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model routing
also LLM routing or LLM router or model router or multi-model routing
Definition of model routing
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: the automatic selection of which AI model, model tier, or model provider should handle a request, based on factors such as the task, expected quality, cost, latency, safety requirements, context length, or current availability
- The assistant uses model routing to send simple classification requests to a small model and difficult planning tasks to a frontier model.
- Cross-provider model routing kept the service online by moving requests when one inference provider became unavailable.
Two meanings, one word
In everyday English
Sending something along a selected route.
In AI
The automatic selection of which AI model, model tier, or model provider should handle a request, based on factors such as the task, expected quality, cost, latency…
Origin & history
Routing among specialized machine-learning models predates large language models, but model routing became a major LLM deployment pattern as developers gained access to many models with different strengths, prices, and context limits. Research systems and commercial AI gateways increasingly adopted LLM routers in the mid-2020s to balance quality, cost, and reliability.
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Which of these is the meaning of model routing?
Cite this entry
"Model routing." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/model-routing/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.