AI agent cost optimization & model routing

Your AI Agents. Smarter Decisions. Lower Costs.

Build AI agents that reason, automate tasks, use tools, and get work done.

Air Router intelligently optimizes every AI request with smart model routing, token optimization, and caching — helping your agents accomplish more without unnecessary AI spending.

Start Building with Air Router Explore Documentation
An AI agent works through six steps: planning, research, tool execution, data analysis, decision making and the final response. Each step’s model request goes through Air Router, which sends it to an efficient model or a powerful model, or reuses a cached result.
AI agent → Air Router → best-fit AI model

AI agent

  1. PlanningPowerful
  2. ResearchCache
  3. Tool executionEfficient
  4. Data analysisEfficient
  5. Decision makingPowerful
  6. Final responseEfficient

Air Router

Air Router

Best-fit AI model

  • Efficient modelSimple task
  • Powerful modelComplex reasoning
  • Cache reuseRepeated request

Every Agent Step. Intelligently Optimized.

What AI agents can do

AI Agents That Actually Get Work Done.

Go beyond simple chatbots. Build agents that independently execute tasks, interact with tools, and automate entire workflows.

  • Research Agents

    Research Anything. Automatically.

    Search information, analyze sources, compare findings, and generate useful reports.

  • Coding Agents

    Build, Debug, and Ship Faster.

    Write code, fix issues, run tests, and automate development workflows.

  • Customer Support Agents

    Support Customers Around the Clock.

    Answer questions, retrieve information, resolve common issues, and escalate complex requests.

  • Business Automation Agents

    Automate Repetitive Work.

    Process documents, update systems, manage workflows, and execute routine business tasks.

  • Data Analysis Agents

    Turn Data Into Decisions.

    Query databases, analyze information, identify patterns, and generate actionable insights.

  • Multi-Agent Systems

    Multiple Agents. One Goal.

    Coordinate specialized agents to plan, research, execute, and complete complex workflows.

The hidden cost of AI agents

AI Agents Work Hard. Their Token Bills Work Harder.

Unlike chatbots, AI agents make multiple AI requests to complete a single task.

Every planning step, tool call, retry, and reasoning loop can increase your AI costs.

Traditional AI chat1 AI request
  1. User question
  2. AI model
  3. Answer

One simple interaction.

AI agent7 AI requests in this example
  1. User task
  2. Plan
  3. Research
  4. Tool call
  5. Analyze
  6. Retry
  7. Validate
  8. Final answer

Multiple AI requests for one task.

  1. Repeated Context

    Agents repeatedly send instructions, history, and tool results, increasing token consumption.

  2. Expensive Model Overuse

    Simple tasks often run on powerful models that aren’t necessary for every step.

  3. Uncontrolled Agent Loops

    Retries, tool calls, and repeated reasoning can increase costs unexpectedly.

The more your agents work, the more important optimization becomes.

Introducing Air Router

Your Agents Do the Work. Air Router Optimizes the Cost.

Air Router sits between your AI agents and AI models, intelligently optimizing each request before it reaches the model provider.

Your AI agents send their requests to Air Router, whose optimization engine routes, trims, caches and budgets each one before it reaches a best-fit AI model.

Intelligent Model Routing

Use the Right Model for Every Step.

Simple tasks go to efficient models. Complex reasoning gets stronger models when needed.

Token Optimization

Less Token Waste. Same Goal.

Reduce unnecessary context and repeated instructions while preserving information needed to complete the task.

Smart Caching

Don’t Pay Twice for Repeated Work.

Reuse eligible cached results instead of making unnecessary model requests.

Agent Cost Protection

Keep AI Spending Under Control.

Apply budgets, track usage, and protect against unexpectedly expensive agent workflows.

See Air Router in action

One Agent. Many Tasks. Smarter Model Choices.

Not every step in an agent workflow needs the most expensive AI model.

Air Router analyzes the task and selects an appropriate model automatically.

Research agent · example run
User request

“Research five competitors and create a comparison report.”

Each step of the research agent and the model Air Router chose for it
Agent stepAir Router decision
Understand the requestEfficient model
Plan research tasksReasoning model
Extract website informationEfficient model
Summarize findingsEfficient model
Compare competitorsPowerful reasoning model
Format the final reportEfficient model

Without Air Router

Every step uses the same premium model.

  1. Step 1: premium model
  2. Step 2: premium model
  3. Step 3: premium model
  4. Step 4: premium model
  5. Step 5: premium model
  6. Step 6: premium model

With Air Router

Each step uses a model selected for its complexity.

  1. Step 1: efficient model
  2. Step 2: reasoning model
  3. Step 3: efficient model
  4. Step 4: efficient model
  5. Step 5: powerful reasoning model
  6. Step 6: efficient model

Illustrative: bar height shows the relative cost of each step’s model tier, not measured spend. Actual costs depend on your models, prompts and usage.

Powerful Models When Needed. Efficient Models Everywhere Else.

Agent frameworks

Keep Your Agent Framework. Add Air Router.

Continue building with your preferred agent frameworks and tools. Connect compatible model requests through Air Router’s API.

Compatible API
Connects through Air Router’s OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Setup depends on the framework and its version.
  • Compatible API

    LangChain

    Build intelligent workflows with optimized model routing.

    LangChain setup
  • Compatible API

    LangGraph

    Run multi-step and stateful agent workflows with smarter model selection.

    LangGraph setup
  • Compatible API

    CrewAI

    Coordinate multiple AI agents while optimizing their underlying model requests.

    CrewAI setup
  • Compatible API

    AutoGen

    Connect supported multi-agent conversations to Air Router.

    AutoGen setup
  • Compatible API

    OpenAI Agents SDK

    Use compatible model-provider configurations to route supported requests through Air Router.

    Agents SDK setup
  • Any language

    Custom AI Agents

    Connect Python, JavaScript, or other applications using compatible API endpoints.

    API setup

Air Router optimizes the model requests your framework sends. Your framework still runs the agent and its tools.

View Integration Guides

Connect in three steps

Your Agents. One Intelligent Router.

Keep your existing agent architecture. Change how your agent connects to AI models.

  1. Step 1: Build Your Agent

    Use your favorite framework or existing AI application.

  2. Step 2: Connect Air Router

    Configure your AirLLM API key and compatible model endpoint.

    https://api.airllm.ai/v1

  3. Step 3: Run Smarter

    Air Router optimizes eligible requests, selects suitable models, and tracks usage automatically.

  1. Agent framework
  2. Air Router
  3. AI models
Get Your API Key

Scale your agents

Build More Agents. Not Bigger AI Bills.

From simple automation to complex multi-agent systems, Air Router helps you scale AI workflows with intelligent model routing, token optimization, and built-in cost controls.

Start Optimizing Agent Costs Explore Documentation

Your Agents Handle the Work. Air Router Handles the Optimization.

Keep exploring

Related guides and products

Product

Air Router

Intelligent LLM routing for AI coding agents: the right model for each step.

Read Explainer

What is an LLM router?

How routers choose a model for each request.

Read Guide

How to reduce LLM API costs

Measure, right-size, trim context, cache and cap.

Read