Smart Router

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Use Cases

• Reducing spend on high-volume workloads where most requests do not need the strongest model.
• Customer support assistants: simple FAQs and acknowledgements stay on fast, economical models while nuanced complaints or policy questions escalate automatically.
• Code assistants: autocomplete and boilerplate generation stay cheap; debugging and architecture questions escalate.
• Content generation at scale: templated, high-volume copy uses economical models; long-form or brand-sensitive copy uses stronger ones.
• Getting the best available output for every request without manually picking a model per call.

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How It Works

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Set Up the Smart Router

1. Navigate to Smart Router in the AI Gateway sidebar.
2. Click + Smart Router.
3. Fill in the configuration:
   • Name: a unique identifier, used as the stable model key in Gateway requests (lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only). The name cannot be changed after creation.
   • Smart router mode: choose Cost, Balanced, or Quality.
   • Models: click Add model and select at least 2 models (up to 50); keeping the pool below 10 models is recommended. Each entry shows the model’s Intelligence Index and price, and the list groups the selection into the Easy, Medium, and Hard bands as models are added. See Understanding the Model Price for what the price figure represents.
4. Click Create.

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Understanding the Model Price

• Basis: a blended input and output rate in USD per 1M tokens, weighted 3:1 toward input ((3 × input price + output price) ÷ 4)
• Source: Artificial Analysis pricing data
• Included: the list price of input and output tokens only
• Excluded: prompt cache reads and writes, separately billed reasoning or thinking tokens, web search fees, extended-context and service-tier pricing, batch rates, provider discounts, and costs added by Orq.ai
• Precision: displayed in USD with two decimal places

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Modes

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Eligible Models

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Use the Smart Router

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Reference in code

Example: acme@orq/my-smart-router

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Run the Smart Router

curl -X POST https://my.orq.ai/v3/router/responses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "workspace_name@orq/my-smart-router",
    "input": "Summarize this support ticket in two sentences."
  }'

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.ORQ_API_KEY,
  baseURL: "https://my.orq.ai/v3/router",
});

const response = await client.responses.create({
  model: "workspace_name@orq/my-smart-router",
  input: "Summarize this support ticket in two sentences.",
});

console.log(response.output_text);

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ.get("ORQ_API_KEY"),
    base_url="https://my.orq.ai/v3/router",
)

response = client.responses.create(
    model="workspace_name@orq/my-smart-router",
    input="Summarize this support ticket in two sentences.",
)

print(response.output_text)

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Track Usage