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Most agent pipelines run every step on the same frontier model out of habit, not need. This is the decision framework for picking a small model per step instead of per pipeline: whether the output space is narrow, whether the task needs multi-hop reasoning, whether you can
An LLM gateway is a proxy layer that gives your app one stable endpoint across several model providers, then decides which one answers each request. Most of what ships as "smart routing" is really 2 jobs, automatic fallback and cost-based rules, not model choice driven by
In July 2026 you can call five frontier models before lunch, at prices that range tenfold. More choice is not an easier choice. Here is a job-by-job map of which model to default to, with every price dated and a reminder to test on your own data.
