If you're building with LLMs, you've probably dealt with managing multiple API keys, handling provider outages, and normalizing different API formats. AI gateways solve this by providing a unified layer between your app and model providers. Here's a practical comparison of the main options. What Does an AI Gateway Do? An AI gateway sits between your application and LLM providers. It handles: API normalization — One format for all providers Key management — One key instead of many Failover — Auto-switch when a provider goes down Cost tracking — Unified billing and analytics Load balancing — Route across providers or regions The Contenders OpenRouter The largest AI model aggregator. 400+ models, established ecosystem.…