AI Gateway
Centralized service managing AI API access, costs, and observability.
Definition
An AI gateway is a centralized service layer that manages access to AI APIs across an organization. Gateways handle authentication, rate limiting, cost tracking, caching, failover between providers, and observability—providing control and visibility over AI usage.
As organizations use AI across many applications and teams, gateways prevent the chaos of unmanaged API access. They enable governance, cost optimization, and consistent policies across all AI usage.
Why It Matters
Unmanaged AI API usage leads to runaway costs, security gaps, and no visibility into how AI is being used. Gateways provide the control needed to scale AI responsibly.
For organizations, AI gateways are becoming essential infrastructure as AI spending grows and governance requirements increase.
Examples in Practice
An AI gateway automatically routes requests to the cheapest provider that meets latency requirements, reducing costs by 40%.
The gateway's analytics reveal that 30% of AI spend comes from one team's inefficient implementation, enabling targeted optimization.
When OpenAI experiences an outage, the gateway automatically fails over to Anthropic, maintaining application availability.