Model Router for LLM Cost Optimization

A classifier and routing system that intelligently picks the cheapest LLM model and reasoning depth needed for each user request, reducing API costs by 3x+. Ideal for teams running heavy AI agents who need to optimize spend without sacrificing quality.

LLM API costs are a real and growing pain point as teams scale agentic workflows in 2024–2025, and "model routing" has moved from a nice-to-have to a line item conversation at engineering budget reviews. The closest named competitor is LiteLLM, which handles model abstraction but doesn't do intelligent cost-based routing as a core product; Martin Fowler's team at Thoughtworks flagged this gap in recent AI radar entries. The $5k–25k/mo revenue band is credible — the value prop is cost reduction, which makes ROI calculators easy to sell and justifies a percentage-of-savings or flat SaaS pricing, though the ceiling is low unless you land a few high-volume enterprise accounts. The biggest risk is commoditization: Anthropic, OpenAI, and the major inference providers are already experimenting with tiered reasoning models and auto-routing internally, which could make the routing layer redundant before you've built a defensible customer base.