Route prompts to the right LLM by complexity. Supports Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic. Save cost, keep quality.
Project description
llm-router
Route prompts to the right LLM automatically by complexity. Supports Groq, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Cut costs without cutting quality.
Stop hardcoding a single model. llm-router scores your prompt's complexity and routes it to the cheapest model that can handle it.
Simple prompts → fast cheap models. Complex prompts → powerful models. Automatically.
Package name note: this repo is
llm-routerbut the PyPI package isllm-dispatch.pip install llm-dispatch # ← correct pip install llm-router # ← does NOT exist on PyPIThe import is
from llmrouter import LLMRouter.
When to use this
Use llm-router when:
- You're making many LLM calls with varying complexity and want to minimize cost automatically
- You want to run simple queries on cheap/fast models (Groq Llama 8b) and only escalate to GPT-4o or Claude Sonnet when the prompt actually needs it
- You support multiple providers (Groq + OpenAI + Anthropic) and want a single interface
- You want per-call cost estimates logged alongside responses
Not the right fit if you need agents, tool calling, or function execution — this is a routing layer for text completion, not an agent framework.
Why not LiteLLM?
LiteLLM is a unified API layer — it lets you call any model with the same interface, but you still decide which model to use. llm-router decides for you based on prompt complexity. The two tools are complementary, not competing: use LiteLLM if you want provider unification with manual model selection; use llm-router if you want the model selection to be automatic and cost-aware.
Install
pip install llm-dispatch
# Install provider SDKs you need:
pip install llm-dispatch[groq] # Groq only
pip install llm-dispatch[openai] # OpenAI only
pip install llm-dispatch[anthropic] # Anthropic only
pip install llm-dispatch[all] # All providers
Quick Start
from llmrouter import LLMRouter
router = (
LLMRouter(verbose=True)
.add("groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant") # fast, cheap
.add("groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile") # powerful
.add("openai/gpt-4o") # best quality
)
# Simple prompt → routed to cheap fast model
result = router.complete("What is the capital of France?")
print(result.output) # Paris
print(result.model_used) # llama-3.1-8b-instant
print(result.estimated_cost_usd) # 0.000001
# Complex prompt → routed to powerful model
result = router.complete("""
Analyze the architectural trade-offs between microservices and
monolithic systems for a high-traffic fintech application.
Consider scalability, fault tolerance, and deployment complexity.
""")
print(result.model_used) # gpt-4o
Strategies
# Auto (default) — complexity-aware routing
router = LLMRouter(strategy="auto")
# Always cheapest model that fits the context window
router = LLMRouter(strategy="cheapest")
# Always fastest model
router = LLMRouter(strategy="fastest")
# Always highest quality model
router = LLMRouter(strategy="smartest")
# Balance speed and quality
router = LLMRouter(strategy="balanced")
# Override per call
result = router.complete(prompt, strategy="cheapest")
How auto-routing works
The router scores each prompt from 0.0 (trivial) to 1.0 (very complex):
| Complexity | Score | Routed to |
|---|---|---|
| Simple question | < 0.25 | Cheapest fast model |
| Medium task | 0.25–0.60 | Best quality/cost ratio |
| Complex analysis | > 0.60 | Highest quality model |
Scoring factors: prompt length, technical keywords, code blocks, number of questions, multi-part instructions.
from llmrouter import complexity_score
complexity_score("What is 2+2?") # 0.0
complexity_score("Summarize this 500-word article") # 0.35
complexity_score("Refactor this Python class and add type hints and unit tests") # 0.72
Available Models
from llmrouter import PRESET_MODELS
print(list(PRESET_MODELS.keys()))
| Model ID | Provider | Speed | Quality | Cost/1k tokens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant |
Groq | fast | 4/10 | $0.00005 |
groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile |
Groq | medium | 8/10 | $0.00059 |
groq/mixtral-8x7b-32768 |
Groq | medium | 7/10 | $0.00024 |
openai/gpt-4o-mini |
OpenAI | fast | 6/10 | $0.00015 |
openai/gpt-4o |
OpenAI | medium | 9/10 | $0.005 |
anthropic/claude-haiku-3 |
Anthropic | fast | 6/10 | $0.00025 |
anthropic/claude-sonnet-4 |
Anthropic | medium | 9/10 | $0.003 |
Custom Models
from llmrouter import LLMRouter, ModelConfig
router = LLMRouter()
router.add_custom(ModelConfig(
model_id="my-provider/my-model",
provider="groq", # uses Groq's SDK
name="my-model-name",
cost_per_1k=0.0001,
context_window=16384,
speed="fast",
quality=5,
))
RouteResult
Every .complete() call returns a RouteResult:
result.output # str — model response
result.model_used # str — model name selected
result.provider # str — 'groq' | 'openai' | 'anthropic'
result.complexity_score # float 0.0–1.0
result.strategy # str — strategy used
result.estimated_cost_usd # float — estimated cost in USD
Environment Variables
GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_...
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
Or pass per model:
router.add("groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile", api_key="gsk_...")
Author
M. Adhitya — Founder, Rewrite Labs
License
MIT © 2025 M. Adhitya
Built at Rewrite Labs
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