What is LLM Routing?

The infrastructure layer becoming essential for every AI-powered application.

The Problem

Modern AI applications face a complex challenge: there are dozens of LLM providers — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, and more — each with multiple models at different price points, capabilities, and performance characteristics.

Hardcoding a single provider creates several issues:

Overpaying — Using GPT-4o for simple tasks that a cheaper model could handle equally well
Single point of failure — When your provider goes down, your entire application breaks
Rate limits — Hitting API limits with no fallback option
Vendor lock-in — Switching providers means rewriting integration code

The Solution: LLM Routing

An LLM router sits between your application and LLM providers. It provides a unified API and intelligently routes each request to the optimal model based on your requirements:

Cost Optimization

Route simple requests to cheaper models. Reserve expensive models for complex tasks.

Latency Reduction

Route to the fastest endpoint. Seamlessly switch if one provider is slow.

Reliability

Automatic failover. If OpenAI is down, route to Anthropic or Google instead.

Quality Matching

Match the right model to each task. Specialized models for coding, general for chat.

How It Works

1

You send a request

Your application sends a standard OpenAI-compatible API request to the router.

2

The router evaluates

The router analyzes the request and applies your routing rules — considering cost, latency, and availability.

3

Request is routed

The router forwards to the optimal provider. If the primary choice fails, it automatically falls back.

4

Response is returned

You receive a standard response. Your application code stays the same regardless of which provider handled it.

Who Should Use an LLM Router?

LLM routing is valuable for any application making more than a few hundred API calls per day. Benefits scale with usage:

SaaS products with AI features that need to stay online and fast
AI-native startups looking to optimize their largest cost center
Enterprise teams that need compliance, audit trails, and vendor flexibility
Developers building AI agents, chatbots, or automation pipelines

Our Mission

LLM Router is an independent comparison platform. We believe developers deserve transparent, unbiased information to make the best infrastructure decisions.

We evaluate LLM routers on what matters: pricing transparency, routing intelligence, provider coverage, reliability, and developer experience.

Our model repository aggregates benchmark scores, pricing, and specifications from official sources — a single place to compare the rapidly evolving LLM landscape.

Start Comparing

Explore our router comparisons and model repository.

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