enterprise SEO pages and a growing library of guides

---

**[Explore all models](/models)** | **[Try the Playground](https://chat.llmgateway.io)** | **[Get started now](/signup)**
