MLOps & Infrastructure · intermediate · concept 213 of 311 · Updated Nov 4, 2026
Model Routing & AI Gateways
An AI gateway sits between an application and its model providers, handling routing, fallback, rate limits, logging and cost control through one interface. Routing sends each request to a suitable model, cheap for simple work and strong for hard work. This reduces dependence on one vendor, though it adds a component and a data path that must be trusted.
Top AI contributors on this
- Jensen HuangNvidia
- Jeff DeanDiscovery Loop
- Clément DelangueHugging Face
- Satya NadellaMicrosoft
- Sundar PichaiAlphabet / Google
- Alexandr WangMeta
Key terms
FallbackProvider routingRate limitsCost controlVendor lock-in
Learn these first
Where you meet it in the real world
Multi-model products, enterprise AI governance, cost-tiered assistants
Guides and articles
OpenRouter quickstart ↗
OpenRouter
Provider routing ↗
OpenRouter