AI Router
A layer that picks the cheapest capable model for each request, saving cost and latency.
/ quick answer
An AI router inspects the incoming prompt and dispatches it to the smallest model that can handle it — a small local model for classification, a mid-tier for drafting, a frontier model only for hard reasoning. Products: OpenRouter, Portkey, LiteLLM.
/ frequently asked
What is AI Router?
An AI router inspects the incoming prompt and dispatches it to the smallest model that can handle it — a small local model for classification, a mid-tier for drafting, a frontier model only for hard reasoning. Products: OpenRouter, Portkey, LiteLLM.
What is an example of AI Router?
A support agent routes 80% of tickets to GPT-4o mini, 15% to GPT-4o, and 5% to Claude Opus, cutting bill by ~70% with no quality drop.
Why does AI Router matter?
A layer that picks the cheapest capable model for each request, saving cost and latency.
What should I learn after AI Router?
Open the related workflows and prompts further down this page: they show how this idea is applied in a real task, step by step.
/ continue exploring
Related concepts
The vocabulary this page depends on.
- →Model Routing
Sending each request to the cheapest model that can handle it.
- →Quantization
Shrinking a model by lowering weight precision.
- →Inference
Running a trained model to produce outputs.
- →Cost Per Token
The unit economics of LLM APIs.
Related workflows
Turn this into a repeatable process.
- →How to Create a Website with AI
Go from idea to a live, custom-domain website in one afternoon using AI builders.
- →How to Build an AI Content System
A repeatable pipeline that turns one input into publish-ready content across every channel.
- →How to Start a Niche Website with AI
Pick a niche, validate demand, build the site, and publish ranking content using AI end-to-end.
- →Personal Research Assistant Workflow
A repeatable system to research any topic deeply in under 30 minutes.
Related tool stacks
The tools that run it in production.
- →AI Automation Operator Stack
The default toolset for one operator running multiple AI-powered business workflows.
- →LLM Cost Optimization Stack
The layers that keep AI spend predictable as usage grows.
- →AI Research & Knowledge Stack
Default toolset for analysts, founders and creators doing deep research with AI.
Comparisons & alternatives
Pick between the options.
- →Claude vs GPT vs Gemini
The three frontier model families, side by side.
- →OpenAI vs Anthropic for Agents
Which provider builds better production agents in 2026.
- →Groq vs Together AI
Fast open-model inference: throughput vs breadth.
- →Chroma vs Qdrant vs Pinecone
Open-source local vs managed cloud vector databases.