What Is an AI Gateway? (And the Week We Realized We Desperately Needed One)

Short summary

An AI gateway is middleware that centralizes LLM routing, authentication, rate limiting, and cost tracking across providers—solving scattered SDKs, fragmented key management, and cost invisibility. The authors learned its necessity when a rogue job accidentally spent $340 in four hours, triggering a 2am alert about unusual charges. The gateway solved critical gaps: managed virtual keys, automatic failover routing, per-service cost attribution, and hard spending limits that prevent runaway bills.

• •AI gateways centralize routing, auth, rate limiting, and cost tracking for LLM requests across multiple providers
• •Real incident: rogue job spent $340 in 4 hours with no visibility; exposed gaps in key management, rate limiting, and spending controls
• •Solutions: managed virtual keys, automatic failover routing, per-service cost attribution, and hard spending caps that prevent runaway bills

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.