An LLM gateway is an abstraction layer that sits between your application and LLM providers, providing a unified API, observability, and operational controls.
An LLM gateway is an intermediary service that provides a single, consistent API for accessing multiple large language model providers. It abstracts away provider-specific differences in authentication, request format, streaming protocol, and error handling. Think of it as an API gateway specifically designed for LLM traffic, with added capabilities like model routing, failover, cost tracking, and usage analytics.
A unified API eliminates the need to integrate each provider's SDK separately, reducing code complexity and maintenance burden. Built-in observability tracks latency, token usage, cost, and error rates across all providers in one dashboard. Failover and circuit breakers keep your AI features online when individual providers go down. Cost controls and rate limiting prevent budget overruns. Authentication management handles API keys for multiple providers securely. These capabilities would take months to build and maintain in-house.
A generic API proxy forwards requests and can add basic caching or rate limiting, but it does not understand LLM-specific concerns like token counting, streaming SSE responses, model-specific error codes, or multi-model orchestration. An LLM gateway is purpose-built for AI traffic: it knows how to parse streaming chunks, calculate per-token costs, implement circuit breakers tuned to LLM failure patterns, and route requests based on model capabilities. The difference is similar to using a generic reverse proxy versus a database connection pooler: both forward traffic, but the specialized tool understands the protocol.
LLMWise functions as a full LLM gateway with orchestration capabilities on top. It provides an OpenAI-compatible API that routes to nine models across five providers. Beyond basic gateway features like unified auth and observability, LLMWise adds orchestration modes (Compare, Blend, Judge, Mesh), optimization policies that analyze your usage data and recommend model changes, and BYOK support that lets you bring your own provider keys while keeping the gateway's routing and failover. The credit-based pricing model means you pay for what you use without per-seat or monthly minimums.
LLMWise gives you five orchestration modes — Chat, Compare, Blend, Judge, and Mesh — with built-in optimization policy, failover routing, and replay lab. One API key, nine models, no separate subscriptions.
Try it free500 free credits. One API key. Nine models. No credit card required.