Model routers are solving the wrong problem
philhchen · x · 2026-08-18
The author argues that current model routing services are fundamentally misguided.
- ROI Definition: The goal of a router is to select the model with the best ROI for a specific problem, but third-party routers lack insight into how individual companies measure value. The same prompt might be 1000x more valuable to a frontier lab than to a standard business.
- Latency vs. Quality: For many products, latency impacts user satisfaction more than raw response quality, a nuance often missed by routers trained solely on eval scores and cost.
- Customization: In an ideal world, every company would build its own router, but most lack the ability to properly quantify their specific ROI.
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